about Time

Anything dealing with time: time travel, seeing into the future, alternate life, etc.

A Grand Ole Opry Christmas

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A Good Daddy

I didn’t expect this to be as good as it was. Often highly promoted efforts by Hallmark fall a little short for me. But if it gives me some chuckles, and this one did, I am prone to look benevolently on it no matter how much it otherwise annoys me. But if it makes me cry in a good way as well, it might qualify for an 8 thru 10 stars out of 10. And this one certainly did. The story was moving, but that can go for naught if the acting is not there. Thank goodness Nikki Deloach played the lead. She is easily one of the best actresses that works at Hallmark and I have praised her skills before. More than once. Honestly, she has never given a bad performance, even if the movie wasn’t so great. And Kristoffer Polaha, who plays her leading man, has his own acting style which can get a teeny bit old sometimes, but he is one of my favorites anyway. Just because I can see what he’s doing there, doesn’t mean I don’t like what I see. And they were great together. Add in some time travel, and I’m all in.

Gentry Wade (Deloach) is the daughter of a country music star who died when Gentry was just a teenager. She was once an aspiring songwriter, like her Dad, but things got in the way, and she now runs a popular bar and music venue which is a gathering place for Nashville country stars. The 100th anniversary of the Grand Ole Opry is coming up and the legendary duo of Jett Wade (Gentry’s late father) and Von Winters are going to be honored on stage during the annual Christmas show. Gentry has been invited to appear and is encouraged by her “Uncle Von” and her late father’s cousin Rita (the always welcome Sharon Lawrence), who was a talent coordinator for the Grand Ole Opry back in the day. Before his tragic and unexpected death Winters and Wade mysteriously broke up and Von Winters went on to great solo fame. But Gentry is hesitating because she feels she has not earned her right to appear on the hallowed stage as she gave up on her dream to be a songwriter (for what appears to be several reasons). Also in the mix is Mac, (Polaha) a lifelong friend who has returned from L.A. to pursue his successful talent manager career in Nashville.

While all of the talent is preparing for the big Christmas show, Gentry sits down on one of the onstage pews which are reserved for family and friends of performing artists, and she is sent 30 years back in time! It’s the day before the 1995 Christmas concert which was also Winters and Wade’s final appearance together. I’m skipping some steps but Mac follows soon after. Together they spend time with the young Rita. Gentry (who calls herself Jen, because if she had the same name as Jett’s teenage daughter, who is not around, thank heavens, that might be confusing) also gets to reconnect, as an adult, with her beloved father. Also his pal, Winters. At one point she finishes, with the help of her Dad, an old song she started to write as a young girl but never finished. Winters hears it and he is so encouraging, she knows that if she stays in 1995, she will be able to finally pursue her career as a songwriter. So will she stay in the past? Will it be with or without the love of her life, Mac? Why did the legendary duo break up that fateful Christmas in the first place? Will Gentry be re-inspired to try to write again in 2025 (If she goes back, that is)? What would happen if she stayed and met herself as a teenager? The answer to at least one of these questions brought me to tears. And 3 subsequent scenes kept them flowing.

A few things added even more to the overall appeal of this movie. One was the mystery of whether two of the main characters remembered the 2025 Gentry as the 1995 Jen that was a brief part of their lives for one day. From a few things that were said or happened, I’m pretty sure one of them did, but am not so sure about the other. There is even a little hint (not in anything in the script, but in the actor’s subtle performance) that her father might have suspected something. It was a welcome wrinkle to the usual Hallmark where everything is spelled out. I like a little thought provoking mystery, sometimes. Of course, the appearances of real life Nashville stars were entertaining (even if the only one I recognized was Brad Paisley). You could really tell that everyone involved was committed to this production, and was glad to be a part of it. Finally, and I’m not sure I should mention this because I may be the only one, but I saw a great resemblance between the two actors who played the younger Winters and Wade to a Wyatt Earp-era Val Kilmer and present day Leonardo di Caprio. For me, it added a certain Je ne sais quoi. One thing I would have liked was to touch base with the poor Opry Guard who saw Gentry and Mac disappear into thin air. That might have long term consequences. 9 stars thanks to a little “Opry magic.”

Rating: 9 out of 10.

Christmas Above the Clouds

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God Bless Us, Everyone

It’s Countdown to Christmas and time for another remake of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. This makes the third fantasy movie this year for Hallmark and half of its offerings so far. And that’s great, if, like me, you enjoy a little fantasy with your Christmas Romances. But you can stop now, Hallmark. This modern adaptation of the Christmas classic was well done. Ella Neezer is the worst sort of scrooge as the C.E.O. of a successful travel agency (Great Expectations Travel). It is in a huge high rise in New York City with a huge staff, so apparently that business model is not as defunct as I thought it was. Her latest crime against humanity is turning down a marketing campaign that highlights couples in love. “Why can’t we see a nice high powered single woman having the vacation of her life without anyone else around?”. This means that her staff has to work through Christmas on a new one, while she flies first class to Australia on a business trip (turning down, once again, her loving sister’s invitation to spend Christmas with her family in Utah.) Spending Christmas on an airplane suits her just fine as she has nothing but contempt for the holiday. But she is dragging along her personal assistant, Bobbi Cratchet (Emily Tennant), stuffed in coach, poor kid. Bobbi not only will not be able to spend Christmas with her loving family, but with all of the last minute duties Ella gives her, will not even have time to say goodbye to her little son, Tim, who struggles with severe asthma.

