Heather Hemmens

The Snow Must Go On

/ Rebekahrox / 1 Comment
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Snow Business

Wow. I didn’t quite know what to make of this one (at first). Now I hate when people use this word I am about to use to describe the first 15 minutes of this movie, but it perfectly describes how this movie started out: Surreal. We open in a very dark and empty bar/theater with a man singing his heart out in true Broadway fashion with a crown of horns on his head. Yes, if you haven’t seen this, you read it right. It turns out that he is supposed to be Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer who is apparently very upset about something and who at the same time looks very menacing and demonic. The very talented Corey Cott plays Isaiah, the star of this debacle. He was a once rising star on Broadway who has been struggling in his career. The opening scene is from the one man show he also wrote, produced, and directed, apparently out of desperation. He meets with 2 of the 3 audience members who turn out to be his sister and his niece who have come to New York to get him to come back to his home town for Christmas. He shoots them a tragic look, but after he is fired from his Christmas caroling job and after failing to get even an audition to the new Cindy Santos (big name and top producer) fronted musical, he accepts. CS is played by Stephanie Sy who is always great.

Now in a whiplash inducing turn, we get more Hallmarky with small town vibes, bright lighting and decor, and Isaiah’s wholesome family. But when he gets out of the car and volunteers to pick up his niece Aurora from highschool, he is wearing a very weird “sweat suit” as he calls it, that looks just like Christmas pajamas: Snow white with candy canes and sleighs and other Christmas paraphernalia all over it. And he actually gets out of the car dressed like this and into the high school to find his niece with no hesitation or embarrassment at all. Very few would even wear this getup to Wal-Mart after midnight. I don’t know, I just didn’t understand who Isaiah was supposed to be. Desperate and sad? or Goofy? Things settle down to one of the usual Hallmark plots after he gets the suit off. Curiously not mocked or molested by cruel highschoolers, he is wrangled by his niece (who is a real go-getter) and LilyAnne, a teacher (Heather Hemmens), into directing the school Christmas musical after the former director quits to marry a lumberjack she met online. *shrug emoji* (BTW, Hallmark, Where’s that movie?) The usual struggles with the theatre kids ensue. The young actors were all very talented singers. Especially one who played Miranda, a shy girl who happens to be the daughter of the great Cindy Santos. When he finds out who her mom is, he starts to put his all into getting the musical together (hoping to impress her), including writing the second act of the unfinished play. He simply tacks on his “off-off-off” Broadway musical about the most famous reindeer of all to the school’s play about “Randolph, The Christmas Elk.” After Lilyanne helps him with a re-write (This Stinks! It makes no sense!) including taking out the ungulate’s filibuster to Congress (ala Mr. Smith Goes to Washington?), things start to develop in the romance department. He casts Miranda, Cindy Santos’ daughter, as his understudy taking the starring Randolph role for himself in hopes that when Cindy sees him she will cast him in her big Broadway show. Yes, it came across as pathetic and contemptible as it sounds. So we have another facet to Isaiah’s personality: Jerk. Despite his shameless attempt to exploit his position and power for his own ends, a funny thing happens on the way to putting on a show. He starts to love it and is good at it. As it turns out, Cindy, being very busy and important, cannot be at the school on opening night, to her daughter’s and Isaiah’s disappointment. But she offers him an audition in New York after she sees him in the dress rehearsal, and you won’t believe this, but the audition is the same day as Opening Night of the play. Will Isaiah choose the kids and his responsibilities over his one chance to revive his career? Does Broadway stardom lie again in his future or will he choose small town life as a drama teacher with LilyAnne at his side? Will shy Miranda power through her stage fright and shine as his understudy? Will her mother see the light and become the parent her daughter needs?

Believe it or not, thanks to the set design, the make-up, the costuming, and the performances of the kids, I enjoyed what we were shown of “Randolph, the Christmas Elk.” I wish we had seen more. It was a huge success and it all came to a rousing finish, including the snow machine finally producing snow, Isaiah getting the girl, seeing the error of his ways, and apologizing to all and to all a good night. 7 stars.

Rating: 7 out of 10.

Come Fly With Me

/ Rebekahrox / 6 Comments

No, Not that One.

