Evan Roderick

Because of Cupid

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Stupid Eros

I was looking forward to this one because I like the lead actress, Amy Groening. And though I have not really liked most of the characters that young whippersnapper (30 years old) Evan Roderick has played (much like Tyler Hynes) he was very good in A Make or Break Christmas. This one didn’t work for me mostly because I just didn’t believe Groening and Roderick as a romantic couple. Who knows why or how one person sees a certain chemistry and another does not? It’s a mystery. The story was pretty cute, I thought, and the dialogue was good too. There was a little mystery there (Is Hal really THE Cupid in human form?) And it certainly was appropriate for Valentine’s day. It seemed a pretty fresh take on the old Hallmark standby of magical love-related consumables.

Naomi and Marcus are workmates at a wine bar. They are good friends except, as Marcus confesses to Hal (Cupid) whom he meets when he is working as a bartender at a party, he has been head over heels with “Nomes” from their first meeting. Naomi had a boyfriend at the time and Marcus, as we learn, lacks confidence that he is good enough for her. She has a degree in biochemistry and is very responsible and mature and he has never been one to buckle down or be serious about much of anything. Whenever Hallmark writes a male character with that kind of personality, Evan Roderick is always their number 1 choice. Naomi and Marcus are trying to win a contest for best Mocktail which comes with a 30,000 dollar prize which they need to hopefully buy the wine bar they work at. Lisa, the owner, is planning to sell it to a parking lot company. Wow, Lisa. You are not a villain, but that’s a classic villain move. Hal invites the pair to his tea shop to sample some rare teas they can incorporate into the mocktails. On day one of the contest, Marcus samples the drink along with 3 other couples that the pair know. The relationships of the 3 couples immediately change to being head over heels in love with each other and Marcus, although he has always been in love with “Nomes”, immediately has the courage to declare himself to her publicly. On their way back from the party Marcus tells Naomi that the syrup she used to make their winning mocktail was a love potion. Naomi does not believe in magic and attributes the elixir’s effect on the couples (and Marcus) to a scientifically based chemical reaction to the mix of ingredients in the drink. Together, they go on a mission to find an antidote to the mixture and have the three couples drink it. They believe, especially Naomi, that the pairs are making major life decisions based on love that is only temporary and not real. That’s all I’ll say about the plot, except that when the couples finally all take the antidote, they all react differently to it.

In addition to Marcus and Naomi’s story, there were theoretically plenty of other things to keep interest up. Will Marcus be able to prove himself as a mature human being? Trying to decode and put together an antidote. Wondering if it would work and what the effect would be. The 3 couples stories, at least two of whom we are really rooting for. Do we even want the antidote to work? The mocktail contest. The fate of the wine bar. Also there were a lot of literary and mythological references added to the mix. So a lot of good ingredients, but somehow for me, it kind of dragged in places. Maybe there was too much going on? And it didn’t help that Naomi never seemed that interested in Marcus as a romantic partner. Just didn’t feel the attraction there. And that’s pretty fatal to a romance.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10.

A Make or Break Christmas

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White or Colored Twinkly Lights?

I hate-watched this one off and on through most of it. But there were glimmers of goodness. There were lots of on-target cultural references:  Lessons learned from Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen, Iyanla Vanzant, Friends, and Wings, and some so on-target that I am apparently too out of the loop to get them. (Dom Toretto? Fast Five? What’s that?). Even though I have never been a fan of either Hunter King (Liv) or Evan Roderick (Daniel) the chemistry between them was really good. For once, I actually liked a role Evan played, faults and all. He made a character that could have been as annoying as she was in his own way actually lovable. Hunter King, his costar, played a character who was very grating at first, but got less so as she started to redeem herself. Also there was one hilarious scene where Daniel’s Mom gives them a painting representing what she sees as the couple’s future together. It was so funny, I can’t even describe it. Actually I can. Imagine a Margaret Keane sad big eyed waif painting but with a family of cheerful elves and done by a 6 year old.

Liv and Daniel meet at a friend’s Christmas Party and the attraction is sudden and mutual. We flash ahead one year and look back on their year’s courtship in flashbacks. It is now Christmas again and they are definitely together to the point of having bought a huge house together. They’ve known each other less than a year are not even engaged. Yikes. In their first scene in the present, they are making Christmas preparations for their families, including siblings and a grandmother, to visit for the holiday. It will be the first meeting for the two families and their first introduction to the new house. Typically Liv is all stressed out, and Evan is not, which leads to a huge fight and a break up. But in order not to ruin everyone’s Christmas, they will pretend to their families that they are still a happy couple.

