Benjamin Hollingsworth

Christmas With the Singhs

/ Rebekahrox / 6 Comments
The current image has no alternative text. The file name is: singhs.jpg

Meet the Parents 2.0

Of course at the conclusion of this movie about the marriage of two young people almost derailed by their two competing cultures everything ends in happiness, peace, acceptance, and compromise. But is that really what it’s about? To my mind, it is more about a young modern Indian-American woman who has struggled to please her demanding and overprotective father all of her life, who finally stands up for herself thanks to her love for her Irish-American fiance and her desire not to lose her family while marrying her man.

Asha and Jake become reacquainted when he has to go to the emergency room where she is working as a Nurse Practitioner during the Christmas holidays. They had gone to high school together where Asha was the scholarly math whiz and Jake was a popular English major, homecoming king, and top athlete. He is currently a successful sports journalist. It is pretty much love at first sight in the emergency room, cue courtship and dating montage, which ends in a marriage proposal almost a year later at Christmas time. They are a sweet and likable couple played by Ben Hollingsworth and talented and beautiful Anuja Joshi as Asha. They are both excellent with great chemistry.

Now engaged, they are going back to their hometown to Meet The Parents. Trouble is foreshadowed by Asha’s  alarmed reaction to finding out that Jake did not receive Asha’s traditional father’s permission to ask for her hand in marriage. Yes, how could he not have known to do that, how could they not have met the parents before since they grew up in the same town, etc. But details details-I didn’t care. Also foreshadowing trouble with dear old Dad is Asha’s story that, pushed to be a M.D. all of her life, she had to pretend to fail the MCAT’s in order to keep the peace and pursue her real dream of Nursing. So we learn that, although bullied by her controlling  (but loving!) father, she is strong and has found a way to live her own life. Throughout the movie, Asha struggles with wanting to stand up to her father Samuel’s behavior despite her respect for his struggles and sacrifice. Anuja Joshi’s deft performance ensures we empathise with and understand her dilemma instead of being frustrated by her inability to put her foot down. When she introduces Jake to her otherwise warm and welcoming family, her father does not disappoint in the trouble and strife department. I will just summarize every micro and macro (mostly macro) aggression by just saying that he is rude and obnoxious to poor Jake at every opportunity.

When Asha is introduced to Jake’s divorced parents, there are challenges but nothing compared to what  Asha’s father inflicts on Jake and indirectly, Asha. The big conflict is about wearing or not wearing shoes in the family home. Both Jake Sr. and Molly are sometimes awkward, only a bit demanding, but always well-meaning. Our couple’s situation is surprisingly layered. Despite all of the stress, there is a lot of family warmth and humor in this movie. Jake’s Mom and Dad are a little quirky and very free and easy, while the Singhs are a large close family but immersed in tradition and structure. We learn, thanks to Jake’s father’s uncomfortable probing that the couple are not on the same page regarding having children. He is worried about that and doesn’t want them to make the same mistakes he and Molly made. It turns out that Jake’s mom is a former rival of Asha’s father in the town’s house decorating contest. He has won the prize many years in a row but only after Molly effectively abdicated her throne after her divorce from Jake’s Dad. She is now  the queen of the local Christmas Pageant instead. We see that there might be some social divide between the two as, when they meet some of their former school mates, they express surprise that the High School big shot and the under-the-radar Nerd are engaged. There is a financial gap between the two families as well, with the suburban Singhs apparently much wealthier than the more urban O’Briens.

 The Singh’s devout Christianity is an important part of this story. Their religion is unusual for Indians and has brought challenges both in India and in the immigrant community. Asha’s mother was raised Hindu but fell in love with her husband’s faith and converted. When Asha and Jake are late to church and the father’s traditional reading of the Christmas story his anger brings all of the tension and misunderstandings between the two families to a head. Samuel, his Christian spirit left by the wayside, verbally attacks Jake and his family. Jake stands up to Asha’s dad (finally) to defend his family, and Asha runs off to do some thinking. It is quite a scene, but nothing compared to what follows. I’ll just say that repentance and forgiveness are front and center, and Asha really steps up to the plate.

