Movies, etc.

‘Tis the Season for Setups

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It’s the Acting, Stupid!

This movie premiered Friday night October 16th, and marked the official beginning of Hallmark’s “Countdown to Christmas.” So we have two couples here, and a daughter. We are introduced to a mother/daughter duo (Barbara Niven and Amanda Shull) and a father/son (John Lowe and Victor Webster). Of the mother/daughter team, Amanda plays Lexi who is uptight, very organized, risk-adverse, and everything that that entails. She makes lists and then laminates them. Her mother June is a world traveler and a fun free spirit and everything that that entails. We have the same dynamic with the father and son except the son (Victor Webster as Ridge) is the fun-loving, easily distracted, and sometimes unreliable one, and his father Dan, is the more down to earth buckled down one. This dynamic between the potential couples is a Hallmark favorite, along with the old reliable pursuit of Work/Life balance. They often go together. Lexi’s daughter doesn’t have too much to do except to make Lexi feel bad through most of the movie that she is not “the fun one,” and was too serious and focused on work to be fully present for her daughter while she was growing up.

Dan owns a ski-lodge where his son is now working. There is friction between them because Ridge’s fly by the seat of his pants approach means that sometimes tasks are not completed on time and bills are paid a little late. Ridge feels his father doesn’t trust him and his ways and is over controlling. Dan is throwing a big Christmas Party for his guests and through mutual friends hires Lexi who is a party planner. It isn’t long before Ridge and Lexi, seeing the rapport their parents have despite their opposite personalities, start conspiring to get them together, hoping they will balance each other out. Ridge hopes that this will get his father off his back and Lexi hopes a serious relationship will keep her mother at home. Needless to say, Dan and June are not the only ones to fall in love and learn from each other. The romances practically write themselves. I would say “no surprises here!” but in fact there is a little fun twist at the end.

This one really worked for me. The plot was nothing new, but the acting was terrific. Amanda Schull brought a vulnerability to her rigid super-capable character that was touching. She often had a sad and confused look when dealing with her mother and daughter which made me really feel for her. But she was funny too. There is a scene with her laminator that….Well. Victor Webster has never looked more attractive and though I mostly sympathized with his father’s frustrations, I couldn’t help but like him. The tension between his mature and commanding looks and his light way with a line was disarming.  John Lowe brought enough jolliness to his role that his pushiness never got too much. And of course Barbara Niven was wonderful as always. She is one of the best Hallmark actresses and stole every scene she was in. I thought the chemistry between the two couples was engaging, but I felt like the romance was secondary to them embracing their own good qualities but also learning some balance. But this was Amanda Schull’s movie. After she starts loosening up a bit, her daughter tells her, “You’re so cool, Mom!” Her surprised and gratified reaction was priceless.  Her stability and hard work helped her raise a great kid who also thinks she is cool. Wow. Is that every parent’s dream? It was a solid start to Christmas Movie season.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

Holiday Touchdown: A Bears Love Story

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The Windy City is Mighty Pretty

This is the third Holiday Touchdown movie Hallmark has done in what appears to be a #CountdowntoChristmas tradition in the making. The previous two…well let’s not go there. Except that the second one was better than the first, and I didn’t much like it thanks to a super-dumb story line involving the secondary love story. I was actually looking forward to this one because I am very partial to the two leads, Robert Buckley who plays Fireman Matt, and Lyndsy Fonseca who plays Avery, a freelance journalist. They did not disappoint, thank goodness. Although not spectacular, this one was the best of the bunch. They are trending upward, at least.

NYC-based Avery is on vacation in Chicago visiting her mother who has recently re-married Ron, a local sports bar owner. Our Heroine is a little discombobulated, because she still misses her late father, and the mother she reunites with at Ron’s bar, is now a sports Bears fan and really loves her new life helping her husband run the bar. She is fully emersed in her whole new community and set of friends. Avery feels out of place in her mother’s life now, and understandably is cautious about fully embracing her nice welcoming Step-Dad. While waiting for her Mom to end her shift*, she has a no-spillage meet-cute with a guy at the bar. Later, she meets up with her ex-boyfriend who works for the Chicago Herald, and she agrees to do a story on a local woman who is about to attend her 500th Bears game. Her first point of contact is her grandson who has been emailing the Herald about doing a story about his grandma’s fast approaching milestone. He turns out to be the same guy she liked at the bar! It turns out that he and his grandmother, along with her very active friend group, are good friends with her mom, new step dad, and their crowd. They are all just like one big happy family! Even though Avery is happy for her Mom’s new life, this still kind of adds to her feelings of alienation, symbolized by her Mom not baking their traditional sugar cookies and baking ginger cookies instead. Yes, the ubiquitous baking/bonding montage is definitely in their future. We meet Matt’s grandmother, Darlene, who is described as a “sparkplug” who “makes friends wherever she goes”, and she turns out to be Marsha Mason of The Goodbye Girl and other Neil Simon scripted plays and movies! Her character could have been super annoying, but played by the accomplished actress, she was beautiful, wonderful, and charming. She also looks years younger than the actor who plays her son, Matt’s Dad. It’s not his fault, it’s just weird casting. While writing the article about Darlene, Matt and Avery build on their initial attraction and fall into “really really like” against the Chicago background, ably assisted by the matchmaking efforts of his grandmother.

