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Lassie, the famous collie, returns in director Daniel Petrie's updated feature-length family adventure. Baltimore living hasn't agreed with Steve Turner (Jon Tenney). He's been having job trouble for months, and now he's fed up with the filth and crime. So he and his family move to his deceased wife's ancestral family farm in Virginia's lush Shenandoah Valley, population 148. Driving through the countryside, Steve and his new wife, Laura (Helen Slater), stop at the scene of a car accident where they discover a beautiful, newly orphaned collie that they name Lassie. Without hesitation, Lassie (a descendant of the original Lassie of television fame) adopts the Turner family, transforming their son, Matt (Thomas Guiry), from an MTV generation butthead into a sensitive explorer of unspoiled farmland. Matt and his little sister, Jennifer (Brittany Boyd), have trouble adjusting to their new rural hometown but with Lassie's help they soon discover the beautiful secrets of their farm and even begin to repair the tense relationship with their new stepmother. Lassie also helps Matt to romance April (Michelle Williams, in her film debut), a young local girl. All is well until Steve has a run-in with Sam Garland (Frederic Forrest), an ornery sheep-ranching neighbor who is determined to make Turner family life miserable. Lassie and the Turners unite to fight the corrupt Garland empire in this rousing and fun-loving adventure.
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