Plot Summary
Elizabeth LeRoy grew up in a small town in the 1950s, but she considered her life to be boring. That is, until the new young pastor came to town and began spending a lot of time with her. They eventually fell in love, but as they were engaged, he was called off to fight in the Korean War. Elizabeth waits for him, but when her father dies and she receives word of the death of her fiancé, she feels like she has no choice but to ask her lifelong friend Will for help. With everything seemingly falling apart, will she be able to follow God’s plan for her life?
Production Quality (2.5 points)
Made in the era of collaboration among Larry Levinson, Hallmark, and Fox Faith, Through None Go With Me is clearly a quality production. Video quality and camera work reflect this professionalism, as do historically authentic sets and locations. Audio quality is fine, except for the stock Hallmark soundtrack. There is really nothing negative to highlight here except for some editing problems, mostly pertaining to excessive time jumps. But overall, this is a great effort.
Plot and Storyline Quality (1 point)
Based on Jerry Jenkins’ novel, the film is mostly fine, though there is a slightly altered plot. However, since there are excessive time jumps, there is too much content that is passed over due to there being too much to start with. Thus, information dump dialogue replaces natural plot progression. Narration also serves as a crutch to bridge the gaps. Everything is far too rushed as the story just hits the high points. Character development is left in the dust as dialogue is empty and trite. However, the plot does portray a somewhat realistic progression of life, even if the ending is slightly predictable. In the end, it’s great to base films off of books, but don’t do it in such a way that the original point is lost.
Acting Quality (1.5 points)
Though None Go With Me is a pretty standard early 2000s Hallmark casting job. As such, there are plenty of good elements but others that weigh it down. Some acting is effective while some of it is overdone, forced, or lazy. Also, some costuming and makeup are unrealistic, another typical Hallmark pitfall. But overall, this portion is pretty average.
Conclusion
Jerry Jenkins is a gifted writer, and thus, his stories should be portrayed on the big screen. But they should not be done in this fashion, so that they are compressed and chopped up in pursuit of fitting into a comfortable ninety-minute, made-for-TV runtime. A life epic cannot unfold like this and characters cannot be developed properly in this time span. So when bringing novels to life, consider that you might need to do so in two parts, not all at once.
Final Rating: 5 out of 10 points
Box Office Revolution 