**Spoilers**

By the end, Avery and her mother have a heart-to-heart and bake the cookies and Avery turns out to be a “Cornhole Savant” thus bonding with Ron, her mother’s new husband. There is an absolutely hilarious scene at a Cornhole Tournament parodying a classic cliche which is a fixture in all sports movies. You’ll know it when you see it. I am happy to report that the last minute drama before the HEA is not provided by a stupid misunderstanding between Avery and Matt, but by Darlene possibly missing “Da Bears” planned half time tribute to her on the Jumbotron. She made it in time thanks to Matt borrowing a firetruck to careen through the curiously empty (Thank God!) streets of Chicago to get her there. Avery is offered a position at the Chicago Herald which blows away the dark cloud of the perilous long-distance-relationship for the new couple.

Knowing that these football movies will attract a lot of viewers that may not necessarily be Hallmark fans, and, in fact, may indeed be Hallmark-averse, the producers include a lot of scenes to interest those viewers. As with the others, here, there is a lot of talk about Chicago attractions, food, and such, including locations filmed in Chicago to entertain fans of The Windy City. And of course they also do a great job catering to Bears fans with enough history, lore, artifacts, and talk to delight the most rabid devotee. Drifting in and out of various scenes are real retired and beloved Bears players and current star players, many with actual speaking lines. Sadly, we have to be satisfied with just a statue of Mike Ditka (RIP, Iron Mike.) The Irish Nobleman Pub which plays a big part of the story, is a real iconic Chicago institution, although it was never owned by Mike Ditka as the movie fictionally claims. There were welcome cameos by Hallmark regulars Tamara Mobley-Housely and Marilu Henner as well as the same Santa Claus (Abraham Benrubi) that was in the previous Holiday Touchdown movies.

Hallmark seemingly consults with football experts before deciding which football team they will feature in their Countdown to Christmas schedule and pick one that is likely to be successful. So far, being featured in the Holiday Touchdown movie of the year has been more of a curse than a blessing. Here’s hoping for a speedy recovery for Bears’ QB, Caleb Williams who was felled by a torn hamstring in game #2.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.
  • Fun Fact: She is reading a 1921 novel by Edna Ferber set in Chicago. So whoever is responsible for that little set addition, Good For You! It was noticed and appreciated.

The Spirit of Halloween

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A Halloween Carol

When I saw the previews for this, I thought this one had a good chance of being one I really might like. But unfortunately for me it was a case of the previews being the best part of the movie. It was a Halloween version of “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens, the basis of several recent Hallmark Countdown to Christmas movies. Which makes perfect sense, right? After all, the spooky ghosts of the Dickens classic fit right in with a Halloween theme. I really liked what I saw of one of the ghosts, and a scene they showed of Meghan Ory, the lead who played the Scrooge character, was funny and she was cute in it.

Meghan plays Everly, a fashion designer who specializes in wedding dresses. We first see her stalking to work being all Scrooge-y about Halloween and all of its paraphernalia. We soon find out that she was publicly humiliated at the annual Fire Station Halloween Bash many years ago, and that has permanently cast a blight on her Halloweens. Along with that, as is usual with Hallmark heroines, it has caused her to erect walls around herself and close herself off both to love and in her professional life and her other relationships. And also, as usual with these characters, the big traumatic event has something to do with a man. Hallmark heroines are traditionally very fragile flowers when it comes to romantic disappointment. One setback and the whole trajectory of their lives is down the tubes. In addition to keeping Beau (Kevin McGarry), a great guy who loves her, and a fireman to boot, firmly in the friend zone, she has also quashed the ambitions of Tracy, her talented and loyal assistant. Her refusal to avoid risk and otherwise open herself up to change is symbolized by turning down opportunities to make custom Halloween costumes during the season. Specifically, a couples costume, Avocado on Toast, designed by Tracy.

The night before Halloween, Everly is visited by the ghosts of, you know, past, present and future, to show her the error of her ways and help her turn her life around. The ghosts were the best part of the movie, particularly her dead former mentor, Anna Watkins, filling the role of Jacob Marley, and Grant, The Ghost of Christmas, I mean Halloween, Future, played by and Lochlan Quarmby. He had a lot of charisma.

When he takes her 10 years in the future she gets her final wakeup call when he shows her Beau, her childhood “friend”, playing with two little munchkins that she knows are not theirs, because she would be around 50 at this time. So would he, but he apparently found himself a much younger woman. Also her business has been taken over by her continually thwarted assistant and she is relegated to slaving away at her sewing machine all alone in her house. Lessons learned, she emerges on Halloween morning a changed woman, bent on making amends to Tracy and Beau. The Tracy situation goes well, but Beau is not as cooperative as she had hoped. She forgets the lessons learned and proceeds to hide herself under the covers instead of attending the fateful Fire Station Bash. This serves as the 15 minutes-to-go romantic setback and tension builder.