Once on the flight, she is barely keeping it together as the flight turns out to be a special Christmas edition full of merry holiday making with a relentlessly cheerful (and singing!) flight staff. All Ella wants is to be left alone peacefully wallowing in her solitude. But to her dismay, she finds herself seated next to her ex-fiancé, Jake (Tyler Hynes). 

Let’s skip to the ghosts. The first one, of course, is Christmas Past, the perkiest flight attendant ever played by Faith Wright, who is adorable. We get a glimpse of Ella and her sister Frances’s neglected childhood, her happy college days with Jake, and how they broke up over her workaholism on Christmas 6 years ago. She learns the reason why Bobbi was late for work one morning which caused Ella to almost fire her. She was in the emergency room all night with her son. Bobbie is struggling financially due to the company’s less than generous health plan. Ella starts to show a bit of humanity and remorse. But just a bit.

The Ghost of Christmas Present shows Ella what her employees and her family really think of her. Her employees hate her and conspire behind her back. Although her sister still loves her, the rest of the family is glad she did not join them for Christmas. Even the kindest of the people she comes in contact with only pity her. She sees that Jake, for some mysterious reason, is still hung up on her and doesn’t date. Up to this point, she is only partially seeing the error of her ways. She is still complaining and tries to defend herself (Why didn’t Bobbi tell me her little boy was so sick? Why did she “agree to skip Christmas”?) Christmas Present is like “Oh really?!” and sets her straight.  Enter Christmas Yet to Come. This ghost is played by a big black dude dressed in black complete with sunglasses. Unlike peppy and chatty Past and Present, he is very scary and does not say a word. It is Christmas a year from now and she finds out that she is dead! How? How did she die? We are not told but inquiring minds want to know. Jake is now a lonely librarian “like Donna Reed?!” And also poor little Tim is dead too! Jeez, Hallmark. Needless to say, Ella, threatened with death, finally sees the light, and makes up for her bad behavior.

I have to say that Erin Krakow did a good job in this one. She used to be more of a miss than a hit with me, but in the last couple of years, she has won me over. I am no longer on edge when I see her cast as the leading lady. That cannot be said about Tyler Hynds. He seems to have found a niche of playing tortured weak characters who have a lot of work to do on themselves, ideally in therapy. But I am happy to report that he played a normal good guy in this one and I liked him. The script provided nice dashes of humor both during the ghostly visitations and between them, when she was trying to process what was happening to her and interacting with Jake. On a final note, I have to say that I hated the roomy white athleisure lounge wear Erin wore throughout almost the whole movie. I’m sure it was comfy, but it did nothing for her at all. Despite that outfit however, on the Christmas Carol remake scale, this was a “God Bless Us Every One.”

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

A Newport Christmas

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Dimensional Fractures Cannot Be Tolerated.

Strange. For the second time this year, Hallmark, in a way, buried the lead on two weekend Christmas movies. The one premiering Saturday night was OK, but nothing special, but the one on Sunday Night, which I assume would have less viewership, was really great.

A Newport Christmas was a time travel romance, one of my favorite plots, responsible for some of my favorite Hallmark movies like Next Stop, Christmas, Love Strikes Twice, and last year’s A ‘90s Christmas. This, unfortunately, was not quite up to those standards, because of a couple of things, but it was right up there in the conversation. The plot, the concept and the writing were outstanding. It also included some unique wrinkles that I was not expecting. As for the couple of things, nothing against Wes Brown, but he just didn’t seem like a good match for the time traveling Ginna Claire Mason. I thought their chemistry seemed off. Also, GCM’s acting was a little over done.

Ella (Mason)  is a wealthy resident of Newport, Rhode Island in December of 1905. She is somewhat of an independent dynamo and is engaged in numerous charitable activities. She is not interested in marriage but wants to use her dowry to start a charity to help the less fortunate.  While preparing for her father’s inaugural Christmas Ball, her father calls her in to his study and informs her that he has arranged a marriage for her with a man called Everette Thornton whom she has never even met. She is not happy and goes out on her boat alone to clear her head. She sees a comet while wishing for a different life and to fall in love one day. Suddenly, out of nowhere, in the boat with her is Nick, played by Wes Brown. He was on a rescue mission for a missing boat and is as shocked as she is to find a stranger in the boat. Ella has jumped forward 120 years to 2025, which she is forced to admit pretty quickly once they land back in Newport and she gets a load of all the modern stuff. Her former home has been turned into a museum, The Grafton House. Nick is the local historian there and she also meets Christine, the museum director, and Francis, her assistant (secondary romance!). Nick, supported by Christine and Francis, shows Ella around and introduces her to the 21st century. She loves it. Paper cups! Pants! Lady Bosses! Lattes! Computers! Inflatable Snowmen! She finds out that she became a prominent historical figure and an important philanthropist, helping many many people through the years. But this means that she must go back to that influential life. It is not an option, despite the fact that she and Nick have fallen in love.

