A Painted House (Hallmark Hall of Fame)

An excellent movie based on an excellent book.

This a classic well told story of American country life that will take you back in time. Lessons learned and life goes on. A great addition to a Hallmark HOF collection.

Item came packaged well and great condition.

I was curious about this film because I had recently read - and enjoyed - the book by John Grisham. And well, yes, the book IS better, but who would expecte anything else? The movie version still is very good indeed, the acting was good. Scott Glenn played the grandfather very convincingly and Logan Lerman gave a promising performance as young Luke Chandler. These two worked well together and they are the main characters. Although some slight story adaptations were made, the film still stays true to the book (John Grisham himself was involved in the project). There should have been a little more focus on the character of Cowboy, since his part in the story got bigger towards the end and only little background about the developing conflict between him and Hank Spruill (a very good performance by Pablo Schreiber as the angry young man) was really given - whereas in the book the conflict builds gradually. The final - and fatal - fight between the two also differs from the book version, but the way it starts here was probably necessary to make it work (see my comment about the lack of development). Apart from a few minor upsets, this is a fine and entertaining film.

I was pleasantly surprised that this movie closely follows the book. The movie captured all the essential elements of the book faithfully.

Simply put, A Painted House was the best Grisham work to date. Perhaps I feel so since it hit so close to home. I was raised in Kansas during the 40's and have fond memories of spending evenings on the front porch with my parents with my dad's radio sitting in the window so we could listen to the local baseball game.A Painted House captured the time, the place and the emotions of rural America during some of its best and worst years. The Korean War capped the 50's with so few of us having any idea where this peninsula was and why America was fighting over it.At the same time, Grisham beautifully captured the strengths of an extended American family scratching to not just survive, but to find some simple rewards for their efforts.I would recommend this book to anyone who would like a look at rural America before TV, the internet and all the trappings of today's world. A time when family provided much more than just a house.I very seldom read a book twice but A Painted House got a second look.

Don't be fooled by John Grisham as the author. This movie is awful. It is typical of Hallmark TV productions, syrupy & "family" oriented. The movie has absolutely no plot & a peculiar ending. The actors are B rated or worse & the acting is poor. I kept thinking "this must get better". It did not. I understand that the book by Grisham was very good & emphasized the plight of the very poor & how they were kind & helpful to their fellow poor neighbors (wouldn't happen today I suspect), but this did not come across very well. Save your money.

John Grisham, the well known author of many novels about the legal exploits of characters of southern heritage, has departed from his traditional style of legal thrillers to write a great novel of growing up in 1950s Northeastern Arkansas.“A Painted House” is a poignant novel drawing upon John Grisham’s own childhood growing up in the cotton fields of the northeast Arkansas delta land around Jonesboro.The story is drawn from the Fall cotton picking season of 1952. Luke Chandler had never kept a secret or told a single lie. But in that long, hot summer when 10-year old Luke comes of age, two groups of migrant workers—and two very dangerous men—come through the Arkansas Delta to work the Chandler cotton farm. And suddenly mysteries flood Luke’s world. A murder leaves the town seething in gossip and suspicion. A beautiful young woman catches Luke’s eye.As young Luke watches the world around him, he shelters secrets that could shatter lives—and change his family and his town forever.This novel is very true to life and reminds me of my own childhood growing up in Southeast Missouri just across the border from the setting of this novel. The descriptions of the landscape and climate of the region is accurate.“A Painted House” is published by Doubleday.It has been adapted to a movie and is produced by Hallmark Hall of Fame and stars Scott Glenn. The DVD and book is available at Amazon.comOther novels and movies from John Grisham include:"The Firm", "The Pelican Brief", "The Client", "The Chamber", and "The Rainmaker".