The production values of this movie were up to snuff and of course the Ghosts helping our doomed heroine change the trajectory of her life were a reliable if predictable plot device. The script was OK, though for me, the jokes didn’t land. I enjoyed Meghan Ory’s performance in the short snippets we saw in the preview. I liked her cheerfulness and energy. And she brought that animated performance to the whole role. But that became a problem for me. She maintained that high energy regardless of where she was in her journey with little nuance or modulation. Her crying scenes were unconvincing. Frankly, and I suspect this is an unpopular opinion, her exuberant performance got on my last nerve. I don’t know if it was the actress’s interpretation, or the Director’s, but it didn’t work for me. Unfortunately.

Rating: 6 out of 10.

A Knight to Remember

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“When I Wished for My Heart to be Turned to Stone, I Meant It Metaphorically!”

Hallmark’s time travel romances are amongst some of the best movies that Hallmark has made.* There’s something about the fish out of water trope that practically guarantees humor. I usually can summon up a certain degree of sympathy and empathy for the time travelers while they are being taught a much needed lesson. Which of course translates into a character arc for them or for people around them whom they influence. And then there’s the overarching curiosity and concern over how such an impossible situation is going to be resolved for the happy ending. Unfortunately, with “Knight” the filmmakers’ reach exceeded its grasp. Having a movie about an 15th century English  knight being plopped down into 2026 Chicago, USA was just a little too ambitious. There were just too many difficult hurdles to overcome to make a movie believable enough for me to  suspend disbelief and engage my full interest and investment. It could have been done, but time and money are too often an obstacle with Hallmark. Although pretty good, with an often cute script, they glossed over way too many improbabilities and plot holes to list. It was cute and at least it was different. So Hallmark does get props for that. I appreciate it when they rock the boat a bit and try something new.

The story opens in 1428 with Sir Griffin of Beauford, a knight with a 21st century haircut, on the eve of his arranged marriage to Lady Beatrice. He is on a hill gazing at the stars and consulting with his dead mother who is also up there somewhere. All of a sudden the stars and planets start moving together and as they are aligning, he wishes that his heart would turn to stone until “he finds what makes it whole.” By which he means finding true love, obviously, which is apparently not Lady Beatrice. He promptly and literally turns into a stone statue. Thanks, Mom. Flash forward to a museum in Chicago where our heroine is receiving a newly discovered medieval stone statue that she is to clean and restore for an exhibition. She uncovers a message on the statue that says “I Shall Not Wake But By the Kiss.” Being a normal girl, of course she kisses the statue, and low and behold the statue comes to life. Guess who? It is our handsome and noble knight in the flesh! The usual antics ensue. She takes him back to her “chambers” where he marvels over cars (foul beasts) indoor plumbing (“indoor rain as hot or cold as one likes!”), and modern appliances, (How can there be warmth with no fire?!) The fashion choices of 21st century women and men are strangely unremarked upon. Naturally he goes walkabout when she goes back to work the next morning, and rescues a kite from a tree and catches a robber  while on a borrowed stallion, to the admiring gazes of the female audience. Emily finds him while panicking on the phone with her best friend (Methinks I have found my quarry!) and in a nod to the “Fall into Love” Hallmark theme, she introduces him to Pumpkin Spice Lattes. (It’s a kind of gourd.) All of this is complicated by Emily (of Porter) and “Griffin”, who were caught leaving the museum by the surveillance cameras, being accused of stealing the stone statue by the FBI. And the investigating agent just happens to be her very unlikable ex-husband who has caused her to be love-averse. Hello?! Conflict of Interest! Hello?! How could they possibly carry out an 800 lb. marble statue out of the building in full view of cameras? Hello?! He broke into her apartment without a warrant looking for evidence! The eyebrows of even a casual fan of police procedurals would spike at any one of these faux pas. And I am not a casual fan. Anyway, with the help of her best friend Ivy, who an astrology fan and in on the whole thing, they discover (long story that didn’t bear thinking about too hard) that the same alignment of planets that turned him into a statue is going to repeat in 3 days. If he doesn’t want to be turned back into stone forever, his true love must admit her love before the fateful hour.

A lot of prominent Hallmark actors took part in this movie. Julie Gonzalo plays Emily and as usual, she was just fine. Her real life husband, Chris McNally, had a small cameo, and the harried museum director was played by Matty Finochio (Welcome back!). Britt Irvin was great as Emily’s best friend, Ivy, who has a bit of a secondary romance with a Renfaire guy. Sir Griffin was played by James Trevena in his first foray into Hallmarkland as the lead, but I hope not his last. He was very handsome and perfectly cast as the romantic Knight. But he was also good in the role and quite endearing. He made a nice statue as well. Ivy’s brother who was also a much needed lawyer, is played by David James Lewis who is a very familiar face. He plays a good guy in this one. Even the tiny role of the apartment janitor was played by Liza Huget whose been in like over 12 other Hallmarks.

