Alison Sweeney

To Barcelona, Forever

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Part II. Just Add Saffron.

Ok so now it’s Anna’s turn to find her soulmate in Barcelona (or vicinity). In the first movie of this two-parter an author (Anna) and the translator of her book (Erica) met in Barcelona and became best friends. Erica found true love with her best friend (No, not Anna-another one-a guy) and Anna found her true calling, which was not a novelist but a food writer. Erica is the true novelist. Or is she? A publisher has given her a book deal without her even having to submit a proposal or even a vague idea for a novel, and she has not written a word. Yes, it’s the dreaded Hallmark Writer’s Block. But we’ll put a pin in that one because this movie is about Anna who has spent the last 5 months traveling around Europe blogging about food. She has attracted the interest of a food magazine who is willing to give her a real job if she can blow off their socks with a groundbreaking article on something to do with food.

Anna visits a gourmet shop and the shop owner suggests a teeny tiny jar of the world famous saffron that he is the exclusive purveyor of. When she finds out the price, she laughs in his face “Does it come with its own private chef?” and makes another sarcastic remark or two. Unfortunately, the owner of the saffron farm, Javier Estrella, is standing right behind her. Meet Cute Alert!  He is very offended and she is very abashed. She wants to write about his saffron and his family who for generations have been producing the world’s finest example of the venerated spice. That’s a big nope. Besides the disdain he feels for Anna, his family takes privacy to an almost pathological level. Even the village they live in is so secret, no one can find it, “unless they want you to. And they don’t.” We’ll put a pin in that one too. Well, one thing leads to another, the disdain does not last long, and the sparks just fly off these two. They have a magical evening which ends with a kiss. On her way to Portugal the next morning, Anna’s car breaks down right outside Javier’s secret village (What are the odds?-It must be fate). Javier is horrified to find her lugging her luggage down the street, thinking she followed him. As it turns out, Javier was in Barcelona to meet a matchmaker his mother set him up with. He promised her he would get married before the next harvest in a couple of weeks and start having babies to continue the family legacy. His family will think Anna is his fiancée (they work fast in this neck of the woods). Instead of telling his mother the truth they decide to compound the problem and have Anna pose as his fiancée so his mother will have her heart broken later rather than sooner, and broken worse by getting her hopes up and of course she will grow to love the super charming Anna. In turn, Javier will let Anna publish her article about the family business, on the condition he approves of it once it’s written. Orphan Anna grows to feel a part of the warm tradition-loving family and romance, conflict, misunderstandings, hurt feelings, drama, comedy, and a festival ensue. And Erica and Nico from the first movie show up adding to both the fun and the tribulations which follow.

Thanks to the performances of Ashley Williams and Miguel Bracco, who played Javier, this movie won me over pretty quickly with their first scene together. Their chemistry (hate that word, but what can you do?) between the two really made the romance work. Their banter was funny, thanks to both their delivery and the writer (Julie Sherman Wolfe). Ashley brought her Golden Retriever puppy dog personality somewhat to heel, and nailed her character’s vulnerable introspective side. The easy rapport between Ashley Williams and Alison Sweeney was a natural. What took them so long?  The saffron aspect was interesting and educational.

It was not problem free, of course. Few Hallmarks are. There were the usual cliches, nonsensical decisions, and other questionable occurrences only for the sake of plot and drama. And the casting was a little off the wall. This included the actor playing Javier’s father being the same age as Ashley Williams, his future daughter-in-law (presumably). The Mom was also very youthful and hip looking for such an old-fashioned character. And other things we won’t dwell on. It will be a banner day when Hallmark embraces the real ages of their talented and popular lead actresses and gives them roles which acknowledge that yes, even women in their 40s and 50s can find romance and adventure. Which I would guess is their target market, by the way. Insert “shrug” emoji.

Rating: 7 out of 10.