**spoilers**

Congratulations to Hallmark which somehow managed to make a black woman joining the white male-dominated Thunderbirds boring. Totally understandable since this was apparently made with the full cooperation of the Air Force. They wouldn’t want anything but clear skies for our heroine. I totally get it. It was made even more dull by having her love interest totally unrelated to anything to do with her own exciting profession. He owns an Outdoor gear mega-store. Ooof. Isn’t there some way they both could have been Thunderbirds or have had him been otherwise associated with the team in a leadership or other heroic role? I mean, look at him in the poster!

Emma “Blitz” Fitzgerald has been relocated to Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas having earned her place on the prestigious Thunderbirds fighter aircraft squadron. Formerly stationed in Japan, she has joined her mother in the suburbs. How fortunate that her mother, a nurse in a doctor’s office just happens to live in the same city that Emma is assigned to! Emma’s daughter Lucy spends her time after school at her grandmother’s workplace until it is time for them to go home. What did she do for child care in Japan? This is where lonely Lucy meets lonely Alice, a young lady who is under the care of a doctor at the practice. She is crazy about aviation and the girls immediately bond over an anime (I think) show called “The Pilot Girls” and the impressive fact that Lucy’s mom is a vaunted Thunderbird.

Emma and Alice’s dad, Paul, meet and, at least on Alice’s dad’s part it is love at first sight. Niall Matter is great at conveying this. Stars practically shoot out of his eyes. It’s hard to tell with Emma, played by Heather Hemmons, because for some reason her acting in this one is as flat as a pancake. I really liked her in Pinch of Portugal, so not sure what was going on here. One thing was probably that given the subject matter, there was no real opportunity for comedy and as a fighter pilot she has to be cool as a cucumber most of the time. Everything goes silky smooth for Emma on the Thunderbirds, with her whole team being supportive and complimentary despite her worries about her performance. So no turbulence there, although the flying sequences in which The Thunderbirds’ repertoire is displayed are beautiful and awesome.

Meanwhile, her love life is also soaring along as smoothly as anything as well. The two girls do a Parent Trap number on Mom and Dad and the two girls bond pretty solidly with each other and their respective parent’s sweetie pies. That is, until Emma gets cold feet having to do with needing to focus on her flying and that she will be re-assigned in two years. It’s very ho-hum until poor Alice has a heart attack and a heart transplant is called for. This has always been a specter in the background as we have learned why Alice is such a frequent visitor to the grandmother’s practice. The two young actresses, especially Georgia Acken as Alice, do a fine job. And the makeup department managed to make Alice look subtly pale and sickly. It’s just something I noticed and wanted to mention since the Hallmark makeup department usually gets failing marks from me. They miraculously find a heart right away, but it is stuck in Arizona due to bad weather and the clock is ticking. We finally get some drama and tension as Emma steps in to save the day. Her heroics are straight out of one of those old-timey movies when aviation was in its infancy. I refer to those movies where our hero/pilot is the last and only hope of getting the life-saving whatever to the child/community, fighting time and dangerous weather with the threat of crashing.

Unfortunately, Emma is not successful. She does not get the heart there on time and all is lost.

Ha Ha just kidding. OF COURSE she fights through danger and bad weather to get the heart to Alice and triumphantly wins the day. Alice is just fine, and Emma and Paul find out that it is very possible Emma will be reassigned to Nellis Air Force base, right there in Las Vegas in a non-Thunderbird capacity when her term is up.

One year later the fighter pilot and the store owner marry in front of a giant version of the American flag, strangely reminiscent of the movie, Patton.

They say some cheesy vows with no officiant or clergy in the vicinity that I could detect, to the cheers of her fellow pilots, families, and presumably Paul’s customers and sales force. And now that they are married, Emma can disclose what her handle “Blitz” means. I almost gave this movie a 5 out of 10. but I have to give credit for the Thunderbird aspect, and the heart attack and transplant drama. Also, instead of flirty shenanigans such as the usual boring baking, flour throwing, or, in the winter, playing in the snow, we get Heather taking Niall up in her jet. So…

Rating: 6.5 out of 10.

A Pinch of Portugal

/ Rebekahrox / 3 Comments

Hallmark Pulls a Fast One

I was not looking forward to this one despite its setting in Portugal which, unlike France and Italy has never been used as a backdrop for a Hallmark movie. I think I saw Heather Hemmens in something or other and she was fine. The previews seemed to set up the usual scenario of the beautiful, competent but underestimated heroine meeting the native hunk who shows her the sights while they commence falling for each other.

