A Place Called Home Reviews

This soap opera about an widow who's losing her sight and the venal relatives looking to take advantage of her features Ann-Margret, who isn’t quite dowdy enough to be convincing as an aging Earth mother.. Widowed for many years, lonely Tula Jeeters (Ann-Margret) can at least take solace in her surroundings, a large piece of prime acreage in Cumberland, Colorado. Surely it's concern for reclusive Aunt Tula that motivates her Nephew and niece, David (Sean O’Bryan) and Billie (Hunter Tylo), to pester her about selling the land and moving to an assisted care facility – they're so worried that they enlist a social worker, Jan Kyles (Rebecca McFarland) to judge her competency. At the same time, Dr. Douglas Hamilton (Gary Sandy) advises Tula to undergo surgery that will correct the optical disease that's robbing her of her eyesight. The rigidly independent Tula rejects medical treatment, refuses outside assistance and makes it very clear that she will never budge from her property. That ornery attitude will pit her against her relatives in court: They want to transform Tula’s sanctuary into a nifty golf course resort and they manage to get the town council on their side. But the scheming relatives hit a snag when Hank Ford (Matthew Settle), a single parent who habitually Brings his daughter Cali (Shailene Woodley) along as he drifts from place to place -- runs into car trouble on Tula’s homestead. The travel-weary Cali sees Tula’s domain as somewhere she and her dad might be able to settle, and Tula hires Hank as a live-in handyman – a move that also lends credence to her claim that she can take care of herself. Billie and David immediately set about sabotaging the situation: David threatens to get Ms. Kyles fired is she doesn't get Tula declared incompetent, while and the corrupt sheriff take on Hanke – Billie tries to seduce him, while the sheriff threatens. Will itinerant Hank revert to form and head for his beloved open spaces? Uplifting and predictable, this family fable has the advantage of a strong and committed cast, but screenwriter J.P. Martin's solution to Tula's Job-like travails is a little too neat and arrives abruptly – what the feisty might describe as lickety-split.