Kavan Smith

Notes of Autumn

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Trading Places

This is a “trading places” romance wherein two long-distance friends exchange homes for a week or so to figure things out regarding their professional lives.  Ever smiley Ashley Williams plays Ellie, a former professional pianist, who just got fired from her event planner job because she kept getting distracted by pianos. She gave up her true vocation because, she says, she likes to eat, have a roof over her head, and wear clothes. But it’s really because her confidence was shattered by a mean conductor. One of her good friends in the hotel she worked at is Matt, the chef, who is using her apartment kitchen to create new recipes for a restaurant he hopes to open soon. The ever charming and adorable Luke McFarlane plays Leo, a romance writer with the curse of all Hallmark characters who write for a living: the dread Writer’s Block. His neighbor is Sam who is trying to whip a string quartet into shape for a charity event called a Piano Ball even though he is not a musician. Friends Leo and Ellie change places a la The Holiday Or Hallmark’s own Trading Christmas or last year’s Sister Swap movies. Yes, it’s been done before. And disappointingly a lot better in two of the cases.

To make a long story short, Ellie falls for Sam while getting her music mojo back, and Leo falls for Matt who inspires him to write something new as he is tired of writing his very popular series of historical romances. The fictional characters of Isabelle and Jack, amusingly played by Pascale Hutton and Kavan Smith,(who play a couple in Hallmark’s super popular series, When Calls the Heart) keep intruding in Leo’s real-life struggles writing on his computer. I kept getting distracted by Ashley’s smile and Marcus Rosner’s dimples, imagining what their children might look like. Can we make that happen?

Besides the cute gimmick of Pascale and Kavan’s occasional appearances, the writing was average but the actors made the most of their lines. All of them were likable and funny, although Ashley’s struggles made no sense whatsoever. The gay romance was well done and sweet. Their sexual preference was pretty much in deep cover. Even Leo was surprised Matt was gay even after they had spent a good bit of time together. Guess his writer’s block also broke his Gaydar. At the end though we get some pretty loving looks and a couple of kisses. They all end up in Pinewood, Leo’s and Sam’s picturesque Canadian hometown, the city where Ellie and Matt lived abandoned in true Hallmark fashion. The love lives and professional lives are destined for success.

Rating: 7 out of 10.

Big Sky River: The Bridal Path

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Welcome to the Teenage Years

The first Big Sky River didn’t seem to be a likely candidate for a sequel. Everyone was all sorted out with a pretty seemingly trouble-free straightforward path forward to happily ever after. Especially when a little research revealed that the book this is based on is the third and last one in the series. Now there are a few Hallmarks that would make good fodder for a sequel ( Five Star Christmas and Ghosts of Christmas Always for two) but not this one. But they do manage to eke one out.

And it manages to be quite watchable thanks to the relationship challenges between Boone and Tara and their family dynamics. Also, the kid actors were all great. There is a halfway engaging side story between Tara’s BFF, the country star,  and her former professional partner who is now divorced. Emphasis on the halfway. Most of the drama and conflict come from raging teenage hormones and fragile emotions threatening to break out and run rampant at every turn. So the stakes are pretty low in the scheme of things. “This too shall pass,” and all that, you know. Tara’s stepdaughter Erin starts the ball ruling with an overreaction to her New York-based father’s thoughtless and clumsy remark at the gender reveal party for his due in 6 weeks wife. She is nice, in this one, BTW. He bursts out with joy that he has always wanted a boy which Erin interprets as “he never wanted” her and “doesn’t love” her. Kids! AmIright? On the boy side, Boone’s 11-year-old son is struggling with the upcoming changes to his life now that his Dad is  (finally) engaged to Tara. Not prone to tantrums, unlike Erin, he shuts down and is sad remembering his dead mother and being told they will be moving out of the only home he has ever known. Unfortunately, Dad seems to just want to not deal with his pain and instead of really talking about it and paying attention, just gives lip service. The younger son, by the way, by the way, is an oasis of calm and sense throughout. Sawyer Fraser is a charmer as Fletcher. Both Boone and Tara are also not immune to missteps along “the bridal path.” Boone forgets to pick up the kids while Tara is heavily immersed in parent-teacher conferences. He has to deal with a shutdown interstate but doesn’t even call. He just forgets. Although he apologizes, he really seemed to discount Tara’s distress (much like he discounts his son’s emotions) despite saying all the right words. On Tara’s side, when Boone rightly calls Princess Erin out for screaming at him disrespectfully and for maybe being a teensy bit spoiled, she overreacts giving him the ole “don’t yell at my daughter” routine which leads to a 1 or maybe 2 day break up. (Boone had to haul her friend Dawson in before a judge for breaking the law-don’t worry it’s not that bad).

