**_Hidden gem about life in rural America in the last year of WW2_** A woman in North Carolina (Joanne Whalley) awaits the return of her husband from the Pacific, who’s missing in action. She hires a disreputable transient to work the farm (Sean Patrick Flanery) and he bonds with her 10 years-old daughter (Alexa PenaVega). “Run the Wild Fields” (2000) was based on a play and contains elements of films like “Of Mice and Men,” “Places in the Heart,” “The Man in the Moon” and “Lawn Dogs.” The story has room to breathe as it fleshes-out the characters and refuses to go over-the-top, which works for me. There is one cliched scene, but the flick makes up for it with an unexpected turn. It runs 1 hour, 41 minutes, and was shot north of Toronto in Whitchurch-Stouffville. GRADE: A-

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