A Worthy Cause, A Good Message, But a Not So Great Movie.

No one does cheerful and energetic like Ashley Williams and boy oh boy they picked the right girl for this role.  She plays Natalie who is moving from Miami to Pittsburgh to manage admissions at Carnegie Mellon University. Natalie loves to “get involved”  and fix things. In other people’s lives. She finds fertile ground in her new digs, a condominium of 25 units in the heart of the city. It seems that half of the residents are either at each other’s throats and the other half don’t give a rat’s derriere about what’s going on around them unless it affects their lives. Natalie isn’t having any of that. She is all about community, making friends with the neighbors, and helping. She lives for it.

But she gives a party that no one comes to and parks herself outside the building trying to give her neighbors free muffins to no avail. They sense a trap and don’t fall victim. Not helping matters is her exact opposite, the super of the building, Mark (Paul Campbell). He is good at fixing the plumbing, but fixing the personal lives of the residents, his employers, is above his pay grade. He takes his religion of “not getting involved” very seriously in all aspects of his life. Now you would think this dynamic between the two would result in a sweet romance, witty banter, and comedy. Unfortunately, the lack of chemistry between the two actors put paid to that hope very early on. But Of course, these two are fated to be together forever making each other miserable. Just kidding, they are fated to fall in love and find a happy medium between the two extremes. Thanks to a mutual friend, the owner of a neighborhood diner, Mark starts spending some time with the human steam roller that is Natalie and he is helpless in her path. With his help and advice, she eventually makes progress with her neighbors, mending fences and fostering community and such. And Mark’s protective walls start to crumble.

Meanwhile, since Natalie’s actual job does not start for 6 weeks she has lots and lots of time on her hands. This could have been very dangerous for Pittsburgh, but she finds a grateful and enthusiastic embrace from Carnegie Mellon’s Alzheimer’s association. Their current project is Walk to End Alzheimer’s to shine a light on this disease and raise money for the cause. Natalie could not have found a more worthy channel for her talents and energy. She makes friends with the head organizer of The Walk, Linda. Highlighting the tragedy of this disease, Linda candidly reveals to Natalie that she is a victim of early-onset Alzheimer’s. Vivacious and capable, Linda is played by Linda Kash, who is particularly affecting when she stands with Natalie in front of a photo of herself and wonders who that woman is, because she looks very familiar. Surprisingly, Linda’s advice to Natalie is similar to Mark’s: Stop every so often and take time to care for yourself, find what gives you joy, and do that. Help others, but find fulfillment within, not in investing all of your energy in other people and their business. Stop and smell the roses, or in this case, appreciate the beauty of the autumn leaves. Of course, Mark learns from Natalie’s approach to life and is changed for the better in the other direction.

It is a good message and kudos to Hallmark for basing their movie around such a worthy cause. Unfortunately, they tried to pack in too much to do it with any depth or complexity. More time was needed to develop Natalie and Mark’s relationship and their individual arcs, the neighbors’ subplots and their characters’ journeys and arcs, and of course Linda’s. The romance was blah. Ashley Williams has managed to rein in her smiley ebullience in the last few movies she has starred in and I have really liked her. It all burst forth in this one and it was way too much. Hopefully, she’s gotten it all out of her system for a while.