Product Details

• Actors: Lauren Lee Smith, Stewart Finlay-McLennan, James Waterston, Dale Dickey, Bruce McKinnon
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rated: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Vidmark / Trimark
• VHS Release Date: August 28, 2001
• Run Time: 89 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (76 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00005LQ69
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #226,057 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Christy (Lauren Lee Smith) and the rest of the Cutter Gap community are just beginning to recover from a typhoid epidemic when a storm hits the rural alcove. In A New Beginning, the second of a two-part PAX production that began with A Change of Seasons, she gets stranded in the forest with Dr. MacNeill (Stewart Finlay-McLennan), and her fiancé David (James Waterston) risks life and limb to rescue her. Despite a loss of property, the town makes it through the storm relatively intact, but many have been changed by the experience. Christy, for instance, has come to see Dr. MacNeill in a new light, thus questioning her engagement to David. Will she marry the preacher or break off the engagement? Marriage is on the minds of several characters in this engaging recollection by the elderly Christy about her experiences as a young schoolteacher in the Smoky Mountains. Age 8 and older. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A word of caution, January 30, 2007

By 

Classic Trek Fan "JWB" (Hagerstown, MD United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Christy - A New Beginning (DVD)

This is a beautiful story. And well worth watching and owning. But if you already have Choices of the Heart, don't buy A New Beginning because they are identical. Apparently a studio trick to get you to buy dupes.

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A new "Christy" story, August 14, 2001

By 

"mamasylvia" (Cheyenne, WY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Christy - Return to Cutter Gap (DVD)

You're either a Christy fan or not, so I'm not going to bother summarizing the plot. If you're a Christy fan, you'll like it. However, I don't think I'd start a new Christy viewer out on these movies. They start after the series' end, with first "Return to Cutter Gap" and then "A Change of Seasons" and "A New Beginning." Start a Christy newbie with the first few series episodes. However, for returning Christy fans, this is another enjoyable movie with no objectionable language or behavior, and a pleasing addition to the Christy canon.

What is new to these movies from the series (besides cast changes) is the envelope, discussions between the aged Christy and her daughter "Catherine" as Catherine brings her mother to revisit Cutter Gap. (Those who have read Catherine Marshall's book _Christy_, on which the series and now the movie are loosely based, know that the Christy character is somewhat based on Catherine Marshall's mother.) And the whole Margaret McNeill sub-plot is ignored as if it had never happened (which, in the book, it didn't -- Margaret died before Christy ever came to Cutter Gap and didn't keep popping up to torment Neil and Miss Alice.) But the envelope and occasional voice-overs by the "older" Christy are okay and the story is involving, with poachers and an early aviatrix descending on Cutter Gap. Interestingly, the aviatrix Harriet Quimby was a real person and this episode left me wondering whether she and Catherine Marshall's real-life mother ever met.

The cast changes are neutral to slightly disappointing. Lauren Lee Smith's portrayal of Christy is as perky and naive as Kellie Martin's was. James Waterston doesn't have the presence of Randall Batinkoff's original David Grantland, and Diane Ladd seemed rather wishy-washy after Tyne Daly's characterization (and her "thee"s sounded totally artificial). But these are minor flaws. A flaw that bothered me more was the new Fairlight Spencer's emotional distance from Christy. Both in the book and in the series, their friendship was very important to both women, and I don't think Fairlight would have brushed Christy off no matter the provocation.

Finally, a word of warning about confusing titles. "Return to Cutter Gap" was shown on Pax-TV recently as "Christy: The Movie." Two other Amazon "Christy" titles, "Christy: A Change of Seasons" and "Christy: A New Beginning" were just shown on Pax as "Christy: Choices of the Heart" parts 1 and 2 respectively. Why rename them? Other than to confuse the viewers, I mean?

39 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing...., November 29, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Christy - A New Beginning (DVD)

but not due to the storyline. I absolutely loved the tv series "Christy" when it first debuted with Kellie Martin and Tyne Daly. I was very, very annoyed when this wonderful, witty, romantic, dramatic, and all around exceptional show was canned.

I was dubious at first when I learned some "Christy" tv movies were coming out but I was willing to sit down and watch one to see if it held the same magic for me as the series held. Unfortunately, the magic that had me bowled over week after week with the series was not present in the movies.

Don't get me wrong, the tv movies might be of the highest quality and caliber but, for me at least, Kellie Martin will always be Christy. Tyne Daly will always be Miss Alice and Randall Batinkoff will always be David. These actors are forever going to embody the characters of the wonderful tv show which was "Christy" and no substitutes will do.

Which brings me to my real purpose of writing this review. PLEASE...I'M BEGGING the powers-that-be to release the "Christy" television show on DVD with all its episodes. The series is the only "Christy" that I'm interested in.