 Right from the start, at the party where Liv and Dan first meet, Liv really got on my nerves. Because she is such a perfectionist and control freak she basically takes over her friend’s hosting duties for her friends party in her friends house. She calls it “helping.” A year later, in their new home, Dan has put Liv’s beloved Christmas Village out on display as a surprise for her. Liv is delighted but as they are going over the Christmas plans, Liv proceeds to rearrange all the pieces into the “right” configuration. We can see that this makes Dan feel bad. The planning devolves into an argument where we see all of the problems in their relationship summarized. We learn that Dan is irresponsible, disorganized, and unreliable, and Liv is hypercritical, controlling, and inflexible. Dan does everything to avoid stress, and Liv is all stressed out all the time. All this is symbolized by Dan’s decoration of the Christmas tree. Because of lack of planning, the tree is only lit on the top half and with, according to Liv, “frivolous and unreliable” colored lights instead of Liv’s, according to Dan, “rigid and controlling” white twinkly lights. Although I understood Liv’s frustration with Dan’s ways, it was her behavior and attitude that really got on my last nerve. Everything has to be perfect for Christmas because her mother and father are just like her and snipe at everything that doesn’t match with their personal preferences. As Liv herself says, they are “out for blood.” When Dan forgets to order “The Gobbler Farms Christmas Turkey” which Liv’s father apparently can’t live without, it is the last straw. Although everyone in their two families have their irritating ways and outrageous behaviors, except Dan’s mother who is a dear, Liv’s parents are truly insufferable. But in true “The enemy of my enemy is my friend” fashion, Liv and Dan find themselves uniting in the face of numerous family challenges, and come at last to the understanding that they balance each other out and are better together than apart. They acknowledge their own faults, vow to change, and they love each other. 

The last scenes, which include Dan’s Christmas present to Liv, are actually touching and romantic. And, much like Dan and Liv’s relationship, the last 20 minutes or so (minus a really cheesy speech by Grandma), evened out the annoying parts of the previous 100 minutes for me. So it turned out to be a respectable but not spectacular “7” for me.

On a final note, although it is not spelled out, this Hallmark is notable for having an unmarried couple in the same bedroom and bed, at least before they broke up. Now the couple are not exactly living together full time, which is blamed on him still having a lease on his apartment. But, in truth, it probably has more to do with Hallmark not wanting to cross that particular line. Maybe next Christmas.

Rating: 7 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.

Leah’s Perfect Gift

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Unfulfilled Promise

Young New York professionals Leah Goldberg and Graham Westwood are in love and in a committed relationship. In fact, Leah, although she laughs off the idea coyly, is expecting a proposal soon, likely during the holidays. She meets his nice (gay) sister for the first time and they get along great. On impulse, the siblings invite Leah to spend Christmas with his family in Connecticut and to meet their parents for the first time. Leah is excited to finally experience a traditional Christmas holiday with all the trimmings. That evening, Graham goes to Leah’s  family’s Hanukkah celebration. Her large family are warm and welcoming and a wonderful time is had by all. There’s lots of food.

On the way to Graham and Maddie’s luxurious home they give Leah a list of forbidden topics of conversation and warn her that their parents can be “a lot.” Indeed. They probably should have provided Leah with much more detail. In fact, a manual of behavior would not have gone amiss. Their father is pretty nice when he is not hinting around that he expects his children to eventually join him in the banking business (not happening), but the mother, played by Barbara Niven is a piece of work. Barbara Westwood is tense and inhospitable to Leah, who is a star in every way: Sweet, friendly, warm, and very intelligent and successful. As we learn, Barbara can not deal with change and thrives on routine and tradition. Leah’s mere presence as Graham’s unexpected new girlfriend, is enough to seriously upset her apple cart. She also is a perfectionist and very particular about everything. When decorating the tree, she uses a tape measure to divide the tree into quadrants to ensure each section has the same number of ornaments and those ornaments must be exactly 4 inches a part. You get the picture. Throughout the family’s checking off all the activities on Barbara’s Christmas Itinerary, Leah can do nothing right in Barbara’s eyes and she cannot disguise that fact. To make matters worse, there’s no food! No snacks to nosh on and Barbara is a terrible cook. The constant barrage of Barbara’s micro-aggressions towards Leah while putting on a smiley facade is like death by a thousand cuts. Leah goes from an eager to please and be pleased confident woman to doubting her own worth and often on the verge of tears. Graham and Maddie try, but are of very little help. They have lived with their mother’s quirks all their life and don’t seem to fully realize the effect she is having on poor Leah. They comfort her and assure her that it’s not personal and to just be herself, but Leah still feels like an outsider. I couldn’t wait for one or both of them to stand up to Barbara or at least do more to help Leah cope. And to top it all off Graham is being aggressively pursued by his old off and on girlfriend with Barbara’s full blessing.