In addition to the usual “fish out of water” amusing situations and quips, there were many interesting  complexities to Ella’s predicament.  As Ella learns more about her life (it turns out she was happily married to an ex-naval officer named Rex Grafton who supposedly rescued her at sea after her “disappearance”. But it is very mysterious that they can’t find a picture of him anywhere. They figure out that The 1905 “Christmas Comet” that seemingly is responsible for her time travel is reappearing on Christmas Eve in a matter of days and is her best chance of getting back to the life she was meant to lead. It soon becomes apparent that the longer Ella stays in the future and the more she learns about herself and history, the closer she comes to creating a “dimensional fracture” which is symbolized by her portrait disappearing and a biography of her turning into blank pages. One day, Ella spots an old coast guard buddy of Nick’s named Adam and she knows him from somewhere! How can that be? Ella remembers that Adam sold her her boat over 120 years ago. He is a time traveler too, but got here 20 years earlier!  And that is all I will say about that, but the whole situation actually had me pretty mystified and marginally concerned as to how this was all going to resolve itself into a happy ending for Nick and Ella. To further complicate matters, I liked Adam better than Nick. 

This movie was entertaining and sure kept my interest. There were some anachronisms where they got history wrong. Christmas lights were actually pretty common in 1905 as was the QWERTY keyboard. The arranged marriage between two people who had never met? Nope. Not in America, anyway. Ella’s hairstyle was all wrong. And once again, Hallmark missed an opportunity for a little fun social commentary by having Ella ignore the fact that Christine is black. It’s the usual stuff that just has to be ignored or will drive you crazy.  Other than those quibbles it was well thought out and I liked it. I really did.

Rating: 8 out of 10.


Providence Falls

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It Fell

Am I the only one in the whole wide world who did not absolutely love this 3 part mini-series? Apparently so. Oh, there were some good things about it, for sure. I liked the actors: 4 new fresh faces in lead roles, an old favorite (Matty Finochio) in a pivotal role, and 2 Hallmark mainstays in small but important parts. Kudos to Niall Matter who played a bad guy against type. The set direction and production values were top notch, and there were parts of the script that were just fine. But the whole thing felt forced and manufactured around a very faulty premise. It didn’t make sense and was just wrong. And I’m not talking about the angels and devils, the dual timeline, the time travel, or the reincarnation. I usually like that stuff. Some of Hallmark’s best movies have been based on those kinds of plots. And part of what bothered me was that they dropped the love story and all the supernatural stuff right in the middle of a police procedural for no reason I can think of that made any sense. Except to stretch maybe 3 hours of story into 6 hours. 

Cora and Liam are star-crossed lovers in 1844 Ireland who met when Liam, a thief and a rogue, broke into her father’s country estate to steal some things. They fell in love and were running away together, when, chased by dogs, torches, and pitchforks, Cora fell off a cliff and died. Liam is miserable and blames himself, but instead of being reincarnated or sent to heaven or, as they call it here, “H.E. double hockey sticks”, he is put in Limbo for almost 200 years due to a clerical error. Doesn’t heaven have some kind of quality control department? That was disturbing. Of course he had to die first and I am afraid I am a little fuzzy on how that happened. He comes to our attention because they are “clearing Limbo out”. Liam is given a chance to make up for cutting Cora’s life short and taking her away from her soulmate (who she barely met) and her important destiny and earn his way into heaven. Somehow, her death is all Liam’s fault, not her own nor the trackers chasing her over hill and dale and off the cliff. Or just an accident for that matter. All he has to do, in the present time, is to get Cora, who has been re-incarnated, back together with her so-called soulmate that she barely met, who has also been reincarnated. Cora is now a newly promoted police detective in Providence Falls, and Liam is a visiting detective (Ha!), her new partner. Her soulmate Finn (Evan Roderick) is an Assistant D.A. and is a good guy and very attractive. But despite Hallmark trying to fool us, savvy Hallmarkies know he is not the one because instead of coffee he drinks tea with sugar in it, is a lot shorter than Liam, and is a little too well-groomed. Also an old cohort of 1844 Liam is back and has been re-incarnated as the police chief. And maybe some other people? I don’t know. 

