Castles in the Sand

After last week’s super special movie offering, we conclude Hallmark’s Summer Nights line up with a shrug, and a “not bad, actually.” The most notable thing about it was the return of Brennan Elliot as the co-lead in a Hallmark premiere. As a Hallmark mainstay and an old favorite of mine, he has been missed. Playing opposite him is a beautiful and age-appropriate Erica Cerra, who has only been in one Hallmark prior to this one. She plays Marley, the single mother of a teenager who is also a very talented and in-demand architect. After her divorce from Lily’s father she left their own firm, gave up her first love of designing homes, and started working for another firm designing commercial real estate i.e. shopping malls. Although this kind of work is unfulfilling, she has become a victim of her own success and popularity. The owner of the firm, Joan, seemingly cannot get along without her. She is in constant demand and is overworked and tied to her cell phone, always at Joan’s beck and call. Her personal life is non-existent and has exacted a toll on her relationship with her teenage daughter, Lily. In an early scene, she asks Lily how her Chemistry exam went and instead of listening to her answer, she calls the IT department. The whole mess is epitomized by a mother-daughter trip to Paris which never happens because work always gets in the way. Marley tries to explain to Lily that she has to work so hard in order to afford to go to Paris which is why they never go to Paris. Not surprisingly, Lily, no dummy, doesn’t buy it. Thank goodness she does not have an overbearing mother or best friend constantly badgering her to “get out there” and find herself a new man in her spare time. When her ex-husband is prevented from taking Lily on a promised beach vacation due to his own work demands, Marley, finally determined to re-establish connection with her daughter, takes his place. And off to Cannon Cove they go for “Sand Fest”, which features a big sand castle building competition.  But the bad news is she also takes along her laptop and phone so she can work on her current project for the needy Joan. It never ceases to amaze me when Hallmark heroines are powerful in the workplace because they are so irreplaceable, but never put their foot down.

Enter Brennan Elliot as Adam. He is a successful general contractor and the owner of the house next door to where Lily and Marley are staying in Cannon Cove. Marley mistakes him for the plumber she called to fix a faucet and is amazed when his phone keeps beeping with text messages but he doesn’t feel obliged to answer it or even look at them. She almost blows a gasket right there in the kitchen! Adam is not only there to be Marley’s love interest but also to teach her that sacrificing her personal life and her relationship with her daughter for work is a choice, not an imperative. She is an apt pupil, leaving Joan unanswered and dangling throughout the whole movie. But we soon learn that Adam has his own problems. He was dumped by his ex, and he has a problem letting their life together go.  This is symbolized by their old house, which he is constantly updating and working on instead of selling it and moving forward from his past dreams. Adam has a niece who is Lily’s age, and along with his sister, they form a temporary found family with Adam and Marley quickly (very quickly) falling into a romantic relationship. They enter the sand castle building contest as a team of 4, which serves as one of the means by which they will learn their necessary life lessons. One of which, needless to say, is the ever-popular Work/Life Balance.

Besides the lack of a badgering mother, there are several things I liked about this movie. The inside look at sand castle building added some interest. One of the competitors was an old rival of Adam’s which added some tension. I liked the final outcome of the contest. I liked that although Marley was incommunicado with Joan, she still completed her project successfully and on time. Yay for professional responsibility and loyalty. I was quite amused when poor Joan calls Marley’s ex-husband as her emergency contact (next-of-kin?) when she can’t get her on the phone. The ex-husband, played by occasional Hallmark actor, David James Lewis (formerly known as David Lewis, lol) was a bright spot. He was not only not a threat, but was a good guy and instrumental in smoothing over the roadblocks to Marley escaping from Joan’s clutches and getting back to her first love, designing homes not strip malls. He also rendered Marley and Lily’s trip to Paris an upcoming reality, not just a dream. He was also instrumental in getting Adam to move to Seattle so he and Marley could continue their promising romance. Come to think of it, ol’ ex-husband Dan was quite the hero and a deus ex machina par excellence. That new wife of his is a lucky woman. Unexplained is how the newly liberated Marley is going to find the time to start and run her own architectural firm and still be an involved mother. 7 stars.

And we bid good-bye to “Summer Nights.” Hello “Christmas in July!”