Everything is barreling towards a great dramatic and exciting scene where the last straw is finally reached and Barbara finally gets the truth bomb dropped on her in an epic telling off. Would it by Graham, Leah, Maddie, or some combination of the three? I was all there for it,  And the snobby bad girlfriend had to be similarly dispatched, of course. I couldn’t wait. There’s nothing like retribution, repentance, forgiveness,  and reconciliation for Christmas! But nothing of the sort happens. At the culminating event of the Christmas fundraiser Graham mildly tells his mother that Leah is “good for him,” (which she already knew he was going to propose) and she needs to be “a little more flexible” with her. What? As if it was Leah’s behavior for which allowances needed to be made?! Barbara runs away to the cloakroom, starts to cry,  and is found by Leah. And all of a sudden Barbara has a total personality transplant. Out of nowhere,  she tells Leah she likes and admires her and starts calling her “honey,” and “sweetheart”. She is “shocked!”, I tell you “shocked!” that Leah could have gotten it into her head that she did anything wrong or that Barbara hated her.  And the girlfriend! She buttonholes Leah and out of nowhere and admits she crossed the line with Graham and apologizes! Is it possible that Graham finally stood up to her? Maybe. But if so we were cheated out of that scene too.

At the end, the Goldbergs and the Westwoods are together to witness the long awaited proposal of marriage on Christmas Day. Which she accepts. Graham promises to stand up for her in the future and to be her “rock.” Do we believe him? Who cares? It’s too late for the viewer because the movie’s over.

There were many good things about this movie besides the performances, but in the end I just couldn’t forgive the unfulfilled promise. Emily Arook absolutely shone as the overwhelmed but plucky Leah. She carried the movie and kept me watching and anticipating for her to be avenged. For once, Evan Roderick seemed right for his role. In the past he has played a spoiled brat not nearly good enough for the heroine, or seemed to be more of a little brother to the heroine rather than her romantic partner. But it is Barbara Niven’s performance that I was most impressed with. Yes, her character is rigid and awful to the point of scariness. But the veteran actress made her vulnerable as well. One had the impression that she didn’t have any control over her behavior. That her meanness was not a conscious choice but some kind of personality disorder for which, we would be assured at the end, therapy would be forthcoming.  At one point I briefly thought early onset Alzheimers might be a possibility, but that would probably be too depressing for a Hallmark Christmas movie.

Rating: 5.5 out of 10.

Sealed with a List

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Twas’ the List Before Christmas

This is the third movie Hallmark has cast Evan Roderick in and I wish they would just stop. Bear with me. It’s not him as an actor I have an objection to, but they persist in casting him as the romantic interest of leading ladies who are at least 5 years older than him. And that would be OK if he had an older more mature vibe, which he does not. He could easily pass for a college student or even younger. And to add to the problem I have with his casting, in 2 out of the 3 Hallmarks I’ve seen him in, he has played immature brats. I saw his two movies previous to this one but only remember one of them so I can’t speak for what kind of guy he was in the middle one. So, to me, the chemistry is off between the leads. In this one, Katie Findlay is such a presence as an actor and plays such a charming and admirable character, that I couldn’t understand what she saw in him. She deserved better. Evan Roderick was very suited to play Wyatt, the spoiled rich-kid nepo baby, and he conveyed all of the sorry characteristics that that label implies to a T. Unfortunately, he did such a good job that I never did take to him even after he started to reform and act like a big boy.

It’s Christmas and Katie Findlay plays Carley, who is a valued employee at her job because she is reliable, responsible, and hard-working. Her work ethic stems from the fact that her father left her and her mother when she was a young girl, and her mother had to work 3 jobs to support them and put her through college. She feels she cannot let her mother down after all of her sacrifices. She is such a shining star at work that the head of the company taps her to train his son to be her boss. The very position she has legitimately earned for herself. She is spurred to change the trajectory of her life. When she gets home she makes a list of New Year’s resolutions with the help of her best friend who lives the full exciting life she has always dreamed of. We fast forward to the next year at the same time. Her friend is coming home from Italy for Christmas and Carley has made no progress on her list, and she is embarrassed about that. The first thing on her list is to quit her boring job and pursue her dream of being a dress designer.