**Mild Spoilers**

After Emily and Sir Griffin are cleared of all charges thanks to Ivy’s brother, and Sir Griffin is saved from being permanently turned into stone, he is sent on a world tour. The museum made an exhibit featuring him playing Sir Griffin of Beauford and Emily will be coming along as the permanent curator. Imagine that. The whole resolution and ending had a “Well…Bye!” feel about it, leaving many unanswered questions.  Like how was Griffin going to get a passport for his world tour?

Rating: 7 out of 10.

*My 10 Favorite Time Travel Hallmarks (in very rough order)

Pumpkin Regatta Romance

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Rise of the Giant Squashes

To say I was dubious about this one is an understatement. I mean, A regatta race using giant hollowed out pumpkins as boats? Come on, now. All I could think of was the slime.  I thought this was one of those spurious Hallmark disconnects from reality that many of their movies are based on. But to my surprise, Pumpkin Regattas are a real thing! (in the far north like Oregon, Maine and Canada, far far from where I live.) They actually work as boats and are not as unstable and precarious as they look. The portrayal of the role of the giant pumpkins in the plot of this movie was actually fairly authentic. Unlike the actual squashy props. But thanks to the acting and the fall vibes, I enjoyed this movie.

Nadine is determined to bring back the Pumpkin Regatta after her recently widowed father and Andrew, his former best friend and co-founder of the regatta, cancelled it. They got into a fight when Andrew accidentally bumped George’s giant floating gourd during the race and George accused him of doing it on purpose to cheat him and win the race. Nadine is disgusted that the childish feud between her dad George and Andrew is depriving the whole community of an event that everyone looked forward to every year. And Andrew’s son, Ethan, her youthful crush, agrees with her. I was pretty disgusted as well. Grumpy old men who try to control their grown children are a pet peeve of mine in Hallmark movies. Also, George hates change and refuses to let Nadine make modern improvements to their marina boat shop. Another pet peeve. Along with their friends, Nadine and Ethan start to organize the event behind George and Andrew’s backs. And the stakes are a little higher this year because they decided to make it a fund-raising event to help the son of a public-spirited but poor single mother send her son to University. I was all for this sneaky behavior, because why should two silly old coots have all that say over whether a community event goes forward or not? Well, unfortunately, as Nadine and Andrew find out, they can’t get the permit without George’s signature, as he owns the land and marina where the festivities must take place. Ethan’s Dad is retired from the farm that grows the pumpkins. Ethan now runs it, but he and his supportive mother still try to keep him out of the loop to avoid unpleasantness. So that’s the set up. Ethan and Nadine re-ignite their romance while running around organizing everything and baking Cake Pops while keeping their leafy, crafty, pumpkin-y, apple-cidery, and fire-pit activities a secret from their fathers. Not to mention their budding relationship. Nadine hopes against hope that once her Dad is presented with a fait accompli, the community enthusiasm, and all the work she put into it, that he will sign the permit allowing the regatta to take place.

It was all pretty standard stuff for a Hallmark, but what made this movie special and enjoyable were the actors and the writing. Nadine is played by Emmy-winning Mishael Morgan who was one of the stars of last year’s  little 4 parter, Hearts Around the Table. She was very likable and very good in this. Her chemistry with Corey Sevier who played Nathan was natural and believable. Corey Sevier is one of my favorite Hallmark stars and he was great as usual. Loved the flannel and the puffy vests. The young actor who played Sam, the hopeful recipient of the college money raised by the regatta, was a cutie pie and very sweet. Ethan’s Mom was played by Paula Boudreau. She took a nothing part and made it charming and interesting. And to top it all off, a top favorite of mine, Jake Epstein, had a small part as The Mayor, who had a yen for Nadine. At the end it appears that there might be a romance on the horizon between him and Ethan’s “good friend,” Lola who fit into the plot as the owner of an apple farm. Nadine was jealous of her but also tried to push Ethan off on her. Long story.  Of course I hated the antics of the two Dads, but finally moved by some plain truth telling by their loved ones, their contrition and their apologies to each other were so sincere that I couldn’t help but like them in the end. Their reconciliation scene was well written and satisfying. As were the fathers’ make-up scenes with Nadine and Ethan. George also added to the general happy atmosphere at the end by putting Nadine in charge of his business and embracing change. And the Giant Pumpkins were so-o-o-o-o fake, but also funny, and kind of awesome. Rounding up to **8 stars**. They took a gimmicky nothing idea and made it good.

Rating: 8 out of 10.

Falling Into Place

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Falling Peacefully to Sleep.

