April 25, 2018
Random Acts… Journey of love shared in “The Beach House”
If tears and smiles are what you look for in a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie, “The Beach House” is sure to please.
Based on the novel of the same name by Mary Alice Monroe, the film tells the story of a mother-daughter relationship against the backdrop of one of Mother Nature’s most fascinating and endearing events – the migration of sea turtles to the South Carolina coast.
The film, which premieres Saturday, April 28 at 9 p.m. Eastern on the Hallmark Channel and Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, stars Minka Kelly as Caretta Rudland, an ambitious advertising executive who’s lost her job in Chicago and decides to visit the mother she’s been estranged from in the Lowcountry of her childhood summers.
Caretta’s mother Lovie, played by Andie MacDowell, has been caring for a young, pregnant friend Toy (Makenzie Vega), as well as protecting the annual loggerhead turtle spawn/birth cycle on the beach nearby. There is also, of course, the rekindling of a love affair for Caretta with local fisherman and all-around Southern gentleman Brett Beauchamps (Chad Michael Murray).
The cycle of life plays out in the mother-daughter relationship as time becomes more precious with each passing day. Secrets are revealed, family issues are confronted, and relationships are healed.
Through it all, we learn about the amazing journey that sea turtles make from the ocean to the sandy beaches where they lay eggs that will hatch into the next generation of slow moving marine reptiles with shells on their backs.
No one knows exactly how long sea turtles live, but scientists believe that at approximately age 30, they start laying eggs every few years, and can live to be about 80 years old. All species of sea turtles, with the exception of the flatback sea turtle in Australia, are considered endangered.
According to the Hilton Head Island Sea Turtle Protection Project, six species of sea turtles migrate annually to the South Carolina coast, with loggerhead turtles preferring Hilton Head.
Andie MacDowell and Minka Kelly in “The Beach House” Copyright 2018 Crown Media United States LLC/Photographer: David M. Russell
In “The Beach House,” Lovie is a “turtle lady” who keeps an eye out for new nests on the beach, moving any that are in danger to higher ground. In one poignant scene, Lovie and Caretta watch as a sea turtle lays her eggs.
“Is she crying?” Caretta asks, with surprise.
Lovie says the mama turtle lays her eggs, then leaves them to return to the ocean, not knowing what will happen to her babies.
Scientists say the turtle tears are part of a process of getting rid of an excess of sea salt, but giving human characteristics to animals, in this case, creates a moving metaphor for parenthood.
We give birth to (or adopt) children, and at some point, must let them move forward with their own lives, not knowing what will happen to them. Conversely, as children, we think our parents will be with us forever, never really knowing what life will be like when they are gone.
If we’re lucky, we will value every moment together – no matter how happy, sad, proud, or shameful that moment is. For one day, those moments will end.
“The Beach House” is a loving reminder that time is shorter than we think, but love ensures that the moments that matter never really end.
Dinah Eng 