Basically this comes down to "find your tree elsewhere", that is why the message to Rockefeller Center landscaping manager Andrew McCarthy who is searching for the annual Christmas tree and tries to manipulate none Julie Harris in allowing him to cut down her favorite tree, one that has been a comfort to her ever since she was an orphaned girl brought there. She was a quiet child who basically didn't speak until she saw the tree for the first time, and that tree helped through many obstacles in her life including a brief romance with a wonderful young man who was in love with her but being taken away elsewhere by his father. Having dealt with the death of a nun who had left the convent only to be killed in the London Blitz, Sister Anthony certainly has felt her share of pain.
This film is best when it deals with situations outside of McCarthy's professional life and spends time either in flashbacks of young Anna or in the present day with her life as Sister Anthony. To see Anna go from young girl to idealistic teen to a maturing and loving nun, you get to see every aspect of her, and why she ended up devoting her life to God and found comfort with this gorgeous pine. Anyone who has lived in the country will relate to the comfort one gets from a particular tree or piece of land, in my case the gorgeous orchards of a fruit farm I spent my early life on. Anna/Sister Anthony expresses her fear of abandonment, something that started when she was taken away from her protector, a young boy named Tom, when she was at an orphanage before going to the content.
One place where the characters Anna is lucky is the convent of nuns she was raised by, treating her as if she were their daughter. They are a variety of temperaments, many of them sweet and truly Godly, others stubborn and feisty, particularly the aging nun whom McCarthy encounters when he first arrives to meet Sister Anthony. I also love their in deference to the outside world, which includes modern technology and the commercialism of Christmas especially. This is Julie Harris at her most warm-hearted, seriously someone you would want to have as a best friend and confidant. McCarthy is basically the listener in this, and you pray that he truly is grasping the message that she's trying to teach him. No way should such a gorgeous tree be taken out of the ground before its time, and ultimately, he has to face the fact that the decision is up to her. The direction of Sally Field might seem overly sentimental to some, but in the case of the story, that is an absolute necessity.
This film is best when it deals with situations outside of McCarthy's professional life and spends time either in flashbacks of young Anna or in the present day with her life as Sister Anthony. To see Anna go from young girl to idealistic teen to a maturing and loving nun, you get to see every aspect of her, and why she ended up devoting her life to God and found comfort with this gorgeous pine. Anyone who has lived in the country will relate to the comfort one gets from a particular tree or piece of land, in my case the gorgeous orchards of a fruit farm I spent my early life on. Anna/Sister Anthony expresses her fear of abandonment, something that started when she was taken away from her protector, a young boy named Tom, when she was at an orphanage before going to the content.
One place where the characters Anna is lucky is the convent of nuns she was raised by, treating her as if she were their daughter. They are a variety of temperaments, many of them sweet and truly Godly, others stubborn and feisty, particularly the aging nun whom McCarthy encounters when he first arrives to meet Sister Anthony. I also love their in deference to the outside world, which includes modern technology and the commercialism of Christmas especially. This is Julie Harris at her most warm-hearted, seriously someone you would want to have as a best friend and confidant. McCarthy is basically the listener in this, and you pray that he truly is grasping the message that she's trying to teach him. No way should such a gorgeous tree be taken out of the ground before its time, and ultimately, he has to face the fact that the decision is up to her. The direction of Sally Field might seem overly sentimental to some, but in the case of the story, that is an absolute necessity.