To me, this movie is perfection.

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Best movie of this year hands down!

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

I agree wholeheartedly with all the other positive reviews here. Watts and Daly have the chemistry; the movie is beautifully filmed, and the pace is excellent. What I'm thrown by is the references to the author; I see Penelope Williamson credited often. In my opinion, the only Penelope that should get a nod is Penelope Worth; she was the original name of the Quaker girl Gail Russell played in "Angel and the Badman", of which this is an unabashed remake. The story setup is the same: near-death gunslinger nursed back to health by the beautiful Quaker girl. Gunslinger has epiphany regarding peace and the "plain folk" and fights internally with the conflict till the end. Both play give-and-take. I think Penelope Williamson ought to thank James Edward Grant for being the REAL source material.

Naomi Watts and husband and son are simple people (and homesteaders) who live in a quiet village with only the things they need. Her husband is unnecessarily killed by those who want them out of there. But, she refuses to leave. A bearded and bleeding stranger has made his way to her property and collapses, a virtually unrecognizable Tim Daly. But, once he gets inside, resting and recovering from a gunshot wound, you see Tim Daly hotter than he's ever been. They, of course, fall in love. But this is a very personal and intelligent film, that is very respectful of its characters and their way of life. This is not your average western or even TV-movie and should not be dismissed just because it's no "Lonesome Dove" or "Broken Trail." In fact, violence is not glorified at all, as that is one of the movie's strengths. Miss this at your peril. If this was on the Hallmark channel and you turned the station, you missed something.

This is one of the best of the revisionist western made-for-TV films that have been pouring forth over the past decade - most of which are pretty dull. and the three major creative spirits to the film are all women, so I wasn't expecting much for a genre that has always been dominated by an undeniable machismo, whether you think that's a good thing or not.But the writing and direction here are very strong. Yes it does get mushy romantic at times, but it never quite loses its edge.And yes, it is derivative of Shane and a host of like films, but it still finds something new to say.The acting is all around superb, but Tim Daly's is worthy of special mention. And the camera-work is quite beautiful - I really wish this had been brought to the big screen.My only problem is historical-political: This film came out when television was busy bashing non-mainstream religions - Islam, Catholicism (oh, those randy priests!), and the Amish. This was a wretched moment in TV history, and it is embarrassing to this film that it was made during that period; still, I think there's enough respect shown the Amish such that the film will survive such silly politics.

Figured this was going to be another typical Western until I noticed that Naomi Watts, (Rebecca Yoder), "King Kong",'05, was playing the role of an Amish woman who had recently lost her husband by some Evil Dudes. The opening scene shows love making going on between Rebecca Watts and her husband and not long after he is put to death by Cattle Ranchers who did not want sheep on their property after they had deliberately cut the wire fence around their property. Rebecca seems to always hear music in her mind, and her religion forbids listening to or making any musical sounds. Rebecca meets up with Timothy Daly, (Johnny Gault), "Return of Sender",'04 who manages to start a very nice warm and loving relationship. It was nice seeing Keith Carradine and David Carradine in this film, David played a Dr. Lucas Henry in this story and gave a great supporting role. This was a very entertaining Hallmark film and worth viewing from beginning to end.