To Barcelona, With Love

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The Ashley and Alison Show

This was almost really good. The plot was a fairly fresh take on the iconic Cyrano de Bergerac love triangle. Roxanne with Steve Martin was mentioned. Anna, played by Ashley Williams, is a romance writer whose latest book is a big flop. That is because she is not a good writer. Case in point. She sets the book in Barcelona, Spain and she has never even been to Barcelona. But that’s OK because “she walked the streets” courtesy of Google Maps Street View. Her first book was successful only because she had a wonderful editor who fixed it. Her publisher does not want to have anything more to do with her. Until the soaring sales figures from Barcelona come in. Shockingly, instead of being exposed there as being phony and inauthentic to the native Catalans, it is a big hit. That’s because of…Erica. Erica, played by Alison Sweeney, is an expat American who has lived and worked in Barcelona for 10 years. She is a literary translator who is the one who translated Anna’s book into Spanish. Except she didn’t just translate it she rewrote it completely. “I didn’t mean to!” Her knowledge and love for the city shown through and she put in a lot of symbolism and other stuff, making it an almost instant modern classic in Catalonia. She is best friends with a very handsome bookseller, Nico, with whom she is secretly in love. He absolutely loves the book and invites the “author”, Anna, to Barcelona to promote it at his bookstore. Anna is thrilled, especially when she gets to Spain and gets a load of handsome and sexy Nico. They start crushing on each other.  Erica and Anna become friends and it isn’t long before Anna realizes, humorously, that the Spanish version of the book is nothing like the English version that she wrote. “Dolphins? I don’t remember writing anything about Dolphins?!”. The whole truth comes out and Anna and Erica decide to keep the secret so as not to ruin the bookstore event. And all of this is with the full blessing of the publisher, as long as Erica keeps to her non-disclosure agreement. I was relieved not to have to deal with a lot of faffing around with zero communication, lies, or threats of exposure. Well OK, Nico was out of the loop, but that was necessary to the romance, and the women’s efforts to keep up the deception were amusing. And although not realistic, Anna did not get cranky about Erica taking over her book. It only made her realize that she was not that kind of writer. Besides, she still got credit for it.

As Anna, Erica, and Nico tour around Barcelona, it becomes more and more clear to everyone that Erica is the one who should be with Nico, not Anna, with whom he has nothing in common. It was a slow burn romance and nicely done. What makes this movie, beside the beautiful setting, is the character of Anna and the performance of Ashley Williams. While her super-smiley perky sparkles personality and acting style can wear thin very quickly, she was perfectly cast as the exuberant extrovert Anna to whom no one is a stranger. Williams really leans into her signature acting style in what is almost a self-parody. She attacks people she sees reading her book, introduces herself as the author, holds up her photo on the book jacket to prove it, and insists on signing it for them. It was funny. She is more interested in food and eating than sight-seeing. It isn’t long before she knows more about where to eat in Barcelona than the natives do. As it turns out, Anna may not be able to write romantic fiction, but she’s a genius at writing about food. How will Anna and Erica, who is the true novelist, get their careers and love lives on the right paths? 

This movie was fun because the veteran Hallmark writer, Julie Sherman Wolfe,  kept it light-hearted and romantic, avoiding stupid misunderstandings, festering secrets, and hostile threats from bullying bosses that this type of plot could very well have fallen into. A case could be made that the two talented actresses were too old for their parts. At one point Erica hints that she is still looking to start a family. And Ashley’s part as a budding writer who still hasn’t found her niche is more suitable for someone in their 20s or early 30s. But these were minor points and easily pushed to the side. And, we are in good hands with the two talented Hallmark veterans. Plus Alison Sweeney and Alejandro Tous were a good match. The only thing that brought the movie down was Erica taking way too long to claim what she deserved in her career and personal life. She made hiding and denying practically an art form. Not my favorite.

As it turns out this was the first part of a movie duo. Next week it’s Anna’s turn to get the guy in Barcelona. I’m looking forward to it.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

Love & Jane

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Clueless

There was a good movie in here somewhere but sadly I failed to find it. And I looked pretty hard. I watched it twice on DVR and it wasn’t easy. Introduced by some really lovely opening titles and a mood-setting soundtrack, I was hopeful. But the movie was not cohesive. The plots were manifold and all over the place, I didn’t like or understand the heroine, Lilly, and the figure of Jane Austen seemed gratuitous. She appears to Lilly to guide her out of her unhappy professional and personal life but never gives her any useful guidance or good advice. On camera, at least. It was peppered with talk about and references to the beloved author and her books but the character of Jane Austen didn’t seem to have a real role other than for her entertainment value for Jane Austen fans.

