From time to time in Friendly Persuasion we see a needlepoint that says, “God is love,” always in the background and near the center of the frame. It echoes the sentiment’s valued place in the marriage of Jess and Eliza Birdwell (Gary Cooper and Dorothy McGuire), a Quaker couple in south Indiana in 1862. That truth plays itself out in the way they encounter each other’s failures and foibles, in their relationship to their children, their neighbors, and even rebel soldiers who come to loot and destroy their farm.
—Darrel Manson
Arts & Faith Lists:
2013 Top 25 Films on Marriage — #9