Manoj Sood is wonderful as Samuel, the head of the Singh family. I hated his attitudes and his behavior, but somehow couldn’t quite hate him. Okay, I did strongly dislike him. But he manages to convey warmth and love beneath his harshness to his beloved daughter’s fiance. At the end, his remorse and pain at his own behavior was touching and authentic. The actor’s range was truly on display. The whole cast was great, but the detailed multilayered script, packed with many subtle and revealing details, drama, humor, and warmth was the star. And the romance and mature relationship between the two lovers were pretty great as well.

Rating: 9 out of 10.

A Whitewater Romance

/ Rebekahrox / 11 Comments

Capsized

“Spoilers”

This is about 4 employees from different parts of the country who meet on a mysterious camp retreat so that Allegra Adams, the head of their corporation, Vesta, can pick one. For what, I have no idea and neither do they. But a lot of words are thrown around like “contract”, “bid”, “launch” “scout” “proposal” and “take the lead”. We do know that Allegra is the powerful and successful CEO of this corporation which has something to do with something technological and that the 4 employees are utterly in her power. They are on this weekend work retreat to compete against each other sometimes and be teammates doing team building sometimes by playing infantile and sometimes dangerous games. Yes, raw eggs and running with them are involved.

Our heroine, Maya, (Cindy Busby), is promised an executive position by her immediate boss if she beats her fellow participants into a bloody pulp using fair means or foul. The phrase “cream rises to the top” is used. If Maya wins, her boss figures, her East Coast Office wins and they will “get the contract.”  It seemed to me that this strategy might not sit too well with the most high boss of bosses, Allegra, who after all, hand-picked all 4 of the participants and who are all her “head engineers,” “ lead scientists,” or “chiefs of production” except Cindy, who works in a cubicle. That is weird. But also weird is that Allegra invited Cindy personally without explanation, skipping over the chain of command entirely.  But Cindy dutifully tries to follow the little boss’s strategy for winning the project. Fortunately, she is just too nice to actually follow through with anything nefarious. But unfortunately, she keeps a handwritten notebook of all of her sketchy spying and dubious plans for her rivals which ultimately leads to the big misunderstanding at the end. Her notebook is somehow found by the man she has grown to love half burned up (but still readable) after she threw it in the campfire in a fit of shame and regret. Why she would throw the notebook of iniquity in the fire goes unasked by Ben and unanswered. But I get ahead of myself.

This is mostly a fish out of water story, with indoorsy Maya, symbolized by her pink clothes while the others are in flannel and khakis, being the fish. It is mostly played for laughs which are not very funny. Lots of antics in this one. Cindy seemed to be trying too hard and Ben Hollingsworth who plays her outdoorsy love interest was handsome but boring.

As Allegra puts them all through their paces with the deadly, interminable, and inane games, camping, and whitewater rafting, I was hoping against hope for a big twist that would partially save this mess. No, not a fatal accident. I was waiting for one of the young tech wunderkinds to finally stand up and challenge Allegra the genius on what the hell all this nonsense had to do with determining which office was most qualified to lead the project at hand. Allegra would then congratulate this maverick on being the only one with a grain of sense and an ounce of leadership, declare them the winner, and ask them what took them so long they should have quit on the first day. I can dream, can’t I? But no, it was all on the level even though they all got promotions and no one got fired. We never find out who “got the contract.” Maya ends up being sent to Paris along with her new boyfriend to head up Vesta’s new international office jumping over the lame promotion she was promised in the beginning by her New York City boss who has apparently been sidelined entirely. And a Lodge is saved.  This one was limp with cliches, tropes, and stereotypes. It made no sense and just seemed like a lame excuse to give Cindy Busby still another adventure in the great outdoors. I like Cindy, or I used to, and Hallmark seems to love her, but it’s been years since I’ve seen her in a movie I really liked a lot.