Lilly is the president of the local Jane Austen Society. She was born 200 years too late. We know this because of her old-fashioned hairdo, clothes, and vocabulary. Fiddlesticks! Bejabbers! And she says she hates the internet and computers. Apparently, she only likes books if they are made out of paper, although one of her society members only does audiobooks which she seems to have no problem with. She also doesn’t have a problem with using a digital assistant in her home (Play Music!). When we first meet her, she has a meltdown because a book she wants to buy is snatched off the shelf in front of her by a store clerk for an online purchaser who bought it a minute and a half ahead of her. She is mightily and loudly offended. This did not endear her to me. I order all of my books online or download them on my Kindle from the library. On occasion I do buy hardcover books, but certainly not from a new bookstore in person because they wouldn’t have them in stock. So that is bad or I’m a bad person somehow? And this customer was buying a paper book! The second strike against Miss Lillie is the way she treated her long-term boyfriend. After meeting him late for dinner she complains that the pub where she holds her Jane Austen Society meetings is closing down and they might have to disband the Society because of the difficulty of finding a comparable venue. He in turn shares the good news that he has gotten a promotion and will be moving to Chicago. He wants her to come with him as his wife and presents a ring. He points out that nothing is holding her in New York other than a job she hates. Now, he can take her on the longed-for trip to England and she can get back to her writing because she won’t have to work. She takes great umbrage at these two fantastic opportunities because she didn’t achieve them on her own, and he is somehow behaving like “Mr. Collins” which is about the worst insult imaginable. She accuses him of trying to “rescue” her. Fair enough, but other than complaining, what steps is she taking to rescue herself and achieve her goals on her own? Nada. In fact, when she gets home from her date, she throws her almost-finished manuscript in the trash. Turns out that in addition, she doesn’t love him “like that.” Then what the Dickens was she doing with him in the first place?

At work, she meets the store clerk who wouldn’t let her buy her book and it turns out he is a tech mogul and the new owner of that bookstore. The marketing company she works for is supposed to create a campaign to drive customers to his bookstore which will somehow tie people into the app company he created. It’s all very vague and convoluted. But the important thing is he gives an impassioned speech about how he wants to foster a personal human-to-human connection between people who love books and reading and get more people to shop at bookstores. Somehow Lillie curiously interprets this as him wanting to end bookstores altogether because he is a tech guy. She is very hostile towards him even though their mutual attraction is palpable and he really couldn’t have been lovelier towards her. She is resentful about working on his ad campaign even though it is practically tailor made to her own passion for bookstores and books and a huge opportunity for her. She even has a negative reaction when Trevor offers his bookstore as the new home of her Jane Austen Society. She accepts but with very bad grace. I just didn’t get how a supposedly mature woman could be so silly. She certainly was no Elizabeth Bennett.

Interwoven throughout Lilly’s shattered dreams about being an author, her thawing hostility towards Trevor the more she gets to know him, and her bewildering project for his company are her friend Alisha’s romantic problems and misunderstandings. Most of those scenes had no reason to exist other than to invite some vague comparisons to Emma. Queue matchmaking montage.

