Rebecca Dalton

Head Over Heels

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The Devil’s in the Details

This one was the Hallmark version of The Devil Wears Prada but with footwear. The plot was very basic and stayed in its lane with all the predictable plot points coming up as expected and where expected. A young(ish) cobbler working at her father’s shoe repair shop gets a chance to widen her horizons by getting her foot in the door of  a prestigious shoe designer as a receptionist. Her dream is to be an actual shoe designer herself. Sure enough,  she is quickly promoted to being the Miranda Priestly character’s personal assistant (named Delaney Diaz in this movie). Addie’s  love interest, Austin, is the Stanley Tucci character who is not gay but young(er) and eligible. Olivier Renaud plays Austin, Miranda’s (Delaney’s) “PR guy.” At least that’s what they call him. He works for his father’s big and important PR firm. It’s weird though because Delaney seems to be his only client and he is always around doing all kinds of stuff besides PR, like window dressing and hanging pairs of shoes over a walkway for promotional purposes. But this keeps him close at hand so Austin and Addie can develop a relationship, and that’s the important thing. Wait a minute. Doesn’t hanging shoes on a wire signal gang or drug activity? Probably he didn’t know that.

Of course Addie gets herself in trouble due to her naivety and trusting friendliness and almost brings the company to its knees, but then turns around and saves the day with her shoe designing acumen and motivational pep talks to the Miranda Priestly character. Obviously tweaked a bit to be more Hallmarky. Meanwhile, she learns how to provide Delaney Diaz her morning iced latte without the ice melting. It’s more complicated than you might think.

It was all pretty standard stuff if more derivative than usual. Some of Hallmark’s best efforts have been based on well-known romantic comedies and it was fine due to amusing well-written scripts and likable characters that were well-acted. This one didn’t offer any of those saving graces. The Delaney Diaz character was all over the place, going back and forth between being a mean tough taskmaster to being easily manipulated with a heart of mush. She was supposed to be an icon and leading light of the shoe design world but had suffered some setbacks and failures which has destroyed her confidence. She basically has sold out putting her name on inferior very basic shoes that she doesn’t personally design in order to save her company. But she still acts like a diva and is worshipped as such by all and sundry. Her character and the way she acted did not make sense and she did some really dumb things. As did everyone. The actress, Alexandra Castillo, did a good job with a character that was probably difficult to play. Unfortunately, the actors who played the two leads were too old for the parts as written. Addie’s father treated her like she was 10 and Austin was completely under the thumb of his father, and complacently so, until the end. That’s ok for characters in their early twenties, just finding their feet, but is not a good look if you’re well into mature adulthood. Especially for the Austin character who otherwise looked and acted like a grown-ass man pushing 40. Not even an attempt to explain the stunted state of his personal and professional life. Again, like he was 22.

Cutting to the chase, Delaney rediscovers her creative spark, her new line of samples is manufactured in  2 days, and her company is saved, all thanks to Addie who gets promoted to shoe designer. Austin starts his own PR firm. The characters and what they did seemed to twist themselves into knots in order to serve the usual Hallmark beats rather letting than the things we expect, grudgingly accept. or even like, from Hallmark flow naturally. I struggled with this one and not in a fun way. My advice?  This one did nothing to go out of it’s way to be good, so I wouldn’t go out of my way to watch it.

Rating: 5 out of 10.

Christmas by Design

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I wouldn’t Wear those Pajamas to Walmart, Let Alone to Bed.

So far, Rebecca Dalton seems to have been cast as characters that have really rubbed me the wrong way. This one was no exception. She plays a snotty little pill in this movie who is not rehabilitated until the last 15 minutes or so. She is mean and rude to her newish stepfather, dismissive of her nice family, and looks down on the townspeople in her small town because she is all so important and cool as a NEW YORK CITY semi-successful fashion designer. She also hurts the guy who has been so nice and helpful to her by disparaging him to her friend when she doesn’t know he is listening.