Rating: 3 out of 10.

An Easter Bloom

/ Rebekahrox / 15 Comments

Flower Power

Aimee Teegarden plays a young lady in her mid twenties who has lost her faith because her Dad, who was very into church and Christianity, died of a heart attack. She has come home to “the farm” to help her still religious mother. The farm is a flower farm that is struggling because of what I like to call “bad business.” This is a condition that most Hallmark businesses that need to be saved suffer from. Basically, it can be defined as owners who, allergic to making a profit, try to run a business based on a very flawed business plan. This includes but is not limited to having a store with little to no merchandise in it, having a store with merchandise that people only buy a  month and a half out of the year, merchandise that no one would ever want and refusing to sell merchandise that they actually might want, a business that gives its products away for free, a business with no workers or volunteer workers, owners who have no idea how to use modern business tools like social media, etc., etc. To add to the financial difficulties, usually the owners live in huge and gorgeous  McMansions as do Aimee and her mother. Their lifestyle is supported by people who come to the flower farm to “pick their own bouquets”. There is no mention of any large clients who buy their flowers wholesale in bulk. No 1-800-FLOWERS inc., in sight. Plus this is one of those farms that don’t have any farm workers.

Because of too cold weather, the flowers of Aimee’s flower farm won’t grow in time for Easter, prime bouquet season. We know this because Aimee keeps stabbing at the concrete-like ground with a farm implement and muttering things about God in a bad way. Also they apparently don’t have a greenhouse. Presumably her farm is all perennials because there is no mention of not being able to plant seeds, which wouldn’t bloom in time for Easter anyway. But the odd thing is that there are flowers all around everywhere you look in this town, including in Aimee’s house. Where are those flowers coming from? Maybe Aimee and her mother’s farm is cursed, because it is apparently the only flower farm in the north east that can’t grow flowers. Maybe they need an exorcist in addition to the mother’s faith and prayer.  Anyway, the mortgage has not been paid in months and they just got a foreclosure letter from the bank. Aimee can’t believe it and doesn’t understand. Plus, the bank has turned down their loan application which is not surprising because they have not paid their mortgage in months and are foreclosing. It’s like trying to pay your credit card bill with your credit card. But Aimee and her mother are very disappointed that their fool-proof plan of borrowing money from the people you owe money to did not work. Possible salvation arrives when their good-guy neighbor offers to buy the farm for a generous amount of money which sounds like more than the farm is worth. He is turned down because that is the way it is with struggling businesses in Hallmarkland. The struggling owners always prefer to have the bank take over leaving them with nothing rather than selling their failing businesses for mucho dinero. In order to stave off disaster, Aimee is going to increase her hours at the coffee shop she works at and her mother will do more baking of Snickerdoodles that the coffee shop owner has generously offered to sell without taking a cut of the profits. Good plan. Solid. People like to give Aimee and her mother stuff throughout this whole movie. Also, the mom is going to increase her hours at the accountants. What? She works for an accountant? Amazing.

Thanks to her new friendship with a nice woman and former florist who has moved back to town from a long absence, Aimee enters a statewide flower arranging contest which she had no idea existed despite selling flowers for a living. The prize money for first prize is $20,000 dollars! Who is sponsoring this contest that can afford to offer a $20,000 purse for first prize? That’s the business I would want to be in. This nice woman is the mother of the new pastor at church who is the love interest. While teaching Aimee the basics of flower arranging she is also one of the several sources of inspirational quotes that inspire Aimee throughout the movie and, along with the handsome new pastor, lead her back to church and God.