So what is the role of Jane Austen in all of this, you may ask? Well, nothing really. She comes to Lilly as a kind of imaginary friend or ghost because Lilly longs for her wise advice. She pops in and out of Lilly’s life, teaches her about having tea, gives her dancing lessons, and tells her she doesn’t know how to be happy. Very helpful. They bond over Colin Firth’s Pride and Prejudice and throw popcorn at each other. There are some amusing fish-out-of-water situations. They are united in their disdain for Trevor, who doesn’t deserve the attitude, so no help in the romance department at all. When Lilly finally finishes her manuscript supposedly with Jane’s encouragement (off-screen) Jane submits it to a publisher behind her back because she knows Lilly is too weak to do so. Strangely, Lilly does not resent Jane’s interference and help. But boy, she does get mad at Trevor because when it is accepted for publication, she finds out that he just bought the publishing company and he may have brought her manuscript to their attention. I guess she only doesn’t want to be rescued by men, but ghosts are fine. All is ironed out when Trevor quotes from Persuasion and gets a second chance with her. In the end, she is planning her second novel, though we’re not sure what ever happened to the first one. And Jane goes back to wherever she came from presumably to “help” the next Jane Austen fan-girl. So, irrational heroine, convoluted plot that never really came together, bad editing which I didn’t get into, and a waste of the Jane Austen character. I think Alison Sweeney was miscast. Ben Ayers as Trevor was fine. Acting-wise they both competently did as they were directed. There were some nice sets and a couple of amusing scenes.

Rating: 5 out of 10.

The Irresistible Blueberry Farm

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A Little Fruit, A Little Fantasy

Once again a movie I rated long ago deserves an upgrade after re-watching it years later. In this case, it’s The Irresistible Blueberry Farm which premiered way back in 2015. It was on the other night and it had been mentioned to me recently as one I would really like.  I didn’t remember being very impressed with it way back when. In fact, I barely remembered it all. I saw that I gave it a 4 on IMDb. And the title certainly didn’t impress me! Irresistible Blueberries? Come on! And spare me from another farm story. Pumpkins, Christmas Trees, Cranberries, Grapes, Apples, Pears, Olives, Tulips, Maple Syrup, Pecans: Except for veggies,  is there anything that grows in the ground that hasn’t been done?

But it was on the other night, so I gave it a go. And it was fantastic!

Yes, it was the same old city girl with almost fiance and very high heels goes-to-small-town-on-a-mission plot. In her will her beloved grandmother (yes) has tasked her to deliver a letter IN PERSON to a gentleman who lives in her old hometown. While trying to find him she learns that her grandmother was a talented artist and finds some of her paintings, one of which is of a home on a blueberry farm. More importantly, she meets working-class dude Roy who fishes her out of the water after she falls off a dock. Right off the bat she passionately kisses him. She is stunned and embarrassed by her out-of-character behavior and he is just stunned (in a good way.) And he just happens to be the nephew of the man for whom Ellen has been searching, who just passed away 3 months ago. He and Grandma were young lovers. Roy is trying to save his uncle’s blueberry farm and Ellen, as an attorney, helps him do just that.

There were several things that really made this movie for me. The first one was the undeniable chemistry between Mark Blucas who plays Roy and Alison Sweeney who plays Ellen. They really put the physical attraction between the two characters on the front burner while the emotional attraction simmered along as well. When, later in the movie, Ellen’s scary mother (another reason why this movie really worked) and her nice fiance show up to bring her home, they both know right away that there is going to be trouble when they see the two together. Another reason I liked it was the slightly “out there” choice to have Ellen’s grandmother visit her to encourage and advise her when Ellen is alone. But she’s not a ghost, exactly, even though she’s dead. She just comes to Ellen who takes her appearances in stride, and they talk together. Loved the dose of fantasy and that she’s played by the late great Shirley Jones.

Ellen’s dilemma of choosing between the two men and the two ways of life, as well as her mother’s coercion to get her back to her prestigious career and socially prominent fiance provide drama and tension even though we know which path Ellen will choose. Because Ellen and Roy’s love cannot be denied. To top it all off, there is a nice happy ending epilogue and a very touching visual at the end that ties in the romance between Ellen’s Grandmother and Roy’s Great-Uncle. It was all meant to be.

Rating: 8 out of 10.

The Wedding Veil Journey

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The Best of the Bunch

At the beginning of the movie, The three friends have gotten together and since they are also enjoying their wine, we know it’s been well over a year since the end of “Inspiration” when we learned Emma was newly pregnant. It’s been a total of 3 years since they first bought the veil. We follow Tracy (Alison Sweeney) home and we see that she and Nick (Victor Webster) rarely see each other, as she works during the day as the head of an art auction house, and he at night at his two restaurants. After talking to her friends, Tracy is inspired to give her marriage the kick in the pants it needs and the two end up going on their long-delayed honeymoon. They decide on Greece, the veil in tow, to lend to Nick’s still single sister in Spain. As in the second installment, we are treated to some gorgeous scenery throughout the movie.

