Carmel Amit

Adventures in Love & Birding

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Love Birds

Back to the Hallmark saltmines (I kid) after a three week hiatus while The Groomsmen trilogy was being shown instead of new premieres. I had already seen them thanks to a free trial of Hallmark+. They weren’t horrible or anything, but not particularly memorable either and I had no desire to see them again for reviewing purposes. 

This seemed like it could be a promising back to business movie as it paired two longtime Hallmark veterans for the very first time in a Hallmark (which was hard to believe). Predictably, they were very good together in this first of the “Fall Into Love” grouping. Only a few weeks until “Countdown to Christmas!” Yikes!  Rachel Boston was her usual very very animated self and Andrew Walker was Andrew Walker, which is a pretty good thing. It was about the hobby of birding which was different. They were age appropriate for their roles which caused the movie not to lose 1 (or sometimes 2) stars in my 1 to 10 star rating scale.

Rachel plays Celeste who was recently dumped by her husband of 22 years. She is fine though, other than the usual busybody friends who are trying to set her up with various men and are constantly hounding her to “get back out there” when all she wants to do is reorganize the garage. She is also a little verklempt because her high school senior daughter will be going away to college soon. She wants to spend more time with her but her daughter has her own busy life. Actually, her daughter is trying to distance herself a little to prepare for the wrench of leaving her home and Mom. Also she is nursing some doubts about going to college right away, but we don’t know that yet. Andrew plays John who was recently dumped by his long time girlfriend and birding partner. He quit pursuing his doctorate and left teaching for an office job which pissed her off. He likes the outdoors and wants to start his own birding guide business. (Add this one to the Hallmark Dubious Business list.) Celeste is recruited by a mutual friend to be John’s birding partner in the annual NorCal Ornithological Society’s Bird-a-Thon. And Celeste gets the idea that she is supposed to pretend like she is his fake girlfriend as well as mutual birding enthusiast to show up the cheating competitive b**ch who is also participating. She is mistaken in this extra assignment, which leads to an amusing first meeting with John in front of his Ex and her new partner/boyfriend. The stakes are a lot higher this year because a corporate sponsor has put up prize money to the tune of “5 figures”. So if he wins it, the 10,000 to 99,999 dollar prize (I’m guessing closer to the lower figure) will decide John’s path in life: risk going into the Bird guide business or staying on the corporate fast track at the office. By the way, the number of different birds each couple count in the 3 week long contest (the highest count wins), is run on the honor system. That seemed very naive to me especially this year since money was involved. They couldn’t take a picture of the birds they spot? Just to keep honest people honest? Sounds like Bad Business to me.

Anyway, bird montages and romance ensue. Besides the birding, Celeste and John also attend some outside functions together and the relationship building was good. Extra points for a rare mid-movie uninterrupted kiss. Rachel and Andrew had an easy rapport and really played well together. The secondary story of Celeste and her daughter Morgan’s changing relationship and Morgan’s doubts about her future played well also. I even had a little sniffle at  the end. Speaking of Morgan, the actress who played her, Talisa Mae Stewart looked awfully familiar. It turns out she is a dead ringer for similarly named Taissa Farmiga who played Gladys in The Gilded Age.

Talisa
Taisa

 

So that was pretty interesting. The last minute temporary break up was dumb as usual but at least it didn’t involve hearing one half of a private conversation while eavesdropping and totally getting everything ass-backwards. All in All, lots more good than bad. A respectable but unspectacular “7”.

Rating: 7 out of 10.

The Santa Class

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Campy Christmas Camp

Kimberly Sustad plays Kate North who has inherited North Star Academy, a school for Santas from her recently retired father. “What is a Santa School?” you may well ask. Well, it’s just what it sounds like. It’s for the training of those aspiring to be “picture perfect” Santa Clauses in order nab the most prestigious Santa jobs at the best malls, department stores, and parades. After her father retired, most of her clients have left for the competition (more on that later) and she, already only reluctantly trying to run this school, is left with 6 trainees which on the surface could only be described as pretty hopeless. We have a Jewish hippie Santa, a very intense  woman Santa with a chip on her shoulder (for some  reason), A Santa who speaks through a hand puppet-excuse me- “figure” aka “ “a talking piece of felt,” an elderly cool black Santa who wants to prove himself to his grandkids, a young skinny Santa who is only there to research his doctoral thesis on Santa Mythology, and an actor named “Paul Campbell”, up for a part in a Christmas Movie and played by my and many others’ favorite Hallmark actor, Paul Campbell.