So we have 6 hours including commercials of Liam getting used to cell phones, cars, and other 21st century things and pushing his beloved Cora into the arms of Finn, who she really is not all that interested in. Just as she did back in Ireland, she has fallen for Liam at first sight. And Finn likes her best friend Suzette. Could it be possible that it is Liam and not Finn who is Cora’s soulmate? Nope, nope, nope, absolutely not. Destiny and Fate cannot be wrong, and Destiny has spoken. Even though against all of the rules in the Destiny Rule Book, Cora has started to remember her history with and love for Liam in her former life. So Destiny is wrong about some things then. But according to the angel Samael, the lady in charge of this fiasco, if she reunites with selfish bad Liam, instead of good and decent Finn, she will not be able to continue to help at-risk youth and keep them on the straight and narrow. Somehow this capable woman cannot do her good works unless she’s with the right man. I think Miss Samael got her centuries mixed up. Meanwhile Liam is proving over and over what a reformed character he is. But no, according to this angel Samael, he is selfish and bad to the end even when he is rescuing Finn from an old mine shaft and throwing himself in front of a speeding bullet to save Cora’s life. Repentance? Forgiveness? Grace? Free Will? Fuhgettaboutit. And all through this, there is a very drawn out murder mystery/burglary/criminal conspiracy to solve that was right out of the usual Hallmark Movies and Mysteries playbook.

I understand why everyone really liked this. It was a well-done ambitious production for Hallmark, and the trappings were off the usual beaten track, even though the love story was predictable and the mystery was tedious. I just couldn’t get past that damn angel Samael being so blind and misguided: Insisting that poor Liam could not get into heaven despite his proven goodness unless Cora ended up with Finn against both of their wills. I know it was to create tension and keep the thing going for 6 hours. But it was just wrong and flew in the face of what angels are supposed to be about. I couldn’t believe it when the Angel Gabriel (Brendan Penny) showed up to save the day, and he told her what a good job she did! He left Liam’s fate up to her as long as she first finally listened to the one good angel with some sense, her assistant, Agon, Liam’s handler. She should have been fired and threatened with H.E. double hockey sticks.

Rating: 6 out of 10.

A ’90s Christmas

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“There You Go.”

This one didn’t get a lot of promotion that I saw, and it was on at an odd time Friday night. Also, it didn’t have a lot of popular Hallmark stars except possibly Chandler Massey who has never not been adorable. But since it was time travel, (how could it not be, since Chandler was in it?) one of my favorite plots, I decided to give this first priority with a view to reviewing it the next morning. And what a good thing, because it turned out to be my top favorite Christmas Movie so far this year.

Lucy is a workaholic divorce lawyer who has just received the letter confirming an offer to become a partner in her Chicago firm. She has worked so hard for this goal that she has  cut herself off from her family in Milwaukee and has no friends to celebrate with. Intending to work right through Christmas, she goes to a nearby diner, foregoing the staff Christmas Party, to have some celebratory pancakes. There, she has two encounters. The first is with a guy that used to be her next door neighbor which we learn she used to be close to. They have a catch up, and Lucy is surprised he had given up his dream of being an actor. He wonders why she is alone in a diner and not with her family. He leaves commenting sadly that she is the “Same old Lucy.” She turns around a little confused and now sitting across from her is the waitress. It’s a magical waitress to whom she insists that she is very happy with her life and wouldn’t change a thing. She leaves the diner and the “waitress” is also her Uber driver, played to perfection by Katherine Burrell. She asks to be taken home, dozes off, and when she wakes up, she is back at the family home in Milwaukee and, as she soon learns, it is 25 years ago, in 1999!

What follows is Lucy trying to get back to her present life in Chicago and the promotion she has been working so hard for.  The Christmas that Lucy is sent back to was pivotal in her life. Her father had died earlier that year and that made her a different person. She is now back to the first Christmas without him. Her Mom has not yet embraced her grief, wanting to be the strong one for her two daughters. She distracts herself by keeping busy busy busy and trying to make this Christmas perfect. Lucy, at only 19, was  wrapped up in her own  grief and did not help her at the time, nor her sister, who is struggling with keeping her homosexuality under wraps, as well as her own grief.  Now, with the wisdom of her 44 years in her 19 year old body, she sees what a mess her mom was and how much help her closeted lesbian sister needs. But whenever she does the right thing and tries to help them, she is changing the future and that lessens the chance that she can get back to her old life. Whenever she acts differently than her oblivious 19 year old self, the letter offering her a partnership starts to fade away. Like the family photo in Back to the Future.  Meanwhile, Grace, the Uber driver who took her back in time is tut-tutting and issuing disapproving noises whenever Lucy changes things that make it harder for her to recapture her 2024 life. It all hinges with Lucy staying the course and taking the full ride to Northwestern University like she did in 1999, rather than follow Matt (Chandler) to Columbia University which she would have to pay for. I really liked the love story in this. The two 19 year olds were in love, but with the death of her father, Lucy pulled away from him, afraid to be close to him as with her sister and Mom. The tension of Lucy repairing her relationship with Matt and them falling deeper and deeper in love, Lucy tempted to follow him to Columbia instead of guaranteeing her stable successful future, combined with the viewers rooting for Lucy to choose Love, Family, and Matt instead of the dry and lonely life she is living in her 40s makes this movie a great one. When will she realize she is working against her best interests by striving to recapture her Chicago life?

