Christy (2000)

Based on Catherine Marshall's beloved novel Christy, this PAX Television adaptation features Lauren Lee Smith as the 19-year-old schoolteacher who flounders and perseveres in an isolated mountain community in the early 1900s. Set against the breathtaking backdrop of the Great Smokey Mountains, this 89-minute film begins with an elderly Christy returning to the long-abandoned mission where she once taught. Her memories center around a time when change was coming to Cutter Gap--some for the better, some not, and all of it resisted by the locals. The reverend is building a new road, poachers are afoot, and a fetching aviator makes an emergency landing outside of town. Meanwhile, Christy is pushing a young student to study for medical school against the wishes of his father. Mission funds are cut, townsfolk revolt against her, and she suffers the loss of support from her mentor and mission director (Diane Ladd), and Christy must do some soul-searching. Excellent family viewing for ages 6 and up, the film does have some gunplay, a violent injury, and talk of lynching--all revolving around the poaching subplot. --Kimberly Heinrichs