Things are not going well. To add to her woes, we have the aforementioned competition, the Saint Nicholas School, “America’s Top Santa School,” which has been has been sucking the life out of North Star Academy for years. Back in 2013, North Star Academy’s business manager Blaise left to set up his own school, because Kate’s father, a legend in the business, was too focused on turning out wonderful Santas and not making as much profit as he could. Blaise has built a very profitable corporate-backed school and is now about to branch out into training Cupids, Leprechauns, and Easter Bunnies. Kate is on the verge of selling out to the owner of many malls who has offered to buy the school. He is actually nice and not a bad guy. Kate’s love interest is a hot shot Santa trainer (voted the best in America), played by Hallmark mainstay Ben Ayers, who was recently fired from St. Nicholas by Blaise because his high salary was eating into the board members’ Christmas bonuses. Kate and Dan went on a date once but Kate dumped him when she found out he worked for money-grubbing Blaise. Now fired Dan comes to Kate begging her for a job, and she agrees to take him on as her Santa trainer for the current session. Ben and Kimberley’s chemistry was excellent. She is such a presence that she needs a strong actor as a partner, and they both shine in these goofball roles.

Can we just say that  this movie is not thoroughly grounded in reality?  And this is not solely due to the fantasy element which is introduced when, driving back to Kate’s school,  they almost run over an old fat man in a red suit who is stumbling down  the middle of the road. It’s the real Santa Claus! But he has hit his head somehow and has amnesia. Kate and Dan know he is the real one because they both see his sleigh with his 8 reindeer flying away back home. They decide to take him back to her school to take care of him and help him regain his memory of who he is before it’s too late for all of the little boys and girls of the world to get their presents.

We are asked to just ignore a lot of questionable or nonsensical plot elements. The main thing is that the action is set during Christmas season right on up to Christmas Day. Shouldn’t Santas be trained during the summer or early autumn? There they are at Santa school when they should be already fully trained and working at being Santa Clauses. Even though the ending is happy and full of hope, we are not sure why. Nothing is really resolved. Yes, our team won the “Christmas Cup” from their rival, but it really doesn’t solve any of their problems. The money-rich corporate backed competition is still there, even though bad Blaise’s heart grew a few sizes thanks to a special gift from Santa Claus. I wasn’t convinced Kate still didn’t feel trapped running the school. Is Dan really worthy of her? And other stuff.

But it was fine! The presence and performance of Kimberly Sustad and the rest of the cast of characters more than made up for any gaps in logic. The whole plot line was kind of brave and really outside the usual box. It just barreled along and just kind of dared the viewer to question what was going on with the details. It was really funny with lots of jokes (some inside jokes for Hallmark fans), snappy dialogue, snarky banter, and interesting well acted characters. Trevor Lerner was perfect as Santa Claus, whose magic keeps popping out as needed. The romance between Kate’s academic sister Bailey (Doctor of European Folklore) and the the doctoral candidate Santa was cute. As a parting gift, Santa gives Kate a beacon in the form of a magic whistle which she is to use if she ever needs Santa’s help again. So that solves everything. We don’t have to worry or question that the future success of Kate’s business or her love life will be anything but but guaranteed. And I feel like there was hint of a sequel on the horizon. So maybe the loose ends will be tied up eventually.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Field Day

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“As soon as you think you’ve got it all figured out, Bam! A wall of corn.”

~~Musings in the Corn Maze~~

Very Nice. Very Very Nice. Field Day is another Hallmark plot that ventures off the usual beaten track of go to small town add festival and old boyfriend and save some tired old institution. Yes, it’s another Hallmark that mixes it up a bit. This happily seems to be becoming a trend. Rachel Boston, who has been getting a lot of Hallmark work these days, plays Jen, a widowed mother of a teenager who moves back home closer to her and her late husband’s parents for support. Needless to say, she is still nursing her grief and has closed herself off from truly moving forward in her life, especially her love life.  OK, OK, so far it does sound like business as usual. And there is a festival. But trust me.

Jen is sharp, funny, and relatable. Driving her daughter to school in her pajama bottoms, “because no one will see. I’m not getting out of the car”, the inevitable happens and she winds up out of the car, attending a PTO meeting, and roped into volunteering for the dreaded Field Day fundraising event with two other moms we have been introduced to.  Marissa is a confident and canny Lawyer Mom who has put her family on the back burner in favor of her career. Kelly is an annoying Social Media Mom with over 10,000 followers devoted to maintaining her influencer image as the perfect wife and mother. Together they form an unlikely trio intent on making the infamous field day a success, (despite the mean-girl PTO president). In the process, they become firm friends and regain the balance in each of their lives. It doesn’t start off well. Kelly and Marisa have been on the outs because Kelly once publicly pointed to Marissa as an example of how working mothers neglect their kids. And now, to compound the situation, she just posted a picture of newcomer Jen’s pajama bottoms as #3 of 5 things not to do at a PTO meeting. Kelly sounds like a real stinker, but thanks to good writing and acting, we like her anyway. After many bonding adventures and the highs and lows of putting on field day, Marissa regains her work/life balance and Kelly realizes she doesn’t need her phony perfect image and becomes her real self. Jen, who is the main focus of the story, starts to become “unstuck” and (bonus!) finds love with the school’s athletic coach played by a well-cast Benjamin Ayers. Because he has some issues to overcome as well, their romance doesn’t follow the usual predictable arc and is interesting and engaging.