Heather plays Anna, a prep cook for a world-famous and difficult celebrity chef. They travel the world along with their little crew: the producer, the editor, and the cameraman. But this time, Dean, the Chef, is in contract negotiations so the support staff is sent on ahead to start shooting what they can without him. The second I saw the cameraman who was a dead ringer for Chris Hemsworth (Thor) I thought, “Too bad he’s not the hero. I like him!” Further cementing my approval, he opened his mouth, and out popped an Australian accent! I was kind of smitten despite his blondness. But it is made pretty clear early on that they are just best buddies. And we still had the designated dark-haired handsome hero on the horizon. They have a meet-cute at his farmer’s market and while they sniff and rhapsodize over all of the vegetables, they have lengthy conversations and flirt like mad. Our hero was very smiley. We learn his dream is to own his own restaurant. A girl who dreams of settling down and doing things her own way as a Chef and a guy that wants to open his own restaurant? Yep.  A perfect match. But things started to take a turn at the 41-minute mark. Did I just imagine that smoldering look from Thor? It seemed to come out of nowhere. I could scarcely believe it. While the volatile star chef continues to not show up, things started to get interesting. I was actually in doubt as to who was supposed to be the love interest until the 1 hour and 17-minute mark. Hallmark really pulled a fast one, and I heartily approve!

Besides the scenery and the yummy-looking food, there were some other really nice touches in this one.

  • Anna’s supportive mother.
  • Anna’s journey from an awkward fill-in to finally finding her niche and making the job her own was well done and believable. Heather Hemmens was really good, especially in the cooking while seasick scene.
  • Brooklyn, the cute editor, started out as a nothing character but turned out to be a real dark horse. She has one of the funniest lines in the movie. When Anna is taking out her anger on the vegetables she is chopping, She stops her, “You should really use your words. Violence is not the answer.”
  • Some surprises and twists: the sudden reappearance of the evil Chef who behaves like a real jerk. And the hidden agenda of another character that I for one did not see coming.
  • The happy rehabilitation of the bad guy was a surprise but was well-founded and understandable. I liked the way it was done.
  • There is a crisis at the end, but it was not a big misunderstanding between the couple. The romance was nuanced and drama free, but totally involving. My breath was bated.

Hallmark showed some sophistication with the script and casting, and the actors did not disappoint. Of course, Portugal did not hurt either.  There was not a silly minute in it (except possibly the weird moment when Anna grabbed Thor’s delicious-looking ice cream cone and threw it in the garbage.) And last but not least, Anna wore sensible shoes throughout and not only in the traipsing about Lisbon montage.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

Christmas in My Heart

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Points for Allowing Ethnic Diversity to be Diverse

I appreciate Hallmark’s efforts to incorporate more diversity into their love stories. But so far they have not tailored the script to even acknowledge the difference in ethnicity or the unique challenges that an interracial relationship might entail. The person of color might just as well be played by a white actor. It’s been giving a new meaning to “color-blind.” They don’t in this one either. But they do touch on the complications that a white father might have raising a black daughter. The black mother of his late wife has a talk with her granddaughter while discussing her hairstyle options for a special concert. The young girl, beautifully played by Maria Nash, states that she thinks it would look more “professional” slicked back. The grandmother (Sheryl Lee Ralph), a little taken aback, then takes the opportunity to encourage her to be proud of her heritage and her different hair and to be herself. But also, whatever she chooses, she will look beautiful. In another scene, the young daughter confides in her black mentor and her father’s love interest that she almost quit playing the violin because she didn’t see any other violin players that “looked like me.” Also, the father, Luke McFarlane, a favorite of mine, is overprotective of his daughter. He is a big country star on a hiatus due to the death of his wife, and although not stated, it is implied that he fears some friction or hostility from social media and the tabloids because of his black daughter. I was curious, and I checked the writers of this. And sure enough, one of the trio of women writers is black.

The love interest, also the product of an interracial marriage, is played with warmth and dignity by Heather Hemmens. I like the way she handled Luke rudely telling her to back off when he finds out his daughter has been confiding in her about the loss of her mother. It was well played. I won’t critique the plot. There was a lot going on with Luke and Heather’s career prospects and their different tastes in music, as well as their attraction to each other. Luke, who is usually in more comedic roles, is very effective in this more dramatic plot. However, I could do without his singing next time. Luke, I love you, and I suspect it was that god-awful song rather than your performance, but I was as stunned as poor Heather looked during the private audition of his new tune. She handled it with tact and kindness.

Rating: 7 out of 10.

October 28, 2021