Love's Abiding Joy

PG

Released Oct 6, 2006

1h 27m

Western

Romance

List

13%

8 Reviews

Tomatometer

80%

10,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

The death of an infant and a severe drought test the faith of Christian pioneers Missy and Willie LaHaye (Erin Cottrell, Logan Bartholomew) as they try to eke out a living as cattle ranchers. Willie reluctantly takes a job as town sheriff, then finds he must evict friends and neighbors who have fallen behind in their payments to land baron Samuel Doros (John Laughlin).

Read More

Read Less

Audience Member

Great movie! The actors were supreme in their roles!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/26/23

Full Review

Audience Member

4. The stories of Missie and Jeff: The struggles and the first love. The fourth movie in the Hallmark's 'Love Comes Softly' movie series. It continued a few years after where the previous one ended. LaHaye family comfortably settled down running a ranch in the wild west and Missie is now a full time teacher in a local school. This story apprises the struggles and introduces a proper villain for the first time in this series. Unlike the title, the story travels in the opposite direction. Time to test your faith in this series. If you manage to get through, you would continue or feel tediousness. Hold on, I did not say the movie was good as the previous ones. Until now I had not seen a substandard in the series. Maybe the word 'substandard' is very rude. It can be explained in another way as well like the story considerably focuses on the misery side of the LaHaye family. Missie's father came a long way to spend time her and his grandchildren. But then the visit came at a wrong time, especially the entire region is suffering from the drought. The troubles only extends without a sign of ending. Some of the LaHaye's family friends living in their worst nightmare. "The only thing we both want... We won't ever see again." In a parallel layered narration, Jess is near the 20 or something and he tastes his first love. Not without the obstacles. Because the girl who is associated with him is from highly influenced family in the town. It was a pretty good romance track, deserved to be told as one side his family is grieving and other hand his (Jeff's) own struggle. Sad faces are seen everywhere and I'm happy it is not all about the happiness, though there are sad narrations as well in the series. So, it was the story composition intensely created that way to display. But the viewers are not thinking about the possibilities of what a family could go through in a such situation. Rather, they are pointing out the movie as a downfall, not the story that talks about the downfall. That is why the whole film looks grim and depressing, only if you did not get it. Anyway, it is a long movie series and all kinds of mood, genre, theme of the tales are expected in the each film. I believe the next one would get better and that's what I'm thinking right now. 7/10

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/30/23

Full Review

Audience Member

I thoroughly enjoy this series, but this was one of the weakest ones. Story weak. Acting weak....and to make matters worse, the DVD that I watched did not have the voices matching the mouth movements. Hate that...

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

02/07/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Waiting for the love kill these annoying characters.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

02/03/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Great Family movies!!!! my mom read the book collection to our family every nite till we finished them :)

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/24/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Enjoyed the first three but this one was a let down...

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

02/15/23

Full Review

Read all reviews

Post a rating

Michael Landon Jr.

Director

Erin Cottrell

Missy LaHaye

Logan Bartholomew

Willie LaHaye

John Laughlin

Samuel Doros

Dale Midkiff

Clark

Drew Tyler Bell

Jeff

Show Less Cast & Crew

Show More Cast & Crew

84%

62%

Buck and the Preacher

TRAILER

for Buck and the Preacher

85%

89%

The Man From Snowy River

86%

53%

Meek's Cutoff

62%

79%

Return to Me

85%

83%

Sweet Land

Discover more movies and TV shows.

View More

View more photos

Roger Moore

Orlando Sentinel

Rated: 1/5

May 13, 2009

Full Review

Joe Leydon

Variety

The stop-and-start pacing indicates careful planning for the easy insertion of commercials. And few of the actors look entirely at home in the period setting.

Oct 14, 2006

Full Review

Bill Muller

Arizona Republic

The acting borders on melodrama and the movie obviously was edited for TV.

Rated: 2/5

Oct 5, 2006

Full Review

Heather Boerner

Common Sense Media

Slow, sappy, Christian-themed TV adaptation.

Rated: 2/5

Dec 18, 2010

Full Review

Ryan Cracknell

Calgary Movies

Although wholesome and simple in its storytelling, the central characters are on such a pedestal of virtue that it's impossible to relate to them in any way.

Apr 4, 2007

Full Review

Manny Lewis

Seattle Post-Intelligencer

The movie, based on the novel by Janette Oke, shows how time and belief can help deal with tragedies. These solutions, however, when applied to the LaHayes' particular tragedy, make for a stagnantly morose plot.

Rated: C

Oct 12, 2006

Full Review

Read all reviews

Synopsis

The death of an infant and a severe drought test the faith of Christian pioneers Missy and Willie LaHaye (Erin Cottrell, Logan Bartholomew) as they try to eke out a living as cattle ranchers. Willie reluctantly takes a job as town sheriff, then finds he must evict friends and neighbors who have fallen behind in their payments to land baron Samuel Doros (John Laughlin).

Director: Michael Landon Jr.
Producer: Larry Levinson, Robert A. Halmi
Screenwriter: Michael Landon Jr., Douglas Lloyd McIntosh, Bridget Terry
Distributor: Fox, The Bigger Picture
Production Co: Alpine Medien
Rating: PG (Mild Thematic Elements)
Genre: Western, Romance
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Oct 6, 2006, Limited
Release Date (DVD): Jan 2, 2007
Box Office (Gross USA): $252.7K
Runtime: 1h 27m