Beautiful, moving film.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

The movie is made so realistic it has a lot of that WoW feeling at the right moments and never tooo over the top. the suspense is done so well and the emotion is felt. Very well put together with the music and all.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Eliza (Sydney Penney) is a widow with two young children, a boy and a girl. Her husband's family owns a beautiful orange orchard in California, where gorgeous mountains can be seen over the horizon. Also, living with her is her grouchy father-in-law and an older relative named Aunt Batty (Shirley Jones). One day, the patriarch asks Eliza to make the children leave school, temporarily, and help with the farm, as there is much, much work to be done. Reluctantly, she agrees. But, soon after, the grandfather passes away from a heart attack and the future is suddenly very much in doubt. With a mortgage and taxes due and the money supply riding on the harvest, how will two women and two children bring in the heavy crop? Fortunately, a handsome drifter comes by, willing to work for food and board. Named Gabe (Jason Gedrick), he seems congenial and hard-working but refuses to say much about himself or his past. Soon, the ladies and the kids have taken him into their hearts and rely on his help and advice. But, even so, with cold temperatures threatening the crops and with bank representatives breathing over their necks, will they be able to save the orchard and sustain themselves? Could it be, too, that Eliza and Gabe may be falling in love? This lovely, lovely film should not be hidden from ANYONE! It has a beautiful story, fine acting, gorgeous scenery, valuable lessons, high standards and no objectionable material. It is truly a film for everyone in the family and for all those who believe the film industry has nothing to offer but filth. Penney is beautiful and touching, long after her child acting days (see Pale Rider). Gedrick, too, is handsome and talented while Jones is an absolute delight and joy. All other cast members, including Tom Bosley, are very fine indeed. Also, the setting is most beautiful, evoking comparisons with A Walk in the Clouds, among others. The night scenes of the flaming smoke pots trying to keep the crop warm are outstanding. Most importantly, the film has wonderful lessons in courage, faith, love, diligence and more. Do not hesitate, whoever you are or whatever your beliefs, to seek out this glorious bit of movie-making. There are few films that would earn the highest praise possible, as this one certainly, ringingly does.

I really liked this film about decent people being kind to each other and trying to do the best they could. Kindness and decency are rare things to find in a film these days.I was very pleased with the cast of this film--Jason Gedrick is one of my favorite actors, who unfortunately doesn't get the roles and recognition he should. He reminds me quite a lot of another actor I really like Anthony Zerbe. Other members of the cast were Sydney Penny--a very pretty young actress, whom I had not seen before, and the wonderful Shirley Jones.The story revolves around a young widow, with two young children, who is trying to hold things together following the death of her father-in-law.I quite liked the setting which was a farm (an orange grove to be specific), during the early 1930s. The big old house they lived in was an absolute delight to see-- there are so few houses like that left anymore.A young man named Gabe Harper (Jason Gedrick), a drifter, arrives in the area and is stopped by the sheriff in questioned. As it turns out, the sheriff is a really good guy and he gets Gabe on at Eliza's farm.To say too much more would be to give the plot away.9 stars

Hidden Places is a nice film about a young mother of two whose husband has died, she moves her family back to her father in laws orchard in the 1930s. The father in law dies leaving the family with a mortgage payment and other hardships. A young handsome world war one veteran drifter comes to town and helps the family out, this is a quaint and heartwarming story about hard times and how the salt of the earth survived the depression. Good cinematography and scenery. The dialog struggled some in places, but the experienced cast did a wonderful job making the characters as believable as possible in a film whose era has few living members left. A good movie about overcoming tragedy and hardship for the entire family.

When I sat down to watch this film, I was expecting an engaging story, with fascinating characters. Instead, I knew within the first twenty minutes that all I would get is a sappy love story. How could Lynn Austin allow her incredible book to be horribly blasphemed by this movie? It was worse than Ella Enchanted. The whole story was changed. The setting was changed. The characters were changed or, like Eliza's other son, Jimmy, done away with altogether. In fact, the only things that stayed the same were the characters' names and the skeleton plot--a mother fights to save her farm for her children with the help of a hobo and an aunt. I knew that things from the book would have to go. But this--this...thing desecrated everything Lynn Austin wrote. In the book, Frank Wyatt is portrayed as an evil man, with only greed in his heart. He carries on a pretense of religion, but does not know God. Yet in the movie, he is seen as a man who simply does not know how to say "I love you." He is simply rough around the edges. And I could not stand the movie any longer when Luke says, "I miss him." I was like, "How could you miss him? You were starved for love and affection, and he gave you none! He refused to get help for your father Sam, leading to a horrible and painful death by tetanus! And now you say you miss him??!" (In the book, Frank Wyatt collapses and tells Luke to get help, but instead Luke runs away because of his anger toward him for not getting help for his father) Do not bother seeing this movie, I beg you! It will only ruin your mind. Read the book; it is a masterpiece. When you only see the movie, you miss so much that the book has. There is a back story that I sorely missed in the movie. (It involves Aunt Batty's and Frank Wyatt's younger years) You miss the everlasting themes, and the raw emotion that is poured into the book. The book is worth looking at. The movie is not.P.S. Eliza's real last maiden name is Gerard. In the movie it's Montclair. Come on, it's just a name. Could they not even get that part right? Well, they didn't, and I sorely advise you to avoid this movie like the plague.