The details of the set decoration and references to ‘90s history and culture were spot on and clever. There was some really good humor in this movie (Y2K anyone?). One of my favorite lines was Lucy asking Grace, “ What happens if I can’t remember every little thing I did back then? What if I sneeze and I didn’t sneeze before? Does that create a ripple in time and now the air fryer doesn’t exist?” The acting of everyone was terrific, especially Chandler who was very endearing as Matt, Kate Drummond who did such a great job in this year’s To Have and To Holiday, and Alex Hook as her struggling sister. Another bright spot was Lucy’s science fiction loving best friend, Nadine,  with whom she had grown away from, but the only one she tells in 1999 that she is from the future.

The last 10 minutes of this were some of the most moving I have ever seen in a Hallmark movie. From the point of Grace’s reaction seeing that Lucy has finally taken the alternate path and gotten it right at last, (despite her warnings to the contrary throughout the movie), to our glimpses into Lucy, Matt, and her family’s life as it turned out to be, thanks to her time-travel, I was choked up.

My only quibble with this movie was seeming to have Lucy follow Matt to Columbia despite getting her whole college paid for at Northwestern. I didn’t think that was a great message. But I looked at the ending twice, and I think a case can be made that she did make the fiscally responsible choice rather than follow a boy to his school, but was still able to stay close to him thanks to what she learned.

Rating: 10 out of 10.

Our Holiday Story

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The Question

**Spoilers**

Nikki DeLoach is such a good actress. At times I have really been struck by her talents. Sometimes her roles don’t give her a lot of opportunity to really shine, but she always does a great job with what she is given. Although a festival plays a huge role in this one, the plot is something really different. Well, not really, but the framing of the core story is. A young woman, Joanna, is meeting her boyfriend, Chris, in her hometown to meet her parents, Dave and Nell, for the first time. Unfortunately her train is delayed and she sends the nervous young man into the fray alone. Before he rings the doorbell, she warns him under no circumstances to ask them…a-a-a-nd her phone dies. They welcome him with the proverbial open arms and her parents are frequent Hallmark flyers Nikki DeLoach and Warren Christie! We learn that Nikki (Nell) is Joanna’s stepmother and has been married to her father (Dave) for 10 years. They appear to be in their  early 40s, Dave having been a very young father when Joanna was born. Struggling for a topic of conversation, Chris asks how the two met. Very pleased at his interest, Dave tells him, “Actually it’s a pretty funny story…” And we flash back to 10 years ago. Yes, for once we  get to hear the blissfully happy parents’ love story instead of focusing on the young couple.

The rest of the movie goes back and forth between the past and the present. 10 years ago, Dave is trying to resurrect a traditional Christmas festival started by his grandfather. His 16-year-old daughter is his much needed assistant as we see Dave is a little disorganized. In the present, several delays prevent Joanna from joining her parents and Chris, mainly so the older couples story can be told in stages while we get to know both couples. Nell and Dave are strangers who meet on a train, both traveling to same town, and form an instant connection. Unfortunately they are parted before they exchange names. They are both really bummed. But happily, they meet by chance in town again, and finally get the first names down but circumstances prevent any more information being exchanged. And so it goes with the two almost strangers meeting and parting again and falling for each other more and more before they find out they actually are each other’s worst  enemy “in real life”. Eleanor (Nell) is the town’s new comptroller who, trying to keep the town’s budget under control, has been a big roadblock to David Ammer’s (Dave’s) beloved Christmas Festival.  David, though they have never met, sees Eleanor as a sad and lonely Grinch who gets “pleasure out of sucking the joy out of life.” And to Eleanor, David  is the scatterbrained disorganized flake who only cares about the festival with no heed to the town budget or other practical matters.

Besides the engaging story of Dave and Nell falling in love while hating each other’s alternate identities, there was a lot to like in this one. I loved that Dave and Chloe, Joanna’s Mom, were still good friends despite their divorce. Early on, she tells him he doesn’t need someone free and easy, like himself, but more organized and focused to keep him on track. In the present, we see that Nell and Chloe (played by the always welcome Lisa Durupt) have become good friends as well. I liked the little touches of linking the past and present with the train, a favorite fruitcake, and Ugly Sweaters. We see that the opposites attract connection has worked out for Nell and Dave, as it apparently didn’t for Chloe and Dave.  We see Nell becoming less buttoned down and more adventurous, and Dave becoming more focused and goal oriented.  The romance between the young couple was OK but a little boring. When Dave learned the truth about Nell, he was way harsh to her which seemed very much out of character but certainly added some drama and tension. Warren Christie and Nikki Deloach were a perfect match for their roles. I don’t think this would have worked with Nikki’s frequent co-star, Andrew Walker. The movie ended on a humorous note with Chris’s parents asking Nell and Dave the forbidden question, with the couple more than happy to comply and relive their romance once again. All in all, this was warm and cozy Christmas romance, with just enough humor, drama, and emotion to make it a something special.

Rating: 8 out of 10.