This was the same, yet different. It included all of the usual Hallmark clichés and plot points that loyal watchers have come to expect and even rely on for their weekly dose of cozy happy romance. Yet this one took it to a whole other level of comfort and tranquility. We have the successful city girl, Kaia (Alvina August) going back to her small hometown. But she is not on any kind of mission. She is not there to stage a takeover of a beloved institution or recover from a failed romance. Nope. She is just taking a weeks vacation to attend her High School reunion and to visit her Gigi:  BJ Harrison, Hallmark’s go-to when a wise elderly black woman is required. Don’t get me wrong, I love her. She’s great. There were a lot of comforting familiar faces in this one. Kaia’s boss is demanding and always calling her on her phone, but she is not a bully, she’s nice. Kaia’s career is at a turning point, but there is no deadline she has to meet to secure the promotion she has worked for all her life, or to not be fired. In fact, she gets the promotion halfway through the movie. Her boss keeps calling her because Kaia is hesitant to accept, as this is taking her even further away from what she originally loved about the job: helping the little people rather than big corporations.

She meets old high school best friend, James (Nathan Witte), who has a back-to-nature type career, in contrast to her own. They fall in love while reconnecting trying to complete their High School bucket list. Is a bucket list for 18-year-olds a thing? I don’t think so. But it is Hallmark, after all. Their mission is to check off such aspirational endeavors such as “Win the Maplecrest Scarecrow Contest,” “Obtain the Super-Secret Recipe for the Apple Cider Doughnuts at the Mill,” “Make Mr. Winters Smile,” and “Win King and Queen of the Harvest.” The easy stuff, like “Jump into a Pile of Leaves,” had already been checked off 20 years ago. Like Kaia, James has no tragic romantic history to explain why he is still single at 38 when he is so eligible as far as looks, character, and professional success. There are not even any interested townswomen waiting to swoop down upon him like birds of prey. They just have a nice rekindling of their relationship with a few almost kisses. No lies, conflicts of interest, or secrets to complicate things. The only roadblock is that James lives in Maplecrest and Kaia life so far is in the city.

Kaia has a pregnant best friend of contrasting ethnicity who owns some kind of old-timey store with so many autumn flavored tchotchkes and decorations that I couldn’t really figure out what she sold there. Gigi is selling her house and set to move into an assisted living facility, but it is not against her will. In fact, she can’t wait to get to there with all its fancy amenities. The real estate agent is not greedy and looking to rip her off, but is the husband of Kaia’s best friend. So no stress there either.

There is a flirty baking scene. And there is a Fall Festival! But it doesn’t need to be saved, nor to raise money to save something else. There was that reliable little last minute drama in Kaia and James’ relationship but it was very little and not a stupid misunderstanding. James declares himself and wants to take their friendship to the next level but Kaia is still set on returning to the big city and her promotion (kinda), and is afraid of losing her friendship with James if something goes wrong in their romance. That was pretty weak, because no history of romantic disappointments had been established that might justify her fear of commitment.

Thanks to her best friend and her wise grandmother, Kaia does see the light and takes another position in her company that allows her to work remotely so she can stay in Maplecrest. And, Bonus! She can get back to helping needy small businesses instead of unappreciative Big Businesses. So Handy!

Anyway, this was an 84 minute masterpiece of calm, stress-free, and predictable viewing, amply decorated (but not too tackily) with Fall embellishments. James even wears at least one flannel shirt. Unfortunately it was so calm that I kept falling asleep. It took me hours to get through the whole thing, and even so, in my re-winding and fast forwarding I may have missed some important points. If this is the case, I apologize. I prefer the Hallmarks that are more out of the box and with a little suspense and drama. But I can certainly appreciate the appeal of ones like these. It didn’t make me mad or trigger contempt or disdain, so I’m giving it 7 stars.

Rating: 7 out of 10.

Much About Love

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Much Ado

About a Shrew

This one requires a complicated set up so I’ll get right to it. Bea (Ashley Williams) is a successful television director who has returned to her mother’s annual Shakespeare Festival to direct the last play staged for that summer, The Taming of the Shrew. Her mother tells her this is her last season heading the Festival which is the impetus for Bea (Bee-a) confessing that she has been wanting  to take over for her mother once she retired. They learn that not only does her contract to do that rest on whether her Taming of the Shrew turns out to be a critical and financial success, but that the continuation of the festival itself is at stake. Someone wants to buy it and the board is willing to sell it unless Bea can show she can successfully take over from her mother and insure its continued success.   Bea and company are not too worried because Bea is an experienced director and she has gotten a famous award winning television actress, Hannah Michaels, to play Kate. Hannah wants to boost her acting cred by doing Shakespeare on the stage and there has been a lot of publicity about it already. As for Bea’s love interest, to Bea’s dismay, the actor her mother has already hired to play Petruchio is well-known actor Benny Gersten (Niall Matter) with whom Bea had a romance 20 years ago while they were young actors playing Romeo and Juliet. Benny returns to the festival every year to recharge. It has been awhile since he and Bea have met but their relationship has always been rocky stemming not only from their break-up but their differing approaches to Shakespeare. They bicker a lot. Kind of like…well, you know. Before rehearsals begin, Benny tells Bea that he thinks it would be better for all concerned if he played a smaller role and let another actor, Clay, have the leading role. This seems to be because he can’t tolerate Bea’s non-traditional approach to Shakespeare but didn’t make a lot of sense. It did have the benefit of making the Kate/Petruchio pairing more age appropriate as Niall Matter is old enough to be Lindura’s (the actress playing Hannah/Kate’s) father. It also sets up the secondary romance between Clay and Hannah (Claudio and Hero).