I believe this one was very well done. It was very well put together and although not really comedic, had plenty of amusing scenes, dialogue, and a lot of heart. Alison and Nick’s relationship was very loving and mature. Any rough patches were handled by communication and a sense of humor. At one point, Nick starts surreptitiously doing the cooking for one of the owners of the struggling inn they are staying at. His food is inedible which is both a running gag and a real problem. Tracy is irritated when he starts “working” on their honeymoon, but, no worries, it is handled with no silly drama. There is drama in this one, but it is definitely not silly. Tracy and Nick get close to a cute orphan boy, a talented artist and athlete, but who lives at his school under the rule of a temperamental headmaster who actively discourages his art. As he explains to the interfering Americans, Leo will have to earn his living when he leaves the school and can’t afford to indulge his talent in a vocation that will not support him.  He has no one to fall back on, unlike impractical art majors. The neighbor who was raising him after his parents died had to be put in a care facility for early Alzheimer’s. Leo lovingly sends him his drawings weekly but it is doubtful he even remembers Leo. It is a very tragic situation and when Tracy and Nick take Leo to visit him it is a real tearjerker.

Meanwhile, in the light sweet romance department,  the veil works its magic with the young beautiful Inn owner and the grandson of a wealthy aristocrat played by Jane Asher, a British actress most famous for being engaged to Paul McCartney in the 1960s. When the young man called her “Granny”, it was jarring, to say the least. Equally jarring was learning she is almost 80 years old! Off the subject, but hey, we all love the romance and happy endings Hallmark is famous for, right? After her very public breakup with Paul, Jane Asher met Gerald Scarfe, a famous English illustrator and cartoonist. They have been together for over 50 years, and happily married for over 40. Can we have a movie about that, please?

There was a lot going on in this 6th Wedding Veil movie: Mystery (the veil keeps disappearing) light romance, Humor (the inedible food and the victims’ efforts not to hurt the amateur chef’s feelings) suspense and drama ( the antagonistic head of the school), and some real heartwarming moments involving how Tracy and Nick handle their attachment to Leo and how they help him.  Tracy and Nick have to have a think about their whole lifestyle and the kind of people they are individually and as a couple.  I thought it was well handled, with due respect given to balancing each of their careers with their relationship along with how they handle the situation with Leo. Unlike some of its predecessors,  All of the plot threads were fully developed, interconnected, and well-integrated into one coherent story. We are also treated to a thought-provoking defense of the importance of art in everyday life.

Yes, Autumn Reeser and Lacey Chabert do horn in on Alison’s honeymoon, Autumn on a small pretext, but Lacey flying halfway around the world on no pretext whatsoever. This does serve to illustrate what a good sport Nick is, however. Tracy is one lucky woman. I want to add that Alison’s acting in this was superb. I once referred to Alison Sweeney as Hallmark’s best crier. She is, IMHO, but in this one, her performance was truly moving. And she was funny too.

After a 7th couple is brought together by the Wedding Veil, (Nick’s sister is now married, we hear,) Tracy, whose skepticism is a running thread throughout the series is forced to admit that she has no choice but to believe in Magic.  The movie ends with the women going shopping, being lured into a shop, and tempted by a beautiful antique necklace that, Oh No! has a legend attached to it. Everything has come full circle. Well played, Hallmark.

Rating: 9 out of 10.

The Wedding Veil Inspiration

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Terror in the Art Department

I liked most of this one. The script was smart and the plot was multilayered without being all over the place. All of the actors did a nice job.  Emma’s (Autumn Reeser) slowness to realize her professional life needed a reset got on my last nerve, but mostly it was very enjoyable, buoyed considerably by the charm of the secondary romance. The movie picks up a few months after the ending of  Lacey Chabert part II, A.K.A. The Wedding Veil Expectations. Paolo and Emma are living in Chicago with Emma pursuing her career goal of being the director of the Art History Department at the University.  Paolo is in the midst of opening the new Chicago location of his family’s lace business.


