Regional library list makes for

This list provides readers with names of movies recommended by the staff of the Western Counties Regional Library. All movies recommended by the staff are posted at www.westerncounties.ca under Recommended Reading with links to the library’s catalogue. Summaries of the movies are supplied by library staff.



Moondance Alexander

A sweet family drama about a girl and her misunderstood horse, Moondance Alexander focuses on a teenager who is longing to fit into a world where she is considered an oddball. Though Moondance (Kay Panabaker) is cute as a button, she’s saddled with an unpopular name and that, apparently, is enough to make other 15-year-old girls dislike her. But when the spunky kid finds a mischievous runaway pinto, her life changes for the better. The horse’s owner is played by a gravely voiced Don Johnson, who allows Moondance to work at his stable. In return, he will also train her to ride Checkers, who is her new best friend. Moondance is convinced that Checkers is a champion jumper in the making that just needs someone to believe in him. She believes.



The Final Season

Touching and inspirational, The Final Season, based on a true story, is one of those baseball movies in which the game is synonymous with life itself – if not actually bigger than life itself. Sean Astin is solid and likeable as Kent Stock, an assistant baseball coach at Norway High School in an Iowa farming community. Working under local legend Jim Van Scoyoc (Powers Boothe in a particularly golden performance), who led Norway to 19 straight state championships; Stock is happy to lend a temporary hand. But he finds his destiny altered when Van Scoyoc is pushed aside by a school board determined to close Norway High and stifle dissent by undercutting the team’s chances of a 20th victory. On the wrongheaded assumption that Stock can’t motivate kids, the coaching job is offered to him, and he takes to it immediately in his low-key way. Despite early struggles, Stock inspires his players to think about what’s important in Norway’s last shot at greatness: How do they want to be remembered?



Martian Child

The skeptical, melancholy eyes of John Cusack anchor Martian Child, a sweet but not sugary story of a widowed man who adopts a misfit kid who believes he’s from another planet. David Gordon (Cusack) is a successful science-fiction author – which is perhaps what leads a children’s counselor to pair him with a would-be extra-terrestrial named Dennis (Bobby Coleman). Reluctantly at first, David tries to communicate with Dennis by fostering his belief – but as they grow attached to each other, the administrators of the organization that put them together sees this playing along as a failure to be a proper parent and threatens to take Dennis away.



The Cutting Edge: Chasing the Dream

When world class skater Zack’s chances to compete at ice-skating highest level are thwarted by an injury to his partner he must find a new skater quickly or face the reality of not competing at all. Enter Alexandra, an amateur Latina hockey player who’s never skated competitively and at first wants nothing to do with Zack. But Zack is desperate and his will and determination to make Alexandra his new partner eventually prevail. Now the question becomes can Alexandra dedicate herself to upping her skating game to the next level while not falling for Zack's good looks and charm in the process?



Ira & Abby

Love at first sight has some interesting repercussions a few months down the line in this offbeat romantic comedy. Ira Black is a wildly neurotic thirtysomething who can’t get his life in gear – the son of a pair of therapists, Arlene and Seymour, Ira still hasn’t finished his grad school dissertation, he’s been in therapy for 12 years, and can’t bring himself to settle down with his longtime girlfriend, Lea. When both Lea and his analyst inform Ira that they don’t want to see him anymore, he decides he needs to make some changes. Ira joins a health club, where he meets Abby Willoughby, who is supposed to sell memberships to the gym but is much better at listening to people’s problems. The two discover they have a strong and immediate rapport, and Ira asks Abby to marry him only a few hours later. Abby says “yes,” and soon the couple are wed. However, it isn’t until after they've been married for a few weeks that Ira discovers Abby has been divorced twice already, and it makes him very uneasy about their relationship.



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