The Magic of Ordinary Days is a Hallmark Hall of Fame production based on a novel of the same name by Ann Howard Creel and adapted as a teleplay by Camille Thomasson.[1] It was directed by Brent Shields, produced by Andrew Gottlieb and stars Keri Russell, Skeet Ulrich, and Mare Winningham.[1]
Set during World War II, Olivia "Livy" Dunne is a Denver minister's young daughter who has become pregnant by a United States Navy flight instructor on furlough. Embarrassed by his daughter's out of wedlock pregnancy, her father quietly arranges for her to marry.
Livy is sent to a rural southeastern Colorado town to marry Ray Singleton, who operates his family farm. Hearing of Livy's dilemma from his pastor, Ray is moved and agrees to marry without even having met her. Unbeknownst to Livy, he has lost both of his parents, and also his younger brother, during the attack on Pearl Harbor. Though young, handsome and a family man at heart, Ray has little opportunity to find a wife in this remote region. His sister Martha, her husband and their three children are the only family he has left.
Ray and Livy are very different. Livy has a good education and until recently was studying archeology in graduate school. She knows nothing of cooking or farming and is not particularly religious. Livy has felt bereft and lonely since her mom's death. Ray is a man of few words. A hard worker, he is kind, honest and patient. Family life and faith in God have been the central features of Ray's life. His daily activity is focused on working his family's farm.[3] Livy and Ray strive hard to be polite and courteous to each other, but are nevertheless awkward in each other's company.
Though agreeing to marry for her father, Livy never intended to remain. She secretly writes to United States Navy Flight Instructor Lieutenant Edward Brown, her baby's father. A visit by her sister brings sharp contrast between the life Livy came from and the life she is living now, but it is also apparent how much Livy has changed her view of her surroundings. Her sister has no news of Lt. Brown, who has yet to answer Livy's letters.
Now, without her husband who has been called up to serve, her sister is lonely. She asks Livy to leave Ray to come stay with her in Denver, suggesting they make up stories of him drinking and being violent to justify it. Livy cannot do this, as he is a decent man.
As most young men are at war, Ray's farm is lacking in farm hands. The government supplies laborers to the farms, needing to maintain production of food. The farm is supplemented by Japanese Americans internees at nearby Camp Amache. Livy, feeling isolated and alone, befriends two sisters from the camp, Florence and Rose Umahara. Both are well-educated, and she finds familiarity and comfort in their friendship.
Ray's sister Martha and her family give Livy insight into rural America. Ray proves to be a caring husband, both patient and supportive. He quietly does things to make her more comfortable and readily makes changes to address her desires and interests. Livy also finds Ray much brighter than she had first suspected.
Livy comes to value the life people like Martha and Ray lead. The love and forbearance shown to her stand in marked contrast with what she had known since her mother's passing. With the baby coming, she finally hears back from the lieutenant in a letter that Ray has picked up at the post office. Ray is hurt to discover that she has continued to write to the lieutenant and angrily leaves to work the night shift at the beet factory. Livy reads the letter from Lt. Brown who insists he couldn't be the father.
Livy goes to Martha and confides to her that she has hurt Ray since he found out that she has been writing to Lt. Brown. Feeling guilty, she plans to leave for Denver shortly before the baby's birth. Knowing she's determined to leave him, Ray tells her he loves her and gives her his mother's wedding ring as he wasn't able to provide one when they originally got married.
As a favor to the Umahara sisters, Livy promised to meet Florence's boyfriend. As she's driving to meet them, she admires the wedding ring and realizes that she has fallen in love with Ray. When she arrives to visit the Umahara sisters and meets Florence's secret boyfriend, she realizes he is a German POW wearing a uniform that Florence made for him to pass off as an American. With the POW riding in the back of the truck, she tells Florence that she could be arrested if she's caught trying to help a German POW escape and convinces her to forget him. She drops off the sisters at their camp and drives off with the POW taking him to her home. She tells him that the homemade uniform won't work as a disguise and has him change his clothes with Ray's clothing. She then deliberately leaves the keys by the door and goes into the kitchen allowing him steal her truck and drive off.
Once he leaves, her water breaks. She quickly phones the police to report her truck stolen by a German POW so they can arrest him, and also asks for a doctor as she has begun labor. She burns the uniform and throws the locket with Lt. Brown's photo into the fire. As she watches it burn, Ray arrives and she tells him she's in labor to his great joy.
A few hours later, she has given birth to a boy and she and Ray share a tender kiss, finally recognizing that they are in love with each other. A few months later, she has a baby shower where she receives a blanket from the Umahara sisters with the name Daniel embroidered on it, implying that she has named her son after Ray's deceased younger brother.
Later, Livy holds hands with Ray as he carries little Daniel out of their house on their first archeological dig as family on their family farm.
The premiere broadcast on CBS in 2005 attracted 18.7 million viewers, making it the highest-rated television film since the 2001-02 season. According to the author of the original novel, "as of early 2009, the screenplay for a sequel has been written and approved. Hallmark Hall of Fame is waiting for principal actors to become available to begin production and filming."
In 2005, Robert Bianco of USA Today gave the film (3½ out of 4 stars), saying:[4]
If only TV movies this good were ordinary events....Days does sometimes stress a link between "country" and "uncomplicated" that probably never existed. But underneath the contrasts between Ray's simple ways and Livvy's more cultured upbringing is a binding, universal message about the need to accept the consequences of our acts. An ordinary lesson, perhaps, but it takes an extraordinary movie to make us listen.
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