This movie was excellent and I highly recommend it. There is a very good presentation of the main character's Christian faith helping her to survive. (Rare in this day to see Hollywood present an historically accurate Christian character as something other than a two dimensional caricature!) Whether you share her faith or not, you come away from this movie realizing how important faith and hope are to overcoming obstacles and surviving against the odds. It is important to suspend one's disbelief in the improbability of the events depicted and focus more on the message of the film. I suspect that the bad reviews are from folks that just "don't get it." This movie is one that is safe to watch with the family and one which you'll be discussing after it's over.

This is a small independent film and considering the small budget, it is excellent. The main theme of the film is thought provoking-Does God exist and does He care? The main character of the movie, a young married woman is coerced, by her patriarchal husband and the social dictates of the day, to set out on the Oregon Trail and find their piece of the Garden of Eden. Her husband is a controlling buffoon, insisting that they secretly leave (she is instructed that she not tell her family-maybe so that they will not intervene?) and eventually she acquiesces, as she is a Godly young woman. Her headstrong husband eventually leaves the protection of the wagon train and heads out on his own which ultimately leads to his demise, leaving his ill-equipped wife alone in the wilderness. Yes, there were zippers and materials that didn't exist at the time, but anytime one watches a movie, there are moments when a viewer suspends disbelief. Multiple books about actual crossings of the Oregon Trail recount how as the wagon-hauling oxen, cows and horses died; settlers began throwing out all but absolute essentials. Thus, finding an abandoned upright piano alongside the trail was not unheard of. Before leaving the wagon, Jasmin Jandreau looks through her clothing, pulling out her wedding gown and a pair of lace up ladies boots. The boots are falling apart so she puts them and the gown back in the wagon, deciding to wear what looks to be her wedding shoes. Eventually, she finds a dead man on the trail and takes off his boots so that she can have more appropriate footwear. This film is fairly realistic and also faith affirming.

I tell you what I saw: 90 minutes of pure depression. I'm giving the no spoilers version so people can be properly warned BEFORE they watch. The movie was ill-conceived and had me asking "what?" and "why did she do that?" throughout. Then there were the camera shots of her looking around. I never did see what she saw. I also disliked how the story was moved along perhaps a dozen times by the following sequence: a closeup of the girl, a slight change in facial expression and then the music starts. Viewers are left guessing as to what she's looking at or thinking or heard, etc, so many times that I just gave up. There was little to no character development and the climax was like a little mosquito bite right at the end of your toe. Too little too late, not mention annoying! I never connected with any character and was a bit confused as to why she didn't just decide differently again and again. I'm so angry right now that I signed up for am IMDb account just to give this a poor review. I would also like to mention that the religious undertones are just out of place and actually helped to misguide a lot of the movie. Where the writer probably intended these mentions of God or religion to be what kept her going, I saw that her blind faith had caused her to neglect certain common sense truths of the world and of survival, which made her decisions nonsensical and actually hurt the story. Goodnight.

The historical inaccuracies have been documented by others and there were many.One thing that bothered me particularly was the concept of a lone women, alone in the west, in winter, wearing only a light dress that never seemed to soil. She would have been dead in a day. I kept waiting for her to find some warm clothing so I could get past that.Her random encounters with dead, white people while wandering the woods also strained credulity. It's unlikely that most people would have left the established trail. Her chance meeting with the Indian boy was also a Whiskey Tango Foxtrot moment, however that seems to be explained (to a point) at the end.And regarding the end, from the way her husband spoke of "rumors" of gold out west, it was likely the winter of 1848-49, because after that it wasn't a few people following rumors, there was a full on migration. Even if it was 1849-50 or 50-51, what is a large, thriving settlement doing in the middle of the Rocky Mountains? I give it plus for the scenery and the Indian attack was well done as far as being a tense moment. Then again, they probably would have checked the wagon for guns, ammo, tools and food and found her. They killed her husband, grabbed the horses and left without looking inside the wagon?And food. They were on a months long journey and the only food she had along was a small bag of grits or oatmeal (or whatever it was) and a handful of beans? Same for the other wagon she encountered. No food inside at all?I got it at the end this movie was not made for general audiences, but for the "faithful". That audience will probably explain away all of the inconsistencies as god watching out for her, and they might like it.As for me, I thoroughly enjoy these "lone person surviving the odds" movies - when they are well done. This movie was not.