The Magic of Lemon Drops

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The Roads Not Taken

**Spoilers**

Seems like there has been a lot of fantasy stories on Hallmark lately and this was another one. I was a little suspicious and the title did not set me at ease. But I really enjoyed it. It was well constructed with likable characters and sharp dialogue.  Lyndsy Fonseca and Ian Harding, the female and male leads were wonderful. In fact the whole cast and the characters they played were top-notch.  When Lyndsy does a Hallmark odds are (so far) that it will probably have a fantasy element. She has been nothing but appealing and likable. Stephanie Sly as The Best Friend, and Mariam Bernstein as The Eccentric Aunt were stand-outs. Ian Harding brought a real Paul Campbell vibe to his role which is about the highest compliment I can give him.  Honestly this role could have been written for Paul Campbell, one of my and many others’ favorite Hallmark regulars. Ian Harding played the love interest in Ghosts of Christmas Always. Enough said.

Lolly works with her father at their little restaurant, The Eatery. She is tired, sad, and frustrated. Her dreams of having her own fun and elegant restaurant in New York complete with love and her own family have almost faded away. John B. Lowe plays her father who  embodies my most disliked Hallmark type: A business owner who will sacrifice everything to save the business except take advice and make the changes needed to give his business a chance to survive. Not an auspicious start. To add to Lolly’s discontent, her ex-boyfriend is back in town. He is a successful doctor because he left her and their small town to pursue his own dream. He is a happily divorced and professionally satisfied single father now, and Lolly is full of regrets over their bad break-up which was her fault. When she voices her frustrations and doubts about how she can get her life back on track to her Aunt Gert, Aunt Gert, who is a truly wonderful character, ends up giving her 4 magic lemon drops.  If she eats one before she goes to sleep, her dream that night will be one whole day living a life she yearns for. When she wakes the next morning, she will remember the “dream,” which will help her choose the best path.  She gets 3 chances. The 4th drop, if she takes it, will allow her to pick one of the 3 lives she dreamed of, and her memories going forward will only be of that one life.

The first life she wants to experience is her professional and creative dream of her own restaurant in NYC. When she wakes up the next morning she reflects on the fact that despite having her Michelin-starred fantasy restaurant, her life was still full of creative frustration and financial troubles. She still had no love life, and in addition she was on the outs with her sister and her father. She is more confused and frustrated than ever, so the next night she wishes her wise and loving mother was still alive to support and advise her. That happens and it is wonderful but it also comes with unlooked for and unwelcome consequences. The last lemon drop is to peek into what her life would be like if she and Rory had not broken up, but are happily married with their own family. And it was lovely. But….

In between the nightly dreams of the alternate lives, We spend the days with Lolly as she starts a little side-hustle business of gourmet frozen fruit and herb pops (‘Lolly-Pops”) which gets off to a promising start. She mends her relationship with Rory and starts to see her Aunt Gert, her sister, her father, and even her late mother with new eyes. All these multi-layered stories weaving in and out of each other and each playing out in logical conflicting consequences yet with recurring themes in common could have been a hot mess. Just like that sentence. But it was done seamlessly. And I was not confused.  I was impressed with the detail incorporated into each dream life and its setting along with her “real” life interspersed in the daytime. Everything kept moving forward at a perfect pace and was tied together beautifully to the littlest detail. They even managed to incorporate a cute dog.

There was drama and surprises. Lessons are learned. And they are good ones. Life is a series of trade-offs both sweet and sour. Find your joy and happiness in what you chose. Best of all, the romance was compelling, fully developed, and mature without the usual silly Hallmark tropes. Gosh, I think I’ll have to give this one an almost 10.

Rating: 9.5 out of 10.

Junebug

/ Rebekahrox / 12 Comments

Inner Childish

I thought this one had some promise. Autumn Reeser has consistently starred in some of the better Hallmarks. Her presence alone insures a certain level of credibility. Not a huge fan of Aaron O’Connell but he was well cast and perfect in Made for Each Other. The plot had a fantasy element that I usually welcome. Juniper (Reeser) is visited by her 8-year-old self that only she can see. “Junebug” has come out of her childhood “wish box” to help her almost 40-year-old (birthday imminent) self out of a rut professionally and personally. But ultimately it was a big disappointment, I’m very sorry to say.

Juniper dreamed of being a writer as a child. One compromise after another led her off that path but she is a big success as a well-respected editor for a boutique publisher of YA and children’s books. Now this seems like a pretty cool career to me, but what do I know? Juniper is vaguely dissatisfied and bored by her job. And also her stable predictable boyfriend. When Junebug appears she calls Juniper out on her boring wardrobe, her boring duties at work, and her boring boyfriend whose idea of a hot date is a home-cooked pasta dinner every Wednesday night. Again sounds nice to me, but when Juniper asks that he bring any other pasta other than their traditional penne, and he shows up with penne anyway, she breaks up her 3-year relationship with him. At work, her boss, Paula, has tasked the team with finding fresh new illustrators for their children’s line. Juniper, guided by Junebug,  finds one in a mysterious and hot muralist, Alex Ripley (O’Connell). Research reveals that he is an icon of the art world who shot straight to the top after his first show. But he disappeared when his second show was savaged by critics. Now he travels from city to city doing unsigned murals. Red flag. Inspired by Junebug, Juniper has decided to get back to her writing. After her meet cute with Alex (she destroys the mural he is working on and he is very nice about it) they decide to work together on a children’s book.