At work, she has put up with Wyatt’s lazy entitled ways but with a month to go in the year, the last straw has finally broken the camel’s back. Due to not doing his job, they are about to lose the business of a huge client. He is about to own up to it but Carley unexpectedly takes the fall for him. “Why?” you may ask. Good question. She does it so she will get fired because she can’t bear to quit, due to the way she was raised. (I guess?) And that happens, even though everyone knows the screw-up is not her fault. As a result, in disgust with his son, Wyatt’s Dad cuts off his trust fund money and he only has what he earns in his position at his firm. And if he doesn’t change his ways, the tap will be cut off permanently. Carley, determined to fulfill all of the resolutions on her list before her friend comes home, enlists Wyatt’s help to do so, and in return, she will help him grow up and be self-sufficient. Why she would ask him of all people for help keeping her focused on working through the list is quite the mystery. Unless by “Say Yes to Adventure” she meant “Party Party Party”, that is.

However, it eventually works out, and, bonus, Wyatt and Carley fall in love. By the end of the movie, she has gotten out of her safe and secure rut and started opening her life up to her dreams and new possibilities. She has reached an understanding with her mother who only sacrificed so that Carly could lead the life she was always meant to lead, which was not to be stuck in a dead-end job. Wyatt does grow up and proves himself at his father’s firm, becoming independent by getting his own modest place, and becoming an upstanding citizen in all respects.

Despite some choices that did not make sense, this was still an above-average movie for Hallmark. Katie Findlay is a joy and the script was good with some cute situations and dialogue. There were some touching moments as well with Carley’s Mom and Wyatt’s Dad. Wyatt was provided an excuse for his behavior (however lame I thought it was) and managed to redeem himself at the end.  Next time, if there is a next time, I hope Evan Roderick can score a role in a Hallmark movie in which he is a good man all the way through. As for Katie Findlay, can we go back to a hero who is worthy of her like in the first movie I saw her in?

Rating: 7 out of 10.

Autumn in the City

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New York is so Nice!

This was fairly watchable despite a few troublesome aspects. One of which was the mismatch in the casting. Aimee Teegarden is an attractive and relatively youthful Hallmark leading lady and Evan Roderick as her love interest was a fresh new face and did well. Unfortunately, together, the pair didn’t work. Aimee is in her early 30s playing an almost 30-year-old. Evan Roderick is 6 years younger and could pass for 17. So, for me, the chemistry was off.

Piper has escaped from her hometown and her over-protective parents to pursue her dreams in New York City. Unfortunately, she doesn’t have any dreams other than escaping from her dead-end life in Iowa or Omaha or whatever. This leads to a series of temp jobs where she hopes that her destiny will hit her “like a bolt of lightning.” She is almost 30 years old. Honey, if lightning hasn’t struck by now, it’s not going to. The thing is, her passion is right in front of her, but she is totally oblivious. Big Clue: She is constantly drawing and coloring in her sketchbook which is never far from her side. So, Piper, art? Maybe? While waiting for her bolt out of the blue, Piper waves aside several amazing opportunities that most young ambitious *20* somethings starting from scratch would kill for. I could neither sympathize, understand, nor relate. She turns down a supervisory position in a museum, which I’m pretty sure would be snapped up by most master’s degree holders in the field just to get their foot in the door. She takes a job as the personal assistant to a Broadway star. But she is about ready to go on a national and international tour, including London. Piper doesn’t want to go (why not?????!!!!!!!) and quits or is fired. Then she gets a job in an art gallery where she promptly sells a painting they have been trying to get rid of for months and earns a 10% commission which the owner has to insist she accept. New York certainly is the land of opportunity and New Yorkers are all just waiting to give nice mid-westerners cool jobs. But not cool enough for Piper. Despite being a closerthanthis match to her artistic talents, she quits to go back home to her boring life and suffocating parents even ditching her own birthday party. (She is sad because her boss told her her cute sketches weren’t quite gallery show material.) Spoiler alert. She changes her mind at the last minute.

While all this is going on she gets to know Austin, the son of a world-famous journalist and Piper’s next-door neighbor. He is writing a  children’s book about Nathan the Squirrel rather than following in his egotistical mother’s footsteps. His mother won’t let up and she gets him a job he doesn’t want as a reporter and instead of just turning it down, he is a waste of space, acts like a petulant child, and gets fired. Both of these two lead charmed lives, however, even for Hallmark. Austin submits his manuscript to a publisher, thanks to some shaming from Piper, and, even without an agent, it gets accepted. And not only accepted but they want a whole series about Nathan! He had talked Piper into doing the illustrations for his pitch. Lightening Bolt! By the end, after a lot of “tragedy” and triumph, she has her dream career and a boyfriend. There were no pumpkins in this one (pumpkin spice lattes don’t count) but lots of leaves. Attention young midwesterners! Life in New York City really isn’t like this!

Rating: 6 out of 10.