User Reviews

From the opening sequence, Beautiful Dreamer tells a charming and touching story of the war years, only this was World War II. The marvelous cinematography and splendid music takes you back to that other time and place. Everything looks like old postcards from your grandmother's scrapbook.

Claire and Joe, childhood sweethearts, get married and then life is interrupted. The war comes and Joe, a mechanic and pilot, heads off to Europe on a wing and a prayer. His plane is hit and he has to either bail with his crew or try to save a wounded comrade.

Claire gets word Joe is Missing in Action. But life must go on. Then she hears from a guy in Joe's unit that Joe didn't die in the crash. Thus begins Claire's search for her heart. She finds him in a small town filled with wonderful people. But he doesn't know her. He doesn't even know himself.

His war wounds, the mental scars, if probed could kill him. Claire has to decide if she loves him enough to let him go.

Tommy (Joe's new identity) and his partner at a small airfield have a terrific B-24 rusting away on the tarmac. It's broken and not air-worthy, much like Tommy. If they can fix it up, they might save their business. Claire believes it can be fixed. Tommy tells her she's a dreamer.

This is a beautiful story filled with charming characters. It takes you to a place you never want to leave.

I found this movie in the DVD store and it intrigued me. The reason is, I have been planning a novel relative to this movie's premise/theme. While I was upset to find it, I thought I'd watch it. I'm glad I did. While it is thankfully, very different to what I had in mind, it was very sweet, brought tears to my eyes, I felt my gut wrenching with the angst of it, and it swept me up into the picture.

The start of it left something to be desired however. While it does depict the two growing up together, and then very quickly moves onto their romantic relationship, I didn't feel like the writers/director had allowed us to feel for the characters, because they didn't establish their roles enough. So when Claire goes looking for him, I forgot what he looked like basically, while trying to keep my eye out for him, knowing that he could pop out of the blue anywhere. As the whole idea of it was close to my heart though, I could feel it more than perhaps your average viewer would.

The use of the flashbacks were very effective, and though some of the shots were a little awkward, the basic cinematography was good. The ending was a little weird, and I wish it had explained more how Jo got from where he was, to that point. I don't think they put that point across enough. and medically I don't think he would be able to make that length of recovery fast enough. Though it didn't exactly say how much time had passed.

So anyway if you're a gushy romantic like me, who likes war stories (the romantic ones), I'd say you'd like it and it's worth a watch. Just commit Jo's face to your memory so you won't forget him. You'll see him soon enough.

Inspired by the James Hilton novel "Random Harvest" and the subsequent film staring Greer Garson and Ronald Coleman, this film explores the power of a young woman's determination to find her husband who went missing in World War II. Set in America's heartland of the late '40s, the film maintains the suspenseful romance of a film like "Titanic", yet has the low key visual texture of films such as Driving Miss Daisy or Fried Green Tomatoes.

Claire, played by Brooke Langton, abandons common wisdom that she should give her husband up for dead and move on with her life. Instead, she spends all she has to find, then rehabilitate her husband who has no memory of his life prior to the war. It is a story of loyalty and courage that shows that the sexiest part of a woman is the contents of her heart.

Actually, I found this movie to be not only charming, but also true to life. My guy and I watched the movie together, and he actually enjoyed it, not so much for the romantic, "simple" plot, as for the down to earth portrayal of Joe. This movie is based on a true story, and, if you read the ending statements, it tells you about the real people. My guy was a Vietnam vet who has had Post Traumatic flashbacks, and he found this movie to be very interesting, especially the way they portrayed the scenes of Joe's flashback in the plane he was fixing up. He had known guys with Amnesia like this while in his hospital stay, after his 2 tours. The acting was great, the scenery was warm, and Corbin plays the Grandfather as only he could. And, yes, it was "romantic", and had a happy ending, with no blood, guts or cursing all too common in todays movies. Oh, By the way, I am originally from Iowa, not Hollywood California, and now I live in North Dakota. I had never even heard of this movie before accidentally getting it in a box of movies we bought online. I am very glad we got it, and plan on watching it again soon.