We rented this for our granddaughters (first and fourth graders) and I hadn't planned to watch it. But after a couple of minutes I was hooked.
This is a major surprise. I expected it to be sugar coated fluff. Instead, the fine screenplay by Marsha Norman gives an amazingly strong subtext to a story about American life in 1904.
America is entering the "modern" age and inventions such as the telephone and automobile are starting to change the fabric of the country. Samantha is an orphan living with her grandmother in a small town on the Hudson River.
Her uncle comes home with the young lady he'll eventually marry. She's a supporter of votes for women, a rather daring position at the time.
The people next door hire on a family as servants, and the small children work all day and aren't sent to school. Samantha becomes friends with one and teaches her how to read.
In the fall Samantha goes to New York City to stay for a while with her uncle and new aunt. Eventually her young eyes are opened to the harsh reality of factories that make children work in hazardous conditions for low wages.
Not surprisingly, there's a happy ending. It snows on Christmas Day and the plot points are neatly ties up. But along the way there's an examination of class structure, women's rights, child labor laws and compulsory education for children, and the early roots of labor unions and feminism.
Interestingly enough, the film I kept comparing this with was Martin Scorsese's THE AGE OF INNOCENCE. The two would make an interesting double feature.
This is a major surprise. I expected it to be sugar coated fluff. Instead, the fine screenplay by Marsha Norman gives an amazingly strong subtext to a story about American life in 1904.
America is entering the "modern" age and inventions such as the telephone and automobile are starting to change the fabric of the country. Samantha is an orphan living with her grandmother in a small town on the Hudson River.
Her uncle comes home with the young lady he'll eventually marry. She's a supporter of votes for women, a rather daring position at the time.
The people next door hire on a family as servants, and the small children work all day and aren't sent to school. Samantha becomes friends with one and teaches her how to read.
In the fall Samantha goes to New York City to stay for a while with her uncle and new aunt. Eventually her young eyes are opened to the harsh reality of factories that make children work in hazardous conditions for low wages.
Not surprisingly, there's a happy ending. It snows on Christmas Day and the plot points are neatly ties up. But along the way there's an examination of class structure, women's rights, child labor laws and compulsory education for children, and the early roots of labor unions and feminism.
Interestingly enough, the film I kept comparing this with was Martin Scorsese's THE AGE OF INNOCENCE. The two would make an interesting double feature.