And I haven’t been too fond of her leading man either. He was actually pretty good in this one except for some reason, they have injected the info that he is the hometown hunk who is the object of desire of all of the cute single women in town. But at least he doesn’t play a prince this time. In looks and stature he’s kind on the wispy side compared to the usual Hallmark leading man. As kind of a humble sad widower seeking peace and healing in his new town, he was fine. He also comes across as quick witted and intelligent.

I will admit that because she was such an unlikable character in the beginning it made her repentance and rehabilitation that much more satisfying. That’s all I came to say except that I wish they would use Joanna Douglas more often. I really like her. And the pajamas designed for the contest were spectacularly ugly.

Rating: 5 out of 10.

October 29, 2023

Falling Like Snowflakes

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Flakey

It’s Christmas in July time at Hallmark only in June. It was nice to get back to a Christmas story in the summertime. All that cold weather and snow when it’ so hot outside! And in this one, the snow, or at least the flakes, were (was?) the starring attraction, not just white background.

Teagan is a photographer who specializes in taking pictures of snowflakes. She also  works closely with the community center as a photography teacher. Her best friend runs an Art Gallery and Teagan’s snowflakes are center stage. There are 35 main types of snowflakes and she has  photos of 34 of them. She has been on the hunt for the last one to complete her collection for 3 years, since her Mom died. If she finds it by Christmas Eve, a collector will not only buy all 35 of the pictures, but donate enough to the community center to fix everything that ails it. Finding the rare and elusive 12 sided stellar dendrite will be like finding a needle in a haystack but if the needle kept melting!

Anyway, and you won’t believe this, One of Teagan’s star students, Julie, is the daughter of Teagan’s former high school honey, Noah,  and he is a not-too-sad widower. Now that his wife is dead, he has returned to his old hometown after giving up his former career as a climate scientist (weatherman) to become the world’s worst professional snow plow driver. Not sure why he did that since since the usual loving grandparents or other hometown family who could mother his little girl were noticeably absent. The two prospective love interests meet, sparks fly, etc. Being a snow plow driver,  Noah volunteers to take Teagan to a gathering severe snow storm on a mountain to hunt for the snowflake that will complete her collection and save the community center. Driving around, looking at the scenery, and staying at an Inn, they get to know each other. Excitement occurs when Noah runs into some black ice and crashes his snow plow into a snowbank. Now you would think that wouldn’t be a problem for a snow plow, but, like I said, he is the world’s worst. He failed to stock the humongous cargo box with the usual snow fighting tools such as salt, sand, and shovels to get him out of trouble.

Empty

Also no chains on the tires. But adorned with bows and wreaths aplenty! Meanwhile, back in Willow Creek a rival photographer is also on the hunt for the rare crystal. She looks like Sarah Silverman. Sarah starts cosying up to Julie trying to learn Teagan’s secrets for photographing snowflakes which are easily found on Google. She is so hopeless and incompetent that she ends up being comic relief rather than a source of tension and suspense. Nevertheless, she is taken dead seriously as a legitimate threat throughout the movie.

Back on the mountain, Teagan and Noah are somehow rescued. They continue chasing the elusive snow storm, but when they find it Teagan has barely gotten her camera out of the bag before she almost gets lost and is almost flattened by a falling tree branch. Thoroughly cowed, they give up on the snowflake and return to safety but without Teagan’s camera which she forgot and left on the mountain in the snow (IKR?). Just to set your mind at rest, the next day, Noah goes back to get it and somehow the camera snuck back into it’s insulated camera case which saved all of the pictures. It turns out she captured a shot of the rare flake (perfectly centered!) without even knowing it,  the community center is saved, and Julie looks like she is going to get a new mom.

I just touched on some of the stuff in this movie that didn’t make sense. Good ole reliable Marcus Rosner is OK, but for some reason I am not a fan of Rebecca Dalton who played Teagan. I’ve disliked most of the movies she has starred in and my dislike has mostly been  due to the obnoxious characters she has played. This one did not win me over.