Field Day is fast-paced, funny, touching, and wise. I teared up at one point and felt like cheering at another. The characters are well drawn and engaging even down to the long-suffering but loving and supportive husbands of Marissa and Kelly. If these guys love their challenging wives who have gone a bit off track, they must be worth rooting for. The humor is witty and snarky with a few doses of slapstick.  At one point, Marissa makes fun of baking montages so beloved by Hallmark scripters. The three women have an easy and natural rapport and play off of each other very entertainingly. Well-written and well-acted. It’s a lot of fun. Yay, Hallmark.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

A Fabled Holiday

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Pretty Packaging

**spoilers**

I wavered between a 7 and an 8 for this one. I liked the trappings and the framing of the story but the basic plot of strangers coming together to repair what is wrong with their lives was tired. None of their arcs had a lot of substance or originality. Or, failing substance, humor, suspense, drama, or engaging romance. On the positive side, it did have Brooke D’Orsay and Ryan Paevey as the main couple. Their performances were charming as usual.  I like them separately, and they were OK together, but just OK. Maybe they are both just too nice to generate much romantic tension with each other.

It all starts out with a little girl and her father reading a fairy story about a magical town called Wunderbrook. Sadly the Dad dies and the little girl and her mother move away. Before she goes, she gives her storybook to her best friend Anderson and she promises to send him her stories as she writes them.

When next we see her, she owns a bookstore. Her aspirations to be an author have died on the vine due to her lack of self-confidence and fear of failure. Meanwhile, we catch up on her childhood friend Anderson who is now a surgeon who is questioning his calling due to losing a patient. We also meet a married couple who have grown apart and are on the verge of divorce and an old man who is very lonely since his beloved wife died.

Through various magical means (a detour on a road, a wrong number, getting lost, and a flooded basement) they find themselves together in Wunderbrook. It is the magical town of the storybook come to life. It turns out that they all had the book as children, but for some reason, it is only Brooke that starts to make the connection between the story and the real-life town they find themselves in. She is poopoo-ed throughout the whole movie, almost. As they spend time with the owners of the B&B and their daughter (really the King, Queen, and Princess), and the other denizens of the place, including the wicked witch, they start to get cured of what ails them. The hostile bickering couple starts to repair their marriage and the old man finds a friend in the owner of the bar/restaurant who is also bitter and lonely (the witch.) The two childhood friends start to fall in love as well as, in the end, get over the fears that are holding them back from fulfilling their dreams. It all comes together at the end with not only our friends on a happy road to love and success but Wunderbrook itself being saved, thanks to a certain aspiring writer.

Their individual stories of love and learning are told by a storyteller as if they were characters in a storybook. This was a new path for Hallmark to take and I liked and appreciated the creativity. Christmas Magic is a common trope but usually has to do with Santa and time travel. This was something quite different and, again, I appreciated it. Unfortunately, they forgot to find engaging stories to put in all that creative framing. It was, to paraphrase one of Brooke’s publisher’s rejections, “cute” but not entirely enough for me.

Rating: 7 out of 10.

Wedding Every Weekend

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Way to Go, Hallmark!

I agree with all of the positive reviews regarding this movie. Kimberley Sustad is a very likable and talented actress and does comedy very well. I liked the plot and the slow-building realistic growth of her feelings for Paul Campbell and his for her. It’s been a long time since I have looked forward to the inevitable happy ending with such anticipation in a Hallmance. Too often it’s just a big yawn. They did avoid most of the usual Hallmark tent poles in the plot although the “big misunderstanding” was front and center.

Yes, the diversity was laid on with a trowel. Jewish, Black, multi-ethnic, and gay weddings. But sometimes the politically correct thing is also the right and good thing. In fact, the only “normal” (Ha Ha) couple was the lead couple, now that I think about it. Hopefully, the religious right can take some comfort in that. As for me, I hope Hallmark doesn’t think they’ve done their duty for the time being as far as diversity is concerned and non-WASP non-straight people go back to being relegated to tokens. I choose to give them the benefit of the doubt that they will be guided by the praise and not the invective.

Rating: 9 out of 10.

August 17, 2020

To Have and to Hold

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Really Good!

I was thoroughly entertained by this movie in the “Books to Screen” series on Lifetime. I particularly enjoyed Erica Christensen’s performance. Even though she did not throw the bum out at the first infidelity, she did not come across as a doormat. There was lots of Drama, but it was not over the top so as to be squirmy. I liked that the bad husband was not thoroughly evil and hateful. He did not physically or verbally abuse her, he just could not keep it zipped and wanted her to be a certain type of wife. Which she went along with until she decided not to. The movie kept me engaged through both her personal and professional development and I liked the final outcome with the fresh start with both.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

July 1, 2019