Spoiler alert. To make a long story short, Aimee comes in second and doesn’t get the $20,000 needed to save the farm. The pastor and she become a couple after a breach is healed caused by Aimee eavesdropping on a private conversation the pastor was having and her misunderstanding of what was going on.  His mother heals a beef she has had with the town grouch with a heart of gold, who happens to be the winner of the $20,000 prize. Also the pastor tells his parishioners his big secret that he is a fan of extreme sports and because of an accident he had, he was almost paralyzed and one of his former students was left in a wheelchair. Throughout the movie, Aimee has been accepting gifts from enablers kind townspeople. Buying all of Mom’s snickerdoodles, free flowers so she doesn’t have to practice with artificial ones, free flower arranging lessons, free clothes, etc. So it is no surprise when the winner of the contest, for no reason whatsoever, bestows her prize money on Aimee with no strings attached. Aimee is pleased to accept.  So the farm is temporarily saved. Do the flowers ever sprout? We never find out. But it doesn’t matter, because Aimee and Mom are finally going to have another income stream thanks to the bright idea of turning the farm into a wedding venue. There is no evidence that they know any more about weddings than they do about flowers, but let’s have faith that it just might work. Bless them.  I’m giving this 5 stars because I like Ben Hollingsworth who played the pastor. His mother was nice and I liked the actress who played her too. It was a sweet movie that was very appropriate for Easter, being about miraculous happenings and such.

Rating: 5 out of 10.

The Santa Summit

/ Rebekahrox / 6 Comments

Finding Waldo was Easy Compared to This

I didn’t think I’d like this one when I saw the previews. It seemed self-consciously goofy and manic. And the idea of a romance movie where the couple spends the whole time apart looking for each other just does not float my boat. Boy was I wrong. Thanks to the funny script, out-of-the-box plot, and the lovable cast, this one was a winner.

The story centers around our main girl, Jordin, and main guy, Liam, played by Hunter King and Ben Hollingsworth, trying to find each other during a big day-long Christmas party/celebration called “The Santa Summit.” Everyone dresses as some version of Santa Claus and goes from fun activity to fun activity throughout the whole day. The two strangers, dressed as Santa clauses meet and during a 5-minute conversation form a real connection. Unfortunately, they are parted before they can get each other’s names and details and end up searching for each other in a sea of other Santas, finding clues along the way, for the whole movie. What makes the search so enjoyable and entertaining is Jordin’s two friends who go with her to the Summit and the people they meet throughout the day. Although Jordin and Liam do not meet up again until the end, there are encounters between Liam, his brother, and the two friends, Ava and Stella, and other miscellaneous coincidences and near misses that contribute to the final happy ending. Ava is a nerdy Lord of the Rings quoting math teacher, and Stella is a grumpy Grinch of a former music teacher. Along with Jordin, each finds love and learns some valuable lessons along the way.

This, like two other Christmas movies this year was very high energy with quick amusing throwaway lines, running jokes, and clever banter. It was tightly knit and every scene seemed to contribute to the plot or the character arcs of our likable ensemble cast. At least I can’t remember any needless silly montages or boring tentpole scenes that serve no purpose other than to stretch the movie out to its required 88 minutes.  The friendship of the 3 women was front and center, as well as the relationship between Liam and his brother. But the charming sweet romances were not relegated to the back burner in this one. Shy Ava (the always-welcome and talented Amy Groening) has been secretly in love with a fellow nerdy teacher for a couple of years and finally finds the courage during the Santa Summit to confess her love to him. Of course, it turns out he has always felt the same way about her. Stella’s grumpiness is a wall she has put up to protect herself from more disappointment since she hasn’t been able to teach music anymore because of budget cuts. She meets the mysterious stranger Freddy who challenges her to embrace music once again. Stephanie Sy who plays Stella was the star of the show in my opinion. Her sour disgusted tone of voice and facial expressions throughout the day are priceless. And when she finally gets up on stage in public and busts out with one of the most joyful versions of “Jingle Bells” you can imagine, it was the highlight of the movie.

It all came together beautifully at the end with the help of a lovingly constructed Gingerbread House, a silent disco, a hapless mascot dressed as a Christmas Tree, and a Reindeer bicycle taxi driver who never gets paid, but who gives our heroine a stern lecture near the end that provides a wake-up call and restores her hope and joy. When I saw Jeff Beesley was the director of this gem, I wasn’t surprised. The attention to detail was impressive as always. And was that Niall Matter in an uncredited cameo at the end?

