Mary Church Movies

A dying soap opera star wrestles with the most difficult decision of her life while spending her last days with her best friend. The beautiful star of television's most popular soap opera, Jane Tetley (Leslie Ann Warren), has terminal cancer. Realizing that her days are numbered, Jane returns to her hometown of Walton Falls in order to reconnect with her best friend Ida Mae (Meredith Baxter. Though Ida Mae is devastated to learn that Jane is dying, she vows to remain by her friend's side to the end. As he two reminisce about old times, Jane tries to play cupid by setting Ida Mae up with handsome local entrepreneur Will (Timothy Bottoms), the owner of a small ceramics shop. Tensions between the two old friends begin to grow, however, when Jane expresses a desire to reveal a longstanding secret: Ida Mae's grown daughter Kate (Bridget Ann White) is actually Jane's biological daughter. Later, Kate's husband wrestles with the decision to accept a job offer in Seattle - a move that would mean leaving behind all of their family and friends. When Kate decides to remain by her mother's side, Ida Mae becomes terrified that the girl she raised as he daughter will leave her alone after learning the truth. Meanwhile, Jane connects with Kate's daughter Lila (Ellery Sprayberry), and forges a relationship with the young girl that gives her both clarity of mind, and the strength to do the right thing. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

The backdrop for this epic Western, which aired in August 2002 on the Hallmark Channel, will be familiar to fans of the genre and students of Western history. The Johnson County War took place in northern Wyoming in April 1892, growing out of the familiar story of big-money ranchers who suspected homesteader neighbors of rustling. Screenwriters Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana adapted Frederick Manfred's 1957 novel, Riders of Judgment, which used some of the events and people but changed the names, including the county (which becomes Bighorn) and the main town (from Buffalo to Antelope). Michael Cimino's Heaven's Gate (1981) also employed elements of the Johnson County War in its story. Manfred's book and this film center on Cain Hammett (Tom Berenger), a lonesome cowboy who hankers for Rory (Michelle Forbes); she has married his younger brother Dale (Adam Storke) in spite of the fact that she really loves Cain. A third Hammett brother, Harry (Luke Perry), unlike his honest, homesteading siblings, is a rustler who runs afoul of Marshal Hunt Lawton (Burt Reynolds), who is in the employ of wealthy Lord Peter (Christopher Cazenove), an Englishman in cahoots with the owners of big ranches to exterminate all of the homesteaders, guilty or innocent. Cain Hammett's real-life counterpart, Nate Champion, was a prime target of mercenaries hired by the big cattlemen, and the siege of Cain's cabin, which was the opening salvo in the war, provides the film with its climax. ~ Tom Wiener, Rovi