While her rigid taskmaster of a boss is preparing Emma to take her place as department head, Paolo is called back to Italy to deal with his father’s health crisis. Meanwhile, a cousin, Matteo, has left his home in Miami to live in Chicago and take over the day-to-day running of the new store. During the grand opening Matteo meets Lily, Emma’s assistant, and due to an almost accident, they both touch The Veil together and their fate is sealed. Carlo Marks as Matteo, and Kacey Rohl as Lily are both charming and appealing with Lily, in particular, having a quirky and well-rounded personality with a nice sense of humor. And a terrible haircut.

The main event, however, is the trouble Emma is having at work which is causing some hiccups in her and Paolo’s personal life and worrying her two best friends. The more she is groomed by her boss to take over the long-dreamed-of position, the more unhappy she becomes. Her very bossy boss insists she give up her teaching assignments, work longer hours (leaving less time with Paolo,) go to bureaucratic meetings, and stop posting her popular educational art videos. Emma complies unhappily with each new restriction. It is obvious to the viewer and everyone else except her that the post that has always been her professional goal is not a good match for her. When will the light dawn? When her tyrannical boss advises Autumn that she must give up her stylish wardrobe because it doesn’t reflect the image she must project, I thought that that surely must be the last straw. I mean, why would an ART professor have a wardrobe like a trial lawyer? But sure enough, she shows up at work the next day in a black “who died?” suit getting the side-eye from all of her friends and colleagues. At this point, I was getting remote-throwing level frustrated with her not putting her foot down. Adding to the pressure, are Paolo’s increasing obligations in Italy. Long-distance relationships don’t work for Emma, and she is in a quandary.

All is resolved finally with an unanticipated (by me, anyway) twist, that puts a new light on Emma’s struggles and bumped my rating up a star. I liked that Paolo was loving, clear-eyed, and patient throughout all of the drama, but was not a doormat.  I liked the lesson Emma learned at the end about building a happy life with your husband and working towards professional goals. But I wish she had learned it without being driven by force to the end of her rope.

Next week we have the last entry in this second trilogy. I am a little worried about that one because according to the previews it has Autumn and Lacey horning in on Alison Sweeney and Victor Webster’s delayed honeymoon. All I can say is that the reason for this intrusion better be good.

Rating: 8 out of 10.

The Wedding Veil Expectations

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Expectations Met, but not Exceeded

I found this only mildly entertaining. It was good to see the three women together again, I like the actress’s rapport and their characters’ solid long-term supportive friendship, and Lacey Chabert’s wardrobe choices remain a constant source of fascination. I will be front and center for Autumn Reeser’s turn in the spotlight next week. Or at least my DVR will be.

Basically, the plot was a series of bumps in the road and challenges revolving around Lacey’s character discovering that she’s pregnant, and dealing with a new and antagonistic executive director who has complete creative control over the museum in which she devotedly works. And other unrelated stuff. It is an episodic plot rather than one having a focused beginning, middle, and end.

First, we have the dilemma of how and when she is going to break the happy baby news to her husband. Her perfect romantic setting and plans are upended a couple of times. Finally, she just bursts out with the news after a little fight and all is well.

We have her hormones acting up and some amusing scenes regarding forgetfulness, cravings, aversions, nausea, and heightened emotions. Lacey is great in these scenes.

We have the loneliness of her mother-in-law established. A suitable love interest presents himself when she holds the magical veil. But hold the phone. Peter, her son and Lacey’s husband disapproves and is suspicious. He is rude, so we have the resulting break-up. She tells her swain she is still in love with her dead husband and also the new relationship is making her son unhappy. So which is it?

Meanwhile, we have Peter, the son and husband in question struggling with his conflicted feelings. There is an awkward but, thanks to the actors, entertaining, first meeting at a restaurant.