Rating: 9 out of 10.

Romance in Style

/ Rebekahrox / 2 Comments

“Go Ella!” Literally, Just Go.

This was good for the first 70%. The premise was intriguing and anytime Hallmark resists the urge to fall back on their go-to templates, it always feels fresh.

Ella (think Cinderella), a sewer (I guess I should have said seamstress) in the fashion industry, has aspirations to be a dress designer specializing in clothes for the average woman, such as herself, both in price and size. She has already gotten some love from a premiere designer who has seen promise in her designs (think Vera Wang). She has a meet-cute with a seemingly entitled self-absorbed (but handsome!) man at a coffee shop on her way to do some freelance sewing work for the fashion magazine her friend works at (think Vogue). We meet her friend’s mean-girl bosses who are very much like Meryl Streep and Emily Blunt from The Devil Wears Prada. Lo and Behold, it turns out that the charming gentleman (Prince Charming, that is) whom she traded good-natured barbs with at the coffee shop is the son of the new owner of the media company who has been sent to turn things around for the struggling magazine.

I really liked that the powerful love interest, Derek, played by Ben Hollingsworth, and our heroine were aligned on the same side against Meryl and Emily who did not want to expand their fashion coverage to include anyone over a size 4. He likes her and he likes her ideas. Recognizing her talent and knowledge, he relies on her to tutor him in the ins and outs of the fashion industry. They work together to develop the digital version of the magazine to appeal to a larger audience. No pun intended. He decides to feature her and her designs much to the resentment and anger of the mean girls. The stage is perfectly set for drama, sabotage, confrontation, and a hopefully massive take-down of Meryl and Emily, the wicked stepsister and stepmother.

The precarious current state of print media and its challenges are not ignored. Usually, with Hallmark, successful independent bookstores abound and magazines and newspapers are super successful and legion to provide gainful and glamorous employment for our heroes and heroines. The set design and graphics were stylish and imaginative and the fashions actually looked fashionable. The pace was energized and the dialogue snappy.

Unfortunately, the ending was extremely weak and brought my final rating down a whole star. The big misunderstanding at the end was too dumb for words. It entailed Ella swallowing the obvious lie from mean girl #2 that Derek really didn’t care anything about her and was just using her. Why would she even stay in the same room with the nasty venomous bitch let alone listen to and believe her? Ben had never been anything but kind and supportive. Anyway, she does, and leaves the big launch party in a huff before Ben can introduce her to the fashion world as a hot new designer. She simultaneously disses the Vera “fairy godmother” Wang character and embarrasses everyone into the bargain. She not only potentially tanks her romance with the rich, powerful, and nice Ben but her dream career as well. Talk about self-hatred! Of course, the happy ending can’t be denied. All is forgiven. But then we are robbed of the pleasure of seeing the wicked stepsisters being taken down by turning them into nice girls at the last minute for no reason other than expediency. (“Go Ella!”, they cheer.) If you’re going to do Cinderella, don’t leave out the best part.

Rating: 6 out of 10.

August 16, 2022

Love Under the Olive Tree

/ Rebekahrox / Leave a comment

At Least You Can Learn About Olive Oil

Even though this Hallmark has a relatively high rating all of the actual reviews seem to be very negative. So I feel like it’s my duty to give it a good review. First of all yes, yes, yes, it does incorporate many many many of the Hallmark clichés and stock storylines. What a shocker! Alert the media. First of all, I liked the Olive oil-making plotline. It was certainly different and I enjoyed the fresh setting other than chocolate, wine, and cupcakes. It was interesting, unlike blueberries or pumpkins. The two leads had good chemistry. The family conflict and rivalry kept my interest. I liked that the grandfathers who started the feud were actually more reasonable than their offspring. It was realistic. I also loved the secondary romance of her best friend and the coffee shop owner. It was sweet. I was invested in the outcome of the olive oil judging and wager and happy that there was a clear winner and it was the one I was rooting for. And Tori Anderson is always a treat. Wait a minute. That Poster. What the heck are they drinking there?