Boone and Tara maturely heal the breach, and the almost break-up brings the kids to their senses. By the end of the movie, the little family is beginning to look like the Brady Bunch of the West. The reconciliation between Boone and Erin is very satisfying. I’ve never been a particular fan of Kavan Smith, because I prefer romantic heroes to be above average in height. But I do like him much more after his authentic good-humored performance in this one. Near the end, in lines that were obviously written in, his older son remarks to him “that he is almost as tall as you” and his younger son retorts, “That’s not saying much!” Kavan Smith responds laughlingly with an “Ouch!” Good for him.

Rating: 7 out of 9.

Big Sky River

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A Parable for Step-Parents.

**spoilers**

This was a low-key pleasant way to pass the time while also serving as a cautionary tale for loving step-parents. There’s not a whole lot of action, but then again it also avoided a lot of tired tent pole scenes and tropes that Hallmark is famous for. This was on Hallmark Murders & Mysteries, and those usually have something a little more to offer than the usual stuff that Hallmark churns out like an assembly line.

Tara is a recent divorcee whose ex-husband wants to distance her from his daughter, her stepdaughter, Erin, so she can bond with his new girlfriend without Tara in the way. Tara and Erin love each other dearly. Of course they do. Tara is the only mother Erin has ever known, and Erin has been Tara’s daughter for 10 of her 13 years. But Tara has no rights now that she is divorced from Erin’s father. This is a sad and scary situation for both of them, but being a mature, reasonable woman Tara respects James’ wishes (not that she has much of a choice) and is leaving for the summer. As a young girl, she spent a vacation at a dude ranch in Parable, Montana with her parents and she has always thought back on that time fondly. No, surprisingly, this is not a Dude ranch story. The dude ranch is now defunct but she is renting a house nearby.  

While in her summer home she takes care of the resident chickens, rides horses, makes friends, and dances, but more importantly meets a handsome next-door neighbor who is also the local sheriff, and his two boys. They form a connection right away, but being parents they are cautious and careful. And, as they both know, Tara will be leaving at the end of the summer. Meanwhile, the ex-husband, Hallmark’s longstanding never-the-romantic-lead-and-also-director Peter Benson, is not having a smooth time with his daughter. She has chased off 4 nannies and the agency won’t send anymore. He basically wants to just get rid of her and she won’t go to camp. He calls Tara and asks her to take Erin for the rest of the summer. Both Tara and Erin are thrilled and Erin happily joins her mom and makes herself at home in Parable.

And that’s about it until the big crisis. I won’t go any further, but it results in Tara finally putting her foot down with James and James caving in immediately. It was the highlight of the movie.  By the end, Tara and Erin will be together in Parable with Tara and Boone pursuing their promising relationship and hopefully forming one big happy family.

I appreciated late 30 and 40-somethings dealing with age-appropriate situations. Too often, Hallmark has had their 40-year-old actors dealing with life situations more common to twenty-somethings. The moral, or parable, if you will, of this story is, that if you’re the loving parent of a stepchild, better go ahead and adopt them. Marriages are not always forever but parenthood is. Don’t lose your rights to your child.

Rating: 7 out of 10.

August 18, 2022

Love on the Menu

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Delicious!

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This is how it’s done, Hallmark. Good Job! When you have two engaging and attractive leads who are good actors and have good chemistry, it already puts it far ahead of the majority of Hallmark offerings. Bravo Autumn Reeser and Kavan Smith. Add an interesting inside look at restaurant goings-on and an agreeable restaurant (and chef) makeover plot and you have a definite winner. Kudos to the beautiful and authentic food photography. The love story is built slowly and realistically. The leads did not have silly misunderstandings or antics. When there was a bit of conflict at the end, it was resolved quickly with a very nice groveling scene and a deserved abject apology. There was a tough boss who turned quite evil at the climax for some drama and tension.

I also want to compliment the wonderful young actress who played our hero’s teenage daughter. Jordyn Ashley Olson is lovely and a very promising young talent. Latonya Williams also adds sparkle, as usual.

I only mark it down for two aspects. The gourmet breakfasts that our chef-hero cooked for his daughter and were meanly rebuffed by her were so over the top, the scenes were cringe-inducing. Also, the ending was a little sudden and needed another scene to tie the loose ends up nicely. Maybe they are planning a sequel. I’m in.

Rating: 8 out of 10.

March 3, 2019

Wedding Bells

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Good Comeback for Danica

I am afraid I gave poor Danica McKellar a pretty hard time for her last Hallmark effort, A Crown for Christmas. She was too old for the part, she was not a good match for the fabulous Rupert Penry-Jones, and she wore too much makeup. It was just awkward, including her performance. She was excellent in this. This one confirms that the casting of the two leads makes all the difference. She made a good match for Kavan Smith, who played her love interest. They were both age-appropriate for the story and attractive enough, but not drop-dead gorgeous. A very pleasant outing.

It was nice to have the drop-dead gorgeous one (Christopher Russell) paired with someone else in the secondary romance. His love interest was a mismatch, and sure enough, to my mild surprise, they did not work out their problems and split up in the end. Bruce Boxleitner was a pleasure to see, as usual. **8 stars out of 10**

Rating: 8 out of 10.

June 6, 2016