We have a big home renovation money-pit sub-plot. Lacey and Peter have bought an old historic home with lots (and lots) of constantly emerging problems. They pop up throughout the movie. They did not generate too much concern though, because Peter and Lacey are fabulously wealthy and can well handle the expense. Thus, Peter’s frustration and distress over all the bad news the doom merchant contractor continues to bring is kind of boring and comes across as a little whiny.  And why does a contractor care about Lacey’s color choice for her curtains anyway? Picky, I know, but it was just one of those “huh?” moments.

And Let’s not forget Peter’s tussles with the typically mean school board regarding the art program he heads. Several scenes about that.

And wait, there’s more. We have Lacey’s conflict with her “arrogant, opinionated” boss who wants to improve the suffering attendance at the museum by changing up the art. This includes getting rid of the first trilogy’s Amici portrait and the magical wedding veil it depicts. The drama of the conflict was blunted for me because I actually saw his point. In all of the scenes in the museum, I never saw one paying visitor. He was just doing his job. He thinks Lacey is a dilettante and overly emotional and invested in lace. In fairness, I couldn’t really blame him. Also I kind of liked the S.O.B. I was hoping that he would touch the veil, find love with Lucy the assistant, and turn into a good guy.

Throughout it all, we have Lacey on the phone or in person with her buddies venting, confiding, and getting advice and support. Alison Sweeney shone particularly in one of these scenes, turning insignificant dialogue into a genuinely touching half-a-minute.

All is resolved happily: Lacey’s professional challenges in particular by a scheme that dramatically bolsters the museum’s languishing attendance and saves the painting. It should have been enacted long before. I guess sometimes it takes a  bad guy to get the good guys off their patooties.

Rating: 7 out of 10.

A Magical Christmas Village

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Team Summer

**spoilers**

Summer is an architect and a single mother who is busy busy busy. She is all about fixing things, control, rules, and organization. She doesn’t have time for a serious relationship, and plus she just hasn’t felt that “spark” yet. She is kind of forced to take her hippy-dippy mother in, (Marlo Thomas) when her lover leaves town and sells the house she has been living in.

Her mother, Vivian, is the exact opposite of Summer. She believes in living in the moment and letting “the universe” guide her life. Plans Schmlans. Because of her lifelong irresponsibility, she is in a financial mess, without enough money to live on. Luckily, Summer and her other daughter, April, provide a safety net. But to my irritation, that does not stop her from nagging Summer about her overly planned-out life which has stopped her from living freely, finding love, and stopping to smell the roses. All while living in Summer’s home, on her dime, one step away from homelessness. At one point, she complains, “I didn’t ask you to be my keeper!” In my mind, she should have been humbly grateful and refrained from criticizing the work ethos that enabled Summer to help her. She certainly was not in any position to give Summer advice. She moves out. But where does she go? To her other daughter’s house!

The irony is that Summer is the way she is because of Vivian’s unstable parenting. It is revealed that 16-year-old Summer had to go to the bank and set up a payment plan after 6 months of living without electricity because Vivian just couldn’t be bothered to pay the bills after her husband died. That was heartbreaking. Throughout most of the movie, Vivian thinks she is some kind of wise shaman with all of the answers, which was far far from reality. I was not a fan, especially when Vivian’s refusal to discuss her financial situation combined with her defense of her lifestyle brought Summer to tears of frustration. Alison Sweeney is a really good actress.

The main story is about how the two women learn from each other and learn to find a happy medium. The always charming Luke Macfarlane provides the love interest and he has great chemistry with Alison Sweeney, which, TBH, I was kind of surprised about.

Their happy ending, and to a lesser extent, the rapprochement between Summer and Vivian is guided by the Magical Christmas Village that Vivian sets up at Summer’s house. Summer’s daughter starts to move the figurines around and soon figures out that she is also guiding the footsteps of people in real life as she does so. It was a cute concept if you don’t think about it too hard. This was pretty good, despite the fact that I hated Vivian’s guts through most of it.

Rating: 7 out of 10.

The Wedding Veil Legacy

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Last but not Least

The script was not a challenge for good actors: no great emotional highs and lows, but the whole cast of seasoned Hallmark actors did an excellent job. All handled the good humor and banter with aplomb. I particularly enjoyed Matty Finochio as the assistant, Stanley.

