Wooooo Wooooo

Hallmark tried something different here and they pretty much pulled it off. Anna is a newly minted real estate agent who has just unenthusiastically joined her Dad’s firm. She has recently broken up with her fiance, Elliot, and is still hurting from that and the failure of their home restoration business. Elliot, who will soon be moving to Boston to reestablish his business, is still in town in a last-ditch effort to get a historical designation for a house he still wants to restore.

 Anna’s Dad has given her a prime property to sell, which has angered jealous Terrence who thinks he should have gotten it as he has been the firm’s top salesman for 15 years. Terrence is a creepy bad guy, but I saw his point. This is nepotism pure and simple, and is another strike against her toxic father who is domineering and controlling with his princess, Anna.

Although a beautiful old historical mansion, it has never sold or been occupied since the original owners passed away in the 1950s. It is “jinxed.” And we soon find out why. In the introduction, set 100 years prior, we met Ruby, a 1923 flapper and socialite who was having her birthday party at the house. The set decoration and costumes are very well done, bravo Hallmark. She leaves the party briefly to break up with her long-time love who is the chauffeur. They live in two different worlds and are not meant to be. No Sybil and Tom from Downtown Abbey here. We learn that Ruby was killed in an auto accident shortly thereafter, and died regretting her break up and still loving Charlie the Chauffeur. How do we know this? From Ruby! She is a ghost, still lives in the house, and has been scaring off potential new owners ever since her parents died. But something has changed. For the first time, someone can see and interact with her, and it is Anna. Why? What is going on?

The women go from antagonists to friends, working together to get the house into the right hands, i.e. buyers who will not tear it down. Ruby determines to help Anna reunite with Elliot because she senses that if that can happen she can pass over to be with Charlie. But is he waiting for her on the other side or did he move on and find new love after her death?

Humor is provided by Ruby’s first appearances to Anna, her matchmaking efforts, and her introduction and reactions to life in the 21st century. There is some drama with Anna trying to overcome her issues with her relationships with Elliot and her father and trying to save the beautiful house from destruction that selling it would guarantee, thanks to her overbearing and money-grubbing parent. The friendship between ghost and girl is the main focus of this movie. After everything comes to a head, the rather touching and romantic ending reveals why Anna and Ruby had a special connection.

This was a pretty good one, but had some weaknesses that were worrisome to me.

**Spoilers ahead**

Anna does a lot of research into Ruby’s life, but why did she not go back to the library to help Ruby find out what became of Charlie? Anna finds some valuable letters in the attic written to Ruby from F. Scott Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and Josephine Baker which help her save the house in the end. But who owns them? I assume her father’s real estate company owns the house since they mentioned just wanting to flip it. But how and from whom did they get it and with all those valuable letters, not to mention antiques still moldering away inside undiscovered? It is never explained why Anna had emotional problems that caused her relationship with Elliot to fizzle and to let her father run roughshod over her. The connection between Charlie and Elliot was nicely done, but the conclusion would have been more effective if there had been a secret familial connection between Anna and Ruby as well. Connecting the two couples more completely would have added a real “Wow” factor to that ending. As always with Hallmark, bothersome plot holes and unanswered questions could have been easily fixed with a few easy tweaks.

**End spoilers**

All of the actors were fine, but special kudos to William Vaughn who played slimy Terrence and Madeleine Arthur who played Ruby. She is a dead ringer for Christina Ricci who recently portrayed Zelda Fitzgerald in an Amazon Prime series. I can’t believe that was a coincidence and did lend a certain something to her portrayal.

This was a 7-star movie for entertainment value (on my special Hallmark scale), but I’m adding an extra star for Hallmark’s effort in trying something new and making a pretty darn good job of it.