| Where the Wind Blows is western romance with an undefined setting (presumably 19th century, somewhere out west), and a unique story, but unable to get the pieces or characters necessary to fill out that story into something plausible, or even interesting or entertaining. Trevor Donovan stars as a single, untethered cowboy named Chase Logan. | | 2025
Directed by: John Schimke
Screenplay by: Caroline Fyffe, Mike Maden, John Schimke
Starring: Trevor Donovan, Ashley Elaine
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In the opening scene – a literal old west saloon straight out of the satirical comedy A Million Ways to Die in the West – Chase is presented as the typical nice guy: he’s polite, well-mannered, and is the one cowboy from the wild wild west who treats women as smart, capable people who should not be taken advantage of by a man. Considering the romance this is going to become, that type of introduction is not surprising at all.
The problems with the movie start early and often. It is not intended to be a comedy despite looking exactly like one with its quick editing and an early death which again comes straight out of A Million Ways to Die in the West. That is a ten-plus-year-old movie which I expect most viewers will not remember if they even saw it in the first place, but it is what comes to mind when you’re trying to figure out which movie this reminds you of.
Chase, as the nice guy he is, takes it upon himself to deliver the news of a friend’s death to the man’s widow. Jessie the surprisingly young widow, is briefly saddened by the news of her husband’s death, but then immediately jumps to an impending arrival: she (and her husband) were supposed to adopt a girl from an orphanage. But with this being the 19th century, a single woman is unlikely to be allowed to adopt a girl, so she needs Chase to pretend to be her husband.
This is still not supposed to be a comedy. Presumably in an attempt to keep it dramatic instead of funny, Chase becomes a misogynistic asshole intent on using her for her cooking (and her good looks) while she uses him for his man status to then get a new family which she does not have the means to take care of.
The photography – smartly sticking to an old log cabin and rural landscapes for the historical setting – is lovely, and it does fit the story. However amateur editing and an over-wrought score make the few attempts at romance come across as cheesy.
The characters and actions are all incongruent from one scent to the next. Where the Wind Blows is supposed to be a heart-warming romantic drama about finding a make-shift family, but with inconsistent characters, there is no real or genuine emotion to be found.
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