Rating: 7 out of 10.

June 27, 2020

Can’t Buy My Love

/ Rebekahrox / 2 Comments

Small, Medium, and Large

As is typical with PixL movies, this has a lot more going on than the typical Hallmark. In this one, we have 3 romances: Small (the dad and his housekeeper), Medium (the black sidekick), and Large. Large being the main story of a spoiled entitled rich boy who falls for a hardworking EMT with her eye on medical school. Because of the juggling of 3 plot lines, plus the getting into medical school story, this story percolates along at quite a good pace and kept my interest. I must say this 2017 story was a bit ahead of its time. The worthy EMT was denied a place in med school once because she was jumped over by someone way down the waiting list because of his/her large donation to the school. She is understandably bitter about that. This plot point provides the conflict when she thinks the rich boy did the same for her. It’s a good thing Hallmark didn’t make this one with their one time regular Lori Loughlin as a cast member.

Rating: 7 out of 10.

June 7, 2020

Lucky in Love

/ Rebekahrox / Leave a comment
When Mira’s April Fool’s Day tricks materialize, she finds herself promoted to the perfect job, dating the perfect man and living in the perfect home. Mira’s newly upgraded life even involves working with her CEO and her good friend, on a coveted work project. When these seemingly positive changes result in big challenges, Mira realizes that the pursuit of perfection is a fool?s errand. In order to achieve a life that’s perfect for her, Mira must let go of perfection and chase what brings her true happiness.

I Change My Vote!

When I first saw this movie 4 or 5 years ago, I gave it a 5. I just rewatched it and I am bumping my grade up to an 8. Unfortunately, this is a sad commentary on how mediocre the current crop of Hallmark-type movies are. They now churn them out so frequently, that the quality of the acting, plot, chemistry between the leads, directing, and writing has inevitably suffered. Consequently, when I see one that is halfway decent or has one great thing going for it, it earns at least a 7 from me. This one features some actors who have since made it pretty big in Hallmark-Land. namely Benjamin Hollingsworth, Ryan Kennedy, and Peter Benson. And low and behold Cindy Busby in a bit part as a friend of our heroine and barely recognizable with brown hair. I loved Jessica Szohr in the lead role as a girl who achieves the life of her dreams due to a series of coincidences. She was very exotic looking and a far cry from the pageant-ready looks favored by most Hallmark heroines. Her acting was top notch as well, and I loved the ups and downs she goes through to achieve her happy ending and the right man for her. All in all, it was very entertaining, especially since they didn’t cling to stereotypical black or white characterizations. The guy who was the initial “villain” turns out to be a great guy, and our good girl heroine turns into a bit of a bitch before she sees the error of her ways. It looks like Jessica has gone on to other projects besides Hallmark. Hallmark would do well to groom more female leads with her range and interesting looks.

Rating: 8 out of 10.

March 1, 2020

A Wish Come True

/ Rebekahrox / Leave a comment

Lazy and Weak.

This was a very sub-par entry in the Hallmark romance line-up. Nothing to recommend it except Ben Hollingsworth and his performance. Very lazy production. I liked Megan Park’s looks (not your typical ex-beauty queen thing going on… thank you for sparing me that at least), but her character was boring and charmless. The whole story consists of her getting all of her childhood wishes. Utterly predictable “Be careful what you wish for” scenario. All of these Hallmances are predictable but the better ones have some good conflict, maybe a little suspense, an evil nemesis to hiss and boo at, a nice learning curve, some good humor, nice performances, great chemistry or, golly, something to entertain and keep your interest. This one had none of these in addition to an incredibly annoying father and ex-boyfriend. The rival for her hand was a nonentity. The scene at the end where the doggie put a mysterious note in the trashcan was bewildering. **2 out of 10 stars**

Rating: 2 out of 10.

February 1, 2015