Stop and Smell the Flowers

I found this movie to be perfectly fine, overall, with one big glaring overarching problem that drove me absolutely batshit throughout the whole thing. But somehow, it didn’t overshadow the overall pleasantness of the main and side characters and the plot. Also it was very spring-y.

Laci J. Malley plays Allie, the city manager who is also in charge of parks, in the cute little town of Springville, which forcibly reminded me of The Gilmore Girls’ Star’s Hollow. Especially with some of the goings on that are going on. She is the busy busy busy type going at top speed all the time so she can get everything on her plate done as expediently as possible. She doesn’t want to miss anything. This personality trait is blamed on her hippie mother and her very casual parenting style which caused Allie to miss out on a lot of school trips because of missing permission slips. I could relate. She meets Ryan, the love interest, when he writes her a ticket for jaywalking. Ryan is a rookie cop and is just in Springville for 6 months until he can re-interview for a job in nearby Seattle. Ryan is a little bit of an unusual character for a love interest. He is overly conscientious about following all of the rules, taking his duties way too seriously. He got fired from the traffic division because the tickets he wrote were so detailed they were holding up the processing. The woman he reports to advises him to lighten up and relax. Springville isn’t exactly the murder capital of the world, and community and connection with the citizens are more of a priority than writing tickets. He’s the kind of character that, in a mystery or police procedural, would be the real main detective (and hero’s) Man Friday who maybe isn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer but is hardworking, earnest, and well-meaning. His initial “Dudley Do-Right” qualities are reflected by his physicality. He is the “square-jawed” very muscular type of handsome and his uniform fits him very snugly. Strangely, Hallmark couldn’t find a way to take his shirt off, but there is a yoga scene.

The plot revolves around Allie and Ryan trying to solve kind of an intriguing mystery. The town is the recipient of a huge grant which will be used to revitalize the little town contingent on honoring a “VanWilkinson”, presumably a relative of the source of the grant, with a memorial fountain in the town park. The fountain has been planned to be set in the location that the town gazebo currently occupies and demolition has been scheduled. But on the day of the demise of the gazebo, a piano suddenly and mysteriously appears in the doomed structure. And the incident must be investigated by our rookie cop, working with Allie, before the gazebo is demolished, because the piano might be stolen, making the gazebo a possible crime scene. So, as they investigate, a romance is born. The chemistry between the two was excellent.

To make a long story short, the townspeople love the piano! A dance class practice is moved to the park to dance outside to the music, park walkers walk to the tinkling of the ivories, outdoor concerts spring up, marriage proposals are staged, and in a sweet side story, a teenage boy discovers his true calling is piano-playing not football. Every time the piano is hauled away to make way for demolition, another one appears to replace it! How? Why? Who?  It soon becomes obvious to everyone, even the mayor, that the piano is a blessing to the community and should stay there in the gazebo. But what about the grant? Everyone is tearing their hair out trying to think of a solution to the conundrum even as I, and every other viewer I’m sure, is shouting at their TV screens to just put the damn fountain somewhere else in the park! The grant says “in the park” it does not specify the longitude and latitude of the exact location of the gazebo! 

I won’t give away who is responsible for the piano in the gazebo or why. But a solution other than the obvious easy answer that concerned viewers have been yelling at them for an hour, is eventually found. Of course, Ryan does not move to Seattle, learns to lighten up, and starts a promising relationship with Allie, who learns to slow down and smell the flowers. It was a nice Hallmark. 7 stars.