From then on the movie is all about Alex and Juniper talking about doing the book and dealing with Juniper’s writer’s block. They go on a road trip, eat raspberry swirl ice cream (a lot), walk on the beach, shop for clothes, flirt, and kiss chastely. (Very chastely considering they are two attractive single 40-year-olds who might be in love.) Not exactly compelling viewing. No, not a lot of excitement, but there was quite a bit of comedic potential in a 40-year-old sophisticate being followed around by her interfering 8-year-old self that only she can see. But nada. Other than a few quizzical looks and an occasional “Are you all right?” when Juniper is apparently having conversations with herself, it’s just wasted. It’s all just Juniper and Junebug talking boringly mostly by themselves.

The big crisis is when Alex and Juniper’s book is rejected by her boss as being too much of a risk for the company. But why? It made zero sense, unless her boss was just being nice and the book was really awful. She points out that Alex’s muralistic illustrations were “on too large a scale” for a kid’s book, which makes sense and seems like a fair criticism. I guess, because we never actually get to see his work.  But Alex is highly insulted and flounces off petulantly. “This is not why I make my work-To have someone tell me what market it’s right for!” Boo-de-hoo-hoo. Grow. Up. Juniper quits her job without notice the next day. “Is this because I passed on your project? No it really isn’t, Paula” Right. Juniper wins Alex back by hoisting a boombox in the air a la one of my favorite movies, Say Anything. Lots of tributes to that movie in this one. For the happy ending, Alex and Juniper, together for her birthday, open a box of their newly published (by another publisher or self-published-we never know) book. The cover is really bad. Maybe Paula was right.

I won’t be watching this one again, but I might give Say Anything another go. Now that’s a good movie with a lot of heart.

Rating: 5 out of 10.

P.S. I was just reminded by a user review on IMDb that there is a 25 year old movie that is very similar to this one, only done right, with real drama and bite. Its called If You Believe, and I highly recommend it. I thought there was something familiar about this.

An American in Austen

/ Rebekahrox / 10 Comments

There’s No Place Like Home

Spoilers

Going by the premise, the previews, and that I just rewatched Lost in Austen, this didn’t go the way I expected. And because of that, it was so much better than I expected, even though my expectations were very high indeed. Harriet is a librarian, loves Jane Austen, and is also trying to write a novel but alas, like all authors in Hallmarks, she has writer’s block.  When her boyfriend of 3 years proposes very romantically in front of her friends she responds with a resounding “Maybe.” She feels bad for breaking his heart, but, as she tells her friends, she has always dreamed of a hero (like Mr. Darcy for example) riding up on a horse taking her in his arms, and carrying her off into the sunset. Not that Mr. Darcy would ever do such a thing, and as her friends point out, she has just described a kidnapping. Because Ethan is not exactly a romantic hero. In fact, he is kind of a dorky loser. She falls asleep in the cab on the way home, and wakes up in a carriage wondering “What’s that smell?”. She has been transported into Pride and Prejudice, her favorite novel. At first, she thinks it’s an elaborate gag and plays along as best she can, exclaiming over the authenticity of the sets. But inevitably she realizes (no power lines or planes) that she really is the Bennet’s old maid (she’s over 30, horrors) cousin visiting from America. Which explains her strange ways, speech, and attitudes.

We start revisiting Pride and Prejudice. Except with Harriet there, things go a little bit awry. And first on the agenda is the assembly in Meryton (“Oh, great, more corsets”). When Mr. Darcy insults Elizabeth like in the book, Harriet marches up to him and tells him off. Not in the book. Mr. Darcy’s attention is diverted from Elizabeth to Harriet and soon becomes smitten with the “strange creature.” Mr. Collins proposes to Mary instead of Charlotte and Mary accepts. Elizabeth falls for Mr. Wickham because all of Darcy’s attention is focused on Harriet. Harriet realizes she is “destroying Jane Austen!” and, using her knowledge of the book, is determined to get things back on track. But things keep getting worse. When Darcy proposes to her (one of the things he is attracted to is her “remarkably white teeth.”), it is her wake-up call. She realizes that she has only been in love with the idea of a Romantic Hero, not a real person, and it is Ethan that she truly loves and misses terribly. “This is the moment I’ve always dreamed of but now that it is for real, this is not the feeling I have always dreamed of.” When Elizabeth elopes with Wickham it is Darcy and Harriet to the rescue. Wickham is exposed as the cad he is, and to Harriet’s relief, Darcy and Elizabeth start falling in love in the carriage on the way back home to Longbourne. “Awwwh” Harriet sighs, and then gets out of the carriage to leave them alone.

