I can't recall who said it, but someone once remarked that most people can handle the crises in their lives. But the aftermath of a given crisis, the day to day living one returns to is the tough part. That is what Keri Russell faces when during World War II days she is left pregnant during a romance with a soldier who up and left her.In those days illegitimate birth was quite the stigma to the child and the mother bearing it. So in The Magic Of Ordinary Days Skeet Ulrich who has an agricultural exemption and one lonely life as a farmer agrees to marry her and take the child as his own.Those kind of arrangements usually don't work out, but in this case the various crises the face plus just the ordinary day to day living trying to keep that farm running causes bonds between them to start and grow. It's not easy as Russell is college educated and Ulrich is just a man of the soil.One of the side issues is the internment of the Japanese and a pair of Nisei girls, Tania Gunadi and Gwendolyn Yeo, arrive as farm workers. Their relatives are either interred or part of the Nisei 442nd Division fighting in the European theater. Russell is one of the few who treats them like human beings. Young Ms. Yeo is quite a handful to deal with also.This is a very good Hallmark Channel with the leads getting good support from the ensemble cast.

Expected a soft, heart pulling story of two lonely people finding each other.....started off great.....a lonely farmer....and some might say simple.....a city girl who expects to travel the world but somehow gets herself pregnant.....a marriage both need......she makes it clear she doesn't want to stay.....but we get glimpses that she's as lonely as her 'husband'....both slowly start to try to be part of the others world....and isn't that what love is really about....caring about the other persons needs and interests?....they seem to start feeling closer...and we slowly see a tenderness grow between them....she still wants to leave and it looks like she will.....even though he knows she doesn't care and doesn't want to stay...he somehow feels they are actually man and wife(?).....is he suddenly really a simpleton? and then suddenly poof...she's in love and everything's OK in farm land USA.....guess I expected a bit more from each character in finding themselves and each other....

It's been said so many times, but this is a truly wonderful movie! It's simple yet complex at the same time; so much is left unsaid in words yet is expressed beautifully through body language. Skeet Ulrich was the reason I watched this movie, but the whole cast was perfect. That being said, I think that Skeet was amazing in his role; a man of few words but always saying the right ones. He played Ray as such a kind and gentle soul with nothing but love, and I really saw so much of Skeet's own heart in Ray's heart. Keri Russell played Livy with such grace; it would've been easy to dislike Livy at times had Keri not given her that humanity. Mare was so pivotal in her short bits of screen time, showing you part of why Ray turned out to be such a good man.I absolutely recommend this to anyone looking for a heartfelt movie. It's not the fastest paced movie, but as long as you're willing to sit back and simply enjoy it, I think you'll do just that.

Excellent picture describing the mores of another time in America.When the film began, I actually thought it was taking place around 1839 even as I saw the train riding through Colorado. I was floored when it's shown as July, 1944. We're in rural Colorado, as the war is winding down (hopefully) and Franklin Roosevelt will defeat Thomas Dewey that November and win a 4th, but all too brief term.That being said, the film describes an educated woman in graduate school who becomes pregnant from a pilot. Her erudite father, in disgrace, sends her off to Colorado to marry a young farmer, whose brother was killed at Pearl Harbor and parents who died shortly afterward.The story shows how 2 kind people fall in love. What makes this so good is that we're basically dealing with 2 very good people, with no airs about themselves whatsoever.One problem with the film might have been that a nearby Japanese internment camp shows that 2 young Japanese girls can come and go freely as they want. Am sure this wasn't the case. Yet, the general theme of the movie is well handled and true love is a many splendid thing.