I liked this one quite a lot. Hallmarks based on great works of literature always have a head start with me. And this features two of them! Niall Matter and Ashley Williams worked well together and their romantic pairing was believable and engaging. We get a lot of The Taming of the Shrew during Bea’s directing and rehearsals, and a bit of the contentious relationship between Kate and Petruchio is reflected in Benny and Bea. I appreciated that the modern troubles staging this play, which, after all, is based on domestic abuse, were addressed. Bea’s reading is not an unusual one, to get around the dilemma. As far as the play this movie is supposedly based on, Much Ado About Nothing, there are almost enough connections for it to be called a modern retelling. Barely. The names are similar (Bea/Beatrice and Benny/Benedict). Both couples relationship is contentious based on their history. Also, the company, recognizing that beneath their snarky banter, the two are actually a perfect match, trick them into believing that each are hiding romantic feelings for the other. This leads to a truce between the two which gives them room to develop a relationship. Also there was a masquerade ball. 

But I didn’t feel the connections between the Shakespeare play and this movie really shone through in this story. The tropes in “Much Ado” are now all too common and oft repeated. There were too many differences and it was kind of confused by the other Shakespeare play which was more a part of the story. Why couldn’t the play they were putting on be “Much Ado” and not “Taming”? There was too much other unrelated stuff going on, including Hannah’s surprising ineptness in her role. Though likable, she was kind of a flake. Was Hero a flake in the Shakespeare play? I’m afraid I don’t know. She is having trouble learning her lines and is more interested in flirting with Clay than focusing on the play. Bea is concerned because she sees her own experience playing Juliet to Benny’s Romeo 20 years prior. She had let her feelings for him override her focus on her role resulting in bad reviews which caused her to quit acting and focus on directing. And then we have the big crisis of Hannah quitting the play and running off when she finds out the whole future of the festival rests on her being a success as Kate. I mean, really? She is supposed to be a professional. The whole episode was dumb, including why she came back.  But despite the distractions, this was pretty entertaining thanks to the jam-packed plot and bright script. I should probably watch it again to look for more shout outs to “Much Ado.” I’m sure I must have missed some. I love the way “William Shakespeare” is credited as a writer of this movie on IMDb. The Bard can rest easy now.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

Love Finds You

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“Woo-Woo” Wooing

Although there were some good things about this movie, it was pretty much sabotaged by the premise, which was contrived and absurd. It’s like the writers had the idea for the male and female to fall in love on a delivery truck while on a quest for the owner of a mysterious package who is someone on the driver’s route.  But since they couldn’t think of a reason to get her on the truck, they decided to put fantasy and magic in there so no one would question how the plot didn’t make sense because it had fantasy and magic in it. It’s magic. It’s fantasy. It isn’t reality. So it does not have to make sense. Right? Wrong. Magic always makes sense, even in a Hallmark. Magic is the doing of a magical person like Santa Claus, or an elf, an angel, or a ghost of a loved one. Or it comes from a magical object, like a magic dreidel, or lemon drop, or comet, or baked goods (so, so many). There are probably others, but the point is, it always has a reason for being. Not in this one. All we get is a musical chord one time, a bar code scanner that is behaving mysteriously,  and some shout outs to “fate” and “destiny ” to try to explain the unexplainable.

Alex Brown (Aimee Teagarden) is a Jewelry Designer who has a knack for customizing jewelry to reflect in some way the personality and history of her clients. They or the loved one fills out a questionnaire about themselves or the giftee and she designs a piece that is exactly right.  She also has had a string of unhappy love affairs which we hear all about. Thanks to one of her best friends, she has too much wine and does a new age type ceremony that is going viral, called “Fire and Aspire.” This involves burning the artifacts left by old boyfriends (Alex conveniently has a whole box full) and saying out loud or “manifesting” the qualities she really wants in a boyfriend. The next day, she receives a purple box delivered by Jack, her regular delivery guy (Chris McNally) who is a grumpy curmudgeon who also has an unhappy romantic history. Alex has been unable to befriend him with her cutesy post-it notes and cupcakes. She does not have a romantic interest in him per se, she just wanted to be friendly and get him to unbend a little because she is the perky sunshine type. It’s the “Grumpy-Sunshine” trope. He only cares about delivering his packages in good condition and on time and has no interest in “customer service,” i.e. being friendly and pleasant. He is also one of two top runners in a contest his employer is having, the prize being enough money to pay off the remainder of his sister’s college loan.

