Francesca Bianchi

Wedding Season

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Silly Season

How many times has a Hallmark movie started out with a youngish career girl hoping for a promotion into her dream job, usually in a creative field, end up back in her hometown for some reason pressured by a strong boss to meet a deadline in order to achieve her goal. And there meets the love of her life. Infinity times, that’s how many. This one started out in this same stale manner. But Despite this bone-tired beginning and a resolution to the romantic conflict at the end that I most certainly did not approve of, this wasn’t too bad in the middle.

Stephanie Bennett made a credible main girl, and the main guy, Casey Deidrick, I found to be very attractive. They had excellent chemistry together. I really like his type: Tall and powerful looking with a beard. Hope Hallmark keeps him on. And I had no problems with her.

Trish is an assistant at a magazine doing stupid fluff like how to choose the correct nail polish color. She dreams of being a feature writer doing personal pieces that move, surprise, and illuminate. She is taking a month’s vacation time to go back home and be a bridesmaid at three good friends’ weddings which are happening only a week apart. But first, she has a meeting with Helen, her boss, about some of her ideas for features she can do when she gets back. All of her proposals are tired and stale and have all been done before, as Helen points out. And it takes her boss to tell her that she has the perfect unusual story right in front of her. Being a bridesmaid 3 times within 3 weeks. So here’s the thing. Right away we see this girl has no initiative, imagination, or creativity. It certainly looks like she needs to stay with the fluff and be grateful for it.

The love interest is the big brother of her male best friend who is one of the grooms. They are both single so they decide to be each other’s plus one. The 3 weddings each have their challenges to overcome and to my mind, there is plenty for Trish to write about. But she struggles. The second couple is even brave enough to call off their wedding the day before even though they love each other, because they realize that their careers are more important to them than their marriage. And they are both OK with that. Happy even. That was certainly different for a Hallmark movie! Their shocking decision throws a wrench into Trish’s 3 weddings in 3 weeks theme. Instead of realizing that this bombshell might make her feature story better (in the hands of a good writer) she calls her boss to give up and quit! Honestly, this girl is hopeless. Her boss is made of sterner stuff though and points out that writing about nail polish is easy and personal experience features are hard. She has an assignment. She just can’t quit. She has a magazine to publish. Finish the damn article. I loved her. Well, she does, in between falling in love with the big brother, being a bridesmaid, and paddleboarding (she has a very casual approach to deadlines which also doesn’t bode well for an aspiring journalist).

Like I said, I didn’t approve of the ending either. Ryan, the love interest, is a world-traveling photographer who is pretty well-known and successful. He is starting to long for family and stability with all of these weddings and true love going on. He gets a message the day before his brother’s wedding that he has to skip the reception because the rarely visible Southern Lights (in Australia) have made an appearance and it is his dream to photograph them. Trish understands and rightly encourages him to go. It’s his dream. When he asks her whether they can continue getting to know each other and kissing and stuff after he gets back, she says no, because he is always on the move and all these weddings and such have made her realize she wants love and marriage too. Girl. Putting a halt to a budding relationship with such a sexy good guy without giving him a chance is not the way to accomplish that. To make a long story short, he gives up his dream assignment to stay home and do something else for a career so he can start a relationship with Trish. This was all ass-backwards. She’s the one who should have had a think about her career goal because she doesn’t, from what we saw, have what it takes. She should have followed him to Australia, written about it-hello?!, and then they could have figured out their future later.  Argh. He quits his life and great career and doesn’t even have a plan.

Enid-Raye Adams who played Trish’s boss was a stand-out. Trish’s office mate and friend was Latonya Williams who is a favorite of mine. I was sorry to leave her behind in New York City when we moved to the small town. I wish she could have come along. Trish could have used her good influence and advice.

Rating: 6 out of 10.

The Professional Bridesmaid

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Harmless Fun

This was light, fun, and amusing in spots. A pleasant diversion, especially if you are really into wedding stories, one of Hallmark’s main spring themes. And what Hallmark fan doesn’t like weddings? The two leads, Hunter King and Chandler Massey, were young, attractive, and appealing, and the set decoration made it nice to look at. The rest of the cast was on point. There wasn’t anything annoying about it. Or even anything even vaguely irritating. There was one “Huh?,What?” moment, but it wasn’t anything big or super stupid. Hunter King seems to be being groomed for a role as a Hallmark regular and I’ve enjoyed Chandler Massey in previous productions with no reservations.

Hunter King plays Maisie Ryder (real name Maggie), an undercover “professional bridesmaid.” She has been hired to make the Mayor’s daughter Alexis’s road to her wedding as easy and as stress-free as possible. I had recently read a book based on this concept so I guess this might be a real thing. As her love interest, Chandler Massey plays Henry, an investigative political reporter who is forced to cover her wedding. He is under strict orders to stay focused on dresses, cakes, and flowers, rather than whether or not the Mayor is going to take a stand on saving a local park from development. But he just can’t help himself because he loves the park so much. Maisie’s job description is soon expanded to include keeping Henry away from the mayor. He is running for office, doesn’t want to commit to a stand on the park just yet, and wants to avoid bad press. Henry falls hard and fast for Maisie/Maggie and is adorable doing so. The feeling is mutual.