Rating: 5.5 out of 10.

The Dog Lover’s Guide to Dating

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Bad Doggy!

Based on the lively previews, I was looking forward to this first Hallmark offering of 2023. I’m sorry to say that it was very disappointing. Especially considering the sometimes stellar parade of Christmas movies. The first scene with a dog getting away from Corey Sevier and creating havoc among picnickers in a park was entertaining and amusing, but it went downhill from there. Plot and character-wise, it ended up dull and mediocre throughout, although the script had some semi-clever lines, occasionally.

Corey Sevier plays an advertising guy who is trying to get together with a beautiful model turned designer, We know she is meant to be shallow and “not worthy”  by her valley girl inflections and vocal fry. Her dog is a hindrance to the insipient romance as he is badly behaved and doesn’t like Corey. After Corey is rescued by our dog-trainer heroine from the ruckus in the park, he hires her to train the dog or help him train the dog, or train him to handle the dog, or something.

I didn’t like her. Her character has been stunted by her father’s abandonment of her and her sister when they were young girls. She refuses to be open to a relationship with a human man because of course she expects every man to be unreliable and to abandon her as her father did. Instead, she showers all her love on her dog while still acting flirty with the two main men. Dogs are famously loyal and reliable, as we are reminded throughout. We know this girl needs therapy when in the first scene we see her fixing an elaborate breakfast complete with a cheese omelet, bacon, hashbrowns, fresh sliced tomatoes, and garnished with parsley. For her dog. Meanwhile, she eats a power bar. I guess this was supposed to be cute and endearing but to me, it just came across as silly, stupid, and very unhealthy for her pet. This wasn’t just a treat. This is every morning. And from someone who either should have known better or just doesn’t care. Despite her likable and sensible sister’s advice and counseling, she remains stuck throughout the whole movie, causing her to be very annoying. There was no growth. She just finally listens to her sister and changes her mind at the end. The actress was a fresh face and had talent. She even kind of had a Julia Roberts thing going on with her hair down. It wasn’t her fault.

Besides my dislike of the heroine, I found Corey Sevier’s performance in this one a little off as well. Can’t quite put my finger on it, I have liked him in the past and he did have a couple of good scenes in this. I found the vet who was his rival for the dog trainer’s affections a little creepy and vaguely sinister. The subplot of “save the dog shelter” is the excuse for Corey and dog girl to spend time together. It also serves to keep the rivals for the couple’s affections in the picture. Presumably amping up the tension and suspense. What a laugh. The scheme they came up with was unbelievable and contrived. He is putting his talents to work by throwing an exclusive gala and silent auction to scrape up the money for the shelter’s owner to buy the building which is being sold out from under her. They didn’t even try to make any aspect of this scheme even vaguely credible. So unlikable and uninteresting characters, a silly plot, not enough humor, and irresponsible pet ownership. Not good.

Rating: 4 out of 10.

Christmas in Paris

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An Old Fashioned Harlequin Romance Come to Life

This is a straight-up Harlequin Romance Movie and as such it’s pretty OK. And I don’t mean the Hallmark movies based Harlequin novels. This is right out of the playbook that produced about 11 or so novel-based TV movie romances in the 1990s and early 2000s that Hallmark had nothing to do with. Have they started doing these again out of nowhere? Since I saw this on ION television it really does have that different and old-fashioned approach to a romance. The hero was very attractive and a stereotypical early prototype romance hero: A Rich, Powerful, Mysterious Playboy who is a Genius at business. He falls for a normal (ish) girl: beautiful, good, and spunky. It was well-cast and fun. I liked the side story of our hero hating and then reconciling with his biological father (who really looked the part as well) and the asthma angle. For anyone who liked this movie, I urge you to look up these old Harlequin movies some of which are available on YouTube.

Rating: 7 out of 10.

November 8, 2020