Back to the purple package. When Alex opens it, every item in there reflects an aspect of every quality she wished for in a man during the ceremony the night before. So the other “Alex Brown” this package is meant for must be her soulmate. She and her friends confront Jack with the package that was delivered to her by mistake but won’t give it back to him because they want to find and meet the Alex Brown it was meant for. They force Jack’s hand, but when Jack scans the barcode on the label,  no address comes up. The scanner is being spooky. To make a long and annoying episode short, this is how Alex gets to wheedle herself aboard Jack’s delivery truck. Where she procedes to whine, make demands, and stick her nose in his business. There are several other Alex Browns on his route, (what are the chances?) but none of them are the right guy. Meanwhile, Jack displays by his words and actions that he  actually possesses all of the qualities she wished for in a man. Alex shows him how being more personable can win him the contest, and they fall in love. The romance wasn’t bad, but other than that, it was just one stupid thing after another.

So what were the good things about this movie I mentioned? I really liked Chris McNally in this. He made a great curmudgeon. Even when he transformed into the typical Hallmark hero (all too soon), he was still good. I thought Aimee Teagarden was kind of miscast as the perky sunshine type, but she ended up being just fine, even though her character was super irritating. The side characters were positives and the pacing was good. Despite the stupidities and the annoyances with the plot elements themselves, the dialogue and conversations were smart and had some wit. Most importantly, it did not rely on the usual Hallmark core plot elements, like saving a beloved institution or the last minute misunderstanding to hang the story on.

**Major Spoilers**

So do we ever get to the bottom of what was behind the appearance of the magical box? Yes we do! It turns out it was all a big coincidence! There really was an Alex Brown who ordered all of the items that pointed to him being the other Alex’s soulmate. And his order was mistakenly delivered to the one and only of the many other Alex Browns in the area who had just “manifested” everything the box contained. It was just that his delivery area was just annexed. Coincidence! But too bad for him,  Alex was already in love with Jack, so he ends up with Megan, Alex’s best friend. Also, Jack ends up winning the contest even though he dropped out the day before. So many unanswered “But-What-About???s”. Even though many probably don’t, I didn’t like the way Hallmark just took for granted that their viewership wouldn’t notice or care about so many nonsensical things in this movie. And this includes how Megan is going to navigate having both the love of her life and her best friend having the same name. I guess it’s better than a match between Alex Brown and Alex Brown.

Rating: 5 out of 10.

Aussie at Heart

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Nice Yacht!

One good thing about these ones that are set in faraway lands is that we almost inevitably avoid the bone tired tent poles that too many Hallmark movies are propped up by. I don’t have to list them, do I? This one is set on a small yacht travelling along the coast of Queensland, Australia. Samara Hughes, an event planner and former lawyer, has been hired by her friend and former colleague to plan the details for her parents’ 40th wedding anniversary celebration Down Under, where they met and married. They will be visiting the places that marked the high spots of their courtship, culminating with a renewal of their vows. The captain of the yacht is also a former colleague and friend, Nate, played by real life Australian Daniel Lissing, who is more famous for playing a Canadian Mountie or an American in other Hallmark and Hallmark-clone productions. At least, that’s how I know him. Samara is played by Rhiannon Fish. I have to admit, I have not been a fan of hers thanks to some of the mannerisms and expressions she uses as an actor that she carries over from movie to movie. They were absent from this movie for some reason, possibly because she was playing a capable mature adult rather than a character with strong gormless nitwit overtones. I liked her just fine in this one and hope she has moved on from her previous affectations.

Anyway,  Samara’s friend Liv and her husband were all lawyers at the same firm as Nate and Samara. Nate left Seattle where they all were based,  to work with his brother in their Australian Yacht Tour business when his Dad got sick. It is a temporary thing with Nate, but Samara’s switch in profession is a permanent one. Event planning has always been her dream. She is just getting started but is very good at it. She was also excellent at being a lawyer. We know that her leaving that career had something to do with a falling out with Nate, the nature of which is revealed in the course of the movie. Escaping the influence of her overbearing lawyer father was apparently a factor as well.

So we have 3 couples on the yacht, 2 of them deliriously happy: The wise older couple celebrating their courtship and marriage, the younger one, who we learn are pregnant, and Samara and Nate, the estranged couple, who are destined, with the help of the first two couples, to also be a happy couple by the end of the movie. Need I say more? Just a little bit. In this romance, Samara is the well-adjusted one (“The Fish” playing against type) and Nate is the one with the hang-ups and issues that he has to tackle before he can have his happy ending. His issues are all related to each other but are all about control: He is very risk adverse and all about staying on the prescribed path and following the rules. Set against the beautiful Northern Queensland coastline, the unhappy couple work out their problems and fall in love. We learn why they fell out and I must say, if I were Samara, I am not sure I would have forgiven him quite so easily. I almost always have a problem with the big last minute conflict and this one was no exception. Of course it was Nate’s fault, and given all of their talks and what he knew about Samara, it made no sense whatsoever. Let’s just say good ol’ Nate has a lot more work to do on himself (and with a good therapist involved). There was also a big conflict over whether to launch a fireworks display from the stern of their boat which should have been worked out between the two on Day One. Seemed like a no brainer to me (NO!), but whatever. A last minute alternative safer plan ensured the movie ended with the requisite pyrotechnics as the background to the final kiss. This one was pretty standard Hallmark fare: Some good positives, like the scenery, and no deal-breaking problems other than the predictable, if unusually befuddling conflict at the end. And it was a little on the boring side. **6 1/2 stars**

Rating: 6.5 out of 10.

