The Lost Husband

The Lost Husband is a 2020 American romance film written and directed by Vicky Wight and starring Leslie Bibb and Josh Duhamel. It is based on Katherine Center's 2013 novel of the same name. The film was released to video on demand on April 10, 2020 by Quiver Distribution and Redbox Entertainment. Plot Libby loses her husband and her home and finds herself a single mother of Abby and Tank, with no place to live. She moves in with her mother, Marsha, an overly critical woman. Marsha has always had a rocky relationship with Libby. After six months, Marsha says that Libby must leave. Libby and her two children move to Aunt Jean's goat farm in central Texas looking for a fresh start. Aunt Jean instructs James O'Connor, her farm manager, to teach Libby the ropes of keeping up the farm. Libby is not thrilled about the idea, but accepts because she needs a job. Slowly, Libby and the children start getting used to their new life at the farm. Libby develops her farm skills and begins bonding with James. The children also bond with James, who enjoys playing with Tank and teaching Abby how to defend herself from a bully at her new school who picks on her for having a limp, which she got in the car accident that killed her father. Abby gets suspended from school for punching the bully and, although Libby is upset with James for teaching her karate, she realizes Abby trusted James to tell her about the bullying issues while she had been too afraid to talk about it with Libby and adding to her stress. Later in the film Abby is suspended again for using curse words on the bully, who had hit her in the head. James drives Libby to school to pick Abby up, and when he runs into the bully, he threatens him. The family also meets and bonds with Jean's boyfriend, Russ McAllen, and his granddaughter, Sunshine. One night, Sunshine takes Libby to an abandoned house which she says belongs to Jean, but she hasn't lived there since her husband, Frank, died. Sunshine suggests Libby try to communicate with her dead husband. Although Libby doesn't take the idea of talking with the dead too seriously, she does have a sentimental and raw moment delivering a monologue as if she were talking to Danny. The fire they had made suddenly goes out, leaving Libby thinking maybe Danny was in fact able to hear her. Throughout the next days we slowly see Libby acquire a sense of closure about her husband's death.