This movie was a real charmer. All of the actors made the most of the script, but the fortuitously named Eliza Bennett as Harriet really was a star. Most of the humor, even laugh-out-loud moments, are due to her delivery, especially when she comes out with her modern irreverent asides under her breath on what is happening in front of her. Trying to talk Elizabeth out of walking to Netherfield to visit sick Jane “Okay, so I can’t rewrite the walking part,” she sighs. “I adore you!” proclaims  Darcy. “Do you though?”, she responds quizzically. When Elizabeth elopes,  “Don’t worry, I got this!”

I was amazed at just how much of Pride and Prejudice they were able to get into 84 minutes. Crazy how much plot you can fit in without the usual time-sucking tentpole scenes and montages. But what makes this a 10-star Hallmark rather than a 9 or 9 1/2 are the thoughtful and serious moments. When Harriet tries to talk Mary out of marrying “that weirdo” Mr. Collins, Mary reminds her that though she doesn’t love him, she doesn’t have the luxury of a choice. But don’t worry, this is one of the things that Harriet “fixes”, though it certainly doesn’t endear her to the Bennets. In a touching tête-à-tête with Mrs. Bennet, she explains to Harriet that of course she loves her daughters and wants them to be happy. But safety and security come before love. And safety and security are inextricably intertwined with love. I loved that Harriet learns the difference between romance and real love. When Harriet gets back to her real life, the reunion with Ethan is romantic and touching because it is based on a firm foundation. One of the more romantic scenes I remember in a Hallmark, actually. Ethan really steps up to the plate. We skip forward in time, and Harriet is in a bookstore promoting her completed novel. Guess what the title is.

Rating: 10 out of 10.

Round and Round

/ Rebekahrox / 5 Comments

A New Spin

**Spoilers**

As an unabashed Tribute? Homage? Knock-off? of the classic movie, Groundhog Day, this one really works. One can hardly do a time loop movie without embracing and acknowledging that film, and it is referred to often. In fact, it is why our victim, Rachel, knows what is happening to her. And how she describes her dilemma to others. “It’s like I’m in…Groundhog Day! I’m in Groundhog Day!” The movie was full of other pop-culture references as well, which was fun. The fast-paced script sparkles with self-aware humor and clever dialog. But this version of a time loop movie has enough twists and divergences to take it off on unexpected and entertaining paths. It goes its own way.

Rachel is an assistant editor at a major publishing house but who once dreamed of being a writer herself. She is in a relationship with an assistant professor at Columbia University. But the first time we see him he is on the phone with her lying to get out of spending the seventh night of Hanukkah with her and her family at their traditional party celebrating the night her parents met. Loser. On the way to the party, Rachel is crashed into by a cute guy spilling all of the traditional jelly donuts she was tasked with bringing to the party. When she gets to her home, there he is again! I think we have a winner. Her grandma Rosie (Paula Shaw) has brought Zach along from the assisted living facility where he teaches art as her driver. (But really to set him up with Rachel). In the course of the evening, Grandma Rosie gives her an antique dreidel that has been in the family for generations. She tells her that “it brings light into the lives of those who spin it.” But when Rachel spins it during the dreidel game the curtains catch on fire. Due to the faulty wiring of their strand of dreidel lights, or so says the fire department. The next morning, Rachel wakes up and immediately realizes the day is repeating itself, setting her on a mission to break the cycle. In doing so, she enlists the help of Zach who is a fantasy role play nerd. He believes her after she predicts everything that is going to happen at the party. He in turn enlists the help of his buddy Seth who is even more of a fantasy nerd. Each day she gets Zach and Seth up to speed and on board to help her. Kind of like a 50 First Dates situation. On the third repeat day, they start to try to find the “inciting incident” that triggered the time loop.  As “experts” in the “field”, Zach and Seth point out that there must be something off in her life and she has to fix it in order to resolve her little problem. In the course of their mission, Rachel dumps her bad boyfriend, shares a Young Adult Fantasy novel she wrote years ago with her new friends, opening herself up to the feedback she has been afraid of, and Zack and Rachel fall in love. Seth is with them through it all and meets his own unlikely soulmate.

Finally, on the 7th night of Hanukkah, Grandma Rosie, and later her family, share a secret with Rachel. With all of the changes Rachel has made in her life and the understanding she has gained, this time when she spins the dreidel, the curtains do not catch on fire and the cycle is broken. But she and Zach have a misunderstanding that part them. The next day is the 8th and last day of Hanukkah, and Rachel must resolve the problem with Zach. We learn that Rachel is not the only one who has been hiding her light under a bushel.

This movie was, for me, the perfect mix of romance and story and full of funny, lovable, and well-crafted characters. The whole cast did an excellent job including the leads who are new fresh faces for Hallmark and veteran actors Paula Shaw and Ric Hoffman as Rachel’s father. It was a warm and wonderful little gem and one that will only improve upon re-watching because of the fun script.

Rating: 9 out of 10.