Tracy, played by Alison Sweeney, the third woman in the triumvirate of Wedding Veil owners begins her story by breaking up with her boyfriend, Finn. It is handled very maturely. He has gotten a great job across the country, and Tracy does not want to leave New York or her own great job. They are sad to part ways, but as we have gathered from the previous two installments, they have grown apart lately anyway.

Tracy takes the veil to a tailor(?) to have a snag repaired and meets Victor Webster getting fitted for a tuxedo. There is some good-natured raillery. Allison is planning an important party for her job and is in the market for a new caterer. Her search brings her to a new restaurant accompanied by Autumn and Lacey. Lo and behold Victor is the head chef and part-owner with his family. The meeting between the women and Victor is chuckle-worthy thanks to the three actresses’ comic timing and easy rapport.

The side story of Tracy’s mission to obtain a newly discovered early draft of the famous Emma Lazarus poem for the museum where it can be enjoyed by the public is interesting. It adds some suspense and provides the pretext (Victor might know an investor), along with picking out art for the new location of Victor’s restaurant, fun with food, and rug hauling around, for the promising couple to spend more time together. Alison and Victor make a good pair both age-wise and in physicality.

Unlike the second installment, the plot is tightly written. There are quite a few little stories, but the focus remains on the couple and their developing relationship. Every individual side element gets tied into the whole, including the Emma Lazarus poem welcoming immigrants to America. The continuing mystery of how the veil got to San Francisco is well incorporated into this final chapter and provides a satisfying conclusion involving a lovely coincidence and a twist. After the veil does its job of finding husbands for the three likable friends, it finds its own happy final home.

Of the three movies, I rank the first one the best for its humor, this one second for the well-constructed plot, and the second one my least favorite. 7 1/2 stars

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

February 21, 2022

The Wedding Veil Unveiled

/ Rebekahrox / 4 Comments

Prego!

In part two of the trilogy, The Wedding Veil Unveiled, Autumn Reeser is going to Italy to teach an Art History class for a month or so. She is taking the veil with her to confirm that it is the same veil in the portrait, and if so, to learn the history behind it. For one thing, how did it get to San Francisco? First of all, if I were Lacey Chabert or Alison Sweeney I would be royally P.O. ed that Autumn Reeser got to go to Italy for her part of the trilogy, and I didn’t. The beautifully photographed scenes in that country were one of the best parts of this one. While Autumn and her love interest are investigating the story behind the veil worn in the portrait by the fictional artist Amici we vicariously explore some beautiful destinations including Venice, Verona, Burano, and Padua. No Rome, and I didn’t miss it at all.

It seemed like there were more side stories in this one than is usual. The story behind the Veil was intriguing and well thought out. They brought in some hurdles for Autumn to overcome in teaching her Art History class which were engaging. It was good that they had the capable and poised Autumn screw up a little bit. Her buttoned-up personality needed to be loosened up. Her love interest, Paolo, had his own problems. He was part of a family that has been in the lace business for generations. We get to know his large loving family, which was nice. But he wants to expand the business, and his father is too cautious and conservative. One of the stories, about the young student who couldn’t afford the tuition came out of left field and was basically a time-filler since it was completely untethered to anything else going on in the stories. Since we didn’t have baking shenanigans, ice skating, or snowball fights? With the extraneous details given about the boy’s situation, it seemed like they were going to hook it in somewhere, but in the end, they just didn’t get it done.

Although the male lead was handsome and likable, the romance was just so-so, and more than a little routine. But I liked the meet-cute and the meet-cute part II. And when the final scene showed them getting married I admit I had an “Awwhh” moment. Maybe there was just too much other stuff going on.

I just want to add that Autumn’s wardrobe in this was beautiful and well-chosen and she looked great. I questioned a lot of the choices for (or by?) Lacey Chabert in part I, but the only thing that was a little questionable in this one was her choice of shoes to go sightseeing in. She looked very uncomfortable. Part 3 featuring the cynical unromantic Alison Sweeney character was well set up and I’m looking forward to it.

Rating: 7 out of 10.

February 15, 2022