You’ve Got to Love a Girl Who Goes to a Bar and Orders Herself a Glass of Merlot and a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon at the Same Time.

**Spoilers**

This one was a fairly radical variation of the standard city girl goes to the boondocks and partners up with the local guy to accomplish saving something (Or battles local guy and something ends up getting saved in spite of city girl or local guy.) Sometimes it’s city dude. Anyway, there are probably dozens of permutations of the same basic idea. In this one a vineyard is saved, which has definitely been done before, but hey! Wine! Can you really go wrong with a vineyard? This was one of Hallmark’s “Mahogany” line of romances and featured an all-black cast and director and was co-written by a black woman. So the Hallmark version of black people has definitely evolved in a positive way.

We know right away that Cassie, our heroine, is very important and high-powered because of the way she struts into her office building in very high, very very spikey heels and a power suit in the first scene. But then she gets to her office and virtually falls apart, shaking in those very high heels thinking she is going to get fired for not having a judge rule in her favor (she’s an attorney, it turns out.) That whole scene just didn’t make sense, especially considering the rest of the movie in which she is very confident, strong, and independent. And when she is called into her boss’s office, she is promoted to partner, not fired! What was with all the wimpy insecurity? However, she is stressed out and overworked, we do get that.

When she learns that her grandmother whom she hasn’t seen in over 30 years has died, the plan is to attend the funeral on Saturday and be back on Monday. “The best-laid plans of mice and men…” as they say. When little Cassie was a young girl, her mother and her father moved away to the city, rejecting her grandmother’s plan to have her daughter take over from her in running her vineyard, wedding venue, and winery. Instead, she moved to the city to support her husband, Cassie’s Dad, in his ambition to become a successful lawyer, which he did. Meanwhile, she pursued her own dream of becoming an artist. They never saw each other again. This total breach between a mother and daughter in which a beloved grandmother never sees her supposedly beloved granddaughter again was very disturbing. It’s one of those Hallmark plot elements that doesn’t bear up under scrutiny. Because if you did look at it too closely, you would conclude that some or all of the adults in this broken relationship had very nasty, cold, and vindictive sides to their characters. And the two dead women are spoken of reverently and lovingly throughout the movie.

Cassie’s grandmother has willed her struggling mortgaged-to-the-hilt vineyard to her. Thanks, Granny. After first planning to sell it for a tidy profit, Cassie reads a letter from her grandmother in which she learns that her mother and grandmother had secretly reconciled right before her mother’s death and they had planned a reunion. This knowledge and getting to learn about the vineyard spurs her to try to get the vineyard/wedding venue/winery back on its feet instead of selling. The fact that the guy who is managing the property is an extremely hot widower with a cute daughter doesn’t hurt either. He works there at the vineyard for free and in his spare time which also doesn’t bear looking at too closely.

There are lots of struggles (toxic mold and $$$) amid lots of good girlfriend support and romance. Also a good scene with the Dad who is very remorseful over his part in the family drama. The actor who played the father was very good in that I didn’t loathe his character when I probably should have. Cassie turns her back on the stressful life as a partner in a law practice making lots of money to be a happily married stepmother, grape farmer, vintner, and wedding venue manager, all of which is probably equally as stressful. Oh well, at least she has a fall-back career.