There were the usual almost disasters with dresses, the bridal shower venue, invitations, and gift bags, most of them courtesy of the Maid of Honor, a disorganized and flaky young lady trying too hard to make up for past missteps with her cousin, the bride. All were averted thanks to Maisie’s competence and professionalism. I liked the actress, Lillian Doucet-Roche, who played the maid of honor. She had an expressive face and good delivery. I wouldn’t be averse to seeing her again as the head girl. Also kudos to Francesca Bianchi, who played the beautiful and down-to-earth bride.

Much of the humor stems from Maggie’s cover story to protect her identity and function. The bride, put on the spot, came up with her name and cover on the spur of the moment. A champion rider, She names Maggie after her horse and tells everyone Maggie is a wine sommelier or distributor or something. Maggie knows nothing about wine and comes up with some real howlers. The “Huh, What” moment? Henry googles “Maisie Ryder’s” name and she doesn’t exist on the internet. Hmmm. He narrows his search and up comes the bride, “rider,” and “Maisie,” Alexis’s horse. How odd. But it doesn’t trigger any questions or further research on the part of our crack investigative reporter. And it’s such a shocker when Henry learns that “Maisie” is really Maggie and has not been forthcoming truth-wise. Always grounds for temporary heartbreak and temporary conflict in Hallmark World.

**Spoiler Alert**The Wedding goes off without a hitch, Maggie gets her business loan thanks to the Mayor (yes, there’s that), and the reconciliation of the two sweethearts happens. Henry is back on the political beat, the Mayor turns out to be a good guy after all, and the Park is saved.

Rating: 7 out of 10.

Five More Minutes: Moments Like These

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Five More Minutes: Take Two. Will there be Three?

This is one of those dramatic heartfelt Hallmarks that show on Hallmark Movies and Mysteries. It is a follow-up to last year’s production based on the country song, Five More Minutes. In both, a grieving person gets 5 more minutes with a dead loved one. It looks like it may be an annual thing. I gave the first one 8 out of 10 stars, and I gave this one the same rating.

Ashley Williams is on a roll with me. She plays Kaitlin, a still-grieving widow of a 10-year-old boy, her husband having died 4 years earlier in a car wreck. Her performance was considerably toned down from her old Miss Perky McSparkles energy. She should play brave grieving widows more often. She still flashes that killer smile, but you know what? The girl can’t help it. There is some concern about her son, who though a nice kid, has become more and more withdrawn and introverted since his father’s death. Kaitlin goes home to Colorado from Los Angeles to spend Christmas with her husband’s family and decide what to do with her beloved home which has been vacant for the last 4 years.  She has received a very tempting job offer from a regular client but she would have to relocate to London.

While at a local Christmas fair, she meets a nice handsome man, Matthew, who it turns out was an old schoolmate and friend of her husband. They really hit it off, but the relationship suffers a blow when he fails to disclose that he is the representative of a huge corporation that covets her house and land. Luckily for their budding romance/friendship, her trust is restored with his explanation, apology, contrition, and his very positive relationship with her son. Also, in a clear conflict of interest, he is helping her to fix up the house in order for her to get the best price possible from his employer or another party. This seemed very shady to me.  His employer, who is also a friend and kind of worships the ground he walks on because of his honesty and integrity (?!) lets this go for some reason and in fact wants to hire him for his New York office.

Meanwhile, her son is having short encounters with progressively older boys every few days. They disappear mysteriously but not before leading him to friendship, community involvement, and finding his hidden talents.  He is finally healing and blossoming in this new community of Hollowford. Cameo Alert: Nikki Deloach as Clara Bingham, the art teacher and lead in the first Five More Minutes.

Everything comes to a head when she decides to sell the house to Matthew’s business partner for a ton of money and move to London. Things start to fall apart with her relationship with her son, who wants to stay in Hollowford,  the sale of the house, and her relationship with Matthew. She goes down to the basement in despair and what she sees there shows her that the boys her son has mentioned are none other than her dead husband coming back to help their son and who, in a  kind of spooky jump scare, then appears to her. They talk for 5 minutes.

The kid actor was fantastic with a layered, touching, and authentic performance in a part that could have been annoying. I can take or leave Lucas Bryant, but he made a good match with Ashley Williams.  I liked that when Matthew and Kaitlin felt that surge of sexual attraction, they actually admit and knowledge that to each other openly. That is actually quite unusual for Hallmark couples to do. Usually, they just gaze soulfully or have an almost kiss which is not attempted again until the very end. The owner of the development company that had a signed contract on Kaitlin’s house, did something at the end for no good reason. It was weird and made no sense. Nevertheless, I could watch another one of these Five More Minutes movies with no hesitation whatsoever. It’s a good concept, and so far they have been well done.

Rating: 8 out of 10.