Absolutely Devoted to You

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Sustad to the Rescue

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**Sigh of Relief** Thank you, Kimberly Sustad for coming to Hallmark’s rescue after a string of sub-par movies (in my opinion). She is a treasure that can transform a plain throwaway line like “I’m Leaving” into part of a witty repartee that not only makes you laugh, but gives the viewer another layer to her character, already bursting with charm and likability. When she is in a Hallmark movie you know that she will make a good movie pretty great and a so-so movie pretty good. What can I say? She is just a terrific actress. She gives any character she plays charisma and authenticity. And that is hard to come by.

She plays Kaitlin, a segment producer for a morning show whose executive producer is retiring. Kaitlin wants the job not only because she is an ambitious go-getter, but because if they bring in someone from the outside he or she will bring their own team, jobs will be lost, and her little behind-the-scenes family will be broken up. Her promotion depends on the show’s end of summer big bash being a big success and beating the other morning show in the ratings. To that end, Kaitlin latches on to the can’t miss idea of bringing back a boy’s band who had a massive hit in the 1990s, but strangely disappeared from the music scene after their first album. The band, and particularly the lead singer, Derrick (Jesse Metcalfe), is beloved by Merrie, the influential co-host. If Kaitlin can reunite the band to perform on her show, Kaitlin’s promotion is assured. While 3 of the 4 members of the band prove easy to find, friendly, and obliging, Derrick, the linchpin, does not. Kaitlin finally tracks him down in a small Long Island community center where he serves as the director while fiercely protecting his hard-won anonymity. It was he that was responsible for breaking up the fledging promising band in the first place as he could not handle the fame, pressure, and huge venues which broke the connection he felt with his audience. Unfortunately for him and fortunately for Kaitlin, the community center is struggling. To raise money, they are putting on a variety show featuring a talented band of 4 teens that Derrick is mentoring. This didn’t make a lot of sense. He is coaching them to be good but not so good as to be successful. Because their lives will be ruined like his was. Oh well. Unfortunately (or fortunately) sales are slow and Derrick agrees that he will “think about” joining his former bandmates on the morning show, if Kaitlin can take the variety show in hand and make it a financial success. 

** Spoilers**

While a romance built around a struggling community center is not exactly an original idea for a Hallmark (insert sardonic laughter), the rest of the plot elements added new wrinkles and had more than the usual entertainment value. The 4 teens were talented and their musical number was cute once it was whipped into shape by the “world famous choreographer” that Kaitlin brings in to help. One of the boys is sad because his military father can’t get leave to come home for his and his wife’s 25th anniversary party until Kaitlin intervenes. Her assistant Sara, played by the talented and likable Meghan Heffern and TJ, one of the old band members, fall into insta-love. Of course we have the mystery and angst of Derrick’s anxiety at possibly being dragged back into the spotlight and his old friends and Kaitlin trying to help with amateur therapy and lecturing. Not surprisingly,  the big secret of his idetity he thought he was hiding was no big secret after all. Everyone was just being polite. Under pressure from her sponsors, Merrie, the giddy co-host and resident loose cannon, announces prematurely and behind Kaitlin’s back that the reclusive mystery-man, Derrick, will definitely take part in the reunion show and perform. This is the “going to hell in a hand basket” part because despite his promise to “think about it”, Derrick never had any intention of joining his bandmates on the TV show. Of course, under Kaitlin’s guidance, the community center variety show is a sell-out. Despite this, in a low point for his character, Derrick weakly refuses to change his mind and help a girl out. I guess technically, he never made a promise to appear, but as all parents know, when you say “I’ll think about it” it means you will. They definitely had a deal. I was pretty disgusted with him but will draw a curtain so as not to be too spoilery about the last 5 minutes of the movie. LOL.

All, and I mean all, of the actors in this effort did a great job and really pushed what could have been a fairly pedestrian Hallmark into “really quite good” territory. In addition to Kimberly Sustad, Lynda Boyd, who played the tough but amiable gatekeeper to the community center and Derrick’s loyal friend, made a nothing part a highlight. Tetiana Ostapowych who played Merry was over-the-top irritating and silly, but that was what her role needed to be. The young teens were great, and the former band members a pleasant and sensible port in a storm. Despite an unnecessary apology and some cheesiness at the very end, Hallmark is back in my good graces. **7 1/2 stars**

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.