Sarah Drew

The Stars Between Us

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Not in the Stars

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Despite being led by a favorite Hallmark actress, Sarah Drew, and her charming and attractive costar Matt Long, this one did not meet expectations. It’s hard to create an engaging romance when, after an initial sweet and sparky meeting in the first 10 minutes of the movie, the main couple don’t even see each other until less than 15 minutes left to go.  I’ve only seen this done successfully one time, in The Santa Summit. And this one filled the time in between the two encounters with about a bazillion near misses, each one more annoying than the last. I thought the Hallmark last minute bust up due to a stupid misunderstanding (patent pending) was bad. Well, I’m here to tell you, it’s even worse when the couple don’t even meet up again until the very end of the movie.

Kim, an astronomy hobbyist, has a chance encounter with Malcolm, a PhD candidate in astronomy, while on a hill top in Carbondale Illinois for a viewing event of a total eclipse of the sun. Does Carbondale Illinois even have hills? I’ll put a pin in that one to research later.* It is an immediate and undeniable connection, even though Kim is engaged to be married. They part when Kim’s habitually late fiancé finally shows up. 7 years go by. Kim is a divorced single mother living with her Mom. She works behind the scenes at a TV station in Chicago, Illinois, waiting for a chance to cover the news in front of the camera. She actually blew her first chance by freezing with nerves on live TV while covering a big fire. This has earned her the nickname “Freezer Burn.” So a second chance does not seem too likely, until an experienced reporter is exposed to pink-eye so cannot cover the upcoming eclipse which will occur, once again, in Carbondale. For one place to experience this twice in only 7 years is extremely rare but possible. (In case you were wondering.) Malcolm is now a professor of astronomy at a junior college in Arizona, but is, of course, back in Carbondale, because, you know, it’s a total eclipse and he is an astronomer. He has written a book about eclipses and their effect on culture through the ages and he hopes to meet his idol and former professor to help him get it published. Because as you may have heard, it’s “publish or perish” for academics. The professor, Dr. Stanley Longford, is kind of a rock star in the field, kind of like the late Carl Sagan was, may he rest in peace. Kim and Malcolm have never forgotten each other. They bring each other up when they have personal conversations about chance encounters, instant connections, and lost soulmates. In fact, it is even hinted that Kim’s memories of Malcolm may even have partially contributed to the demise of her marriage. And it is Kim who inspired Malcolm to be a teacher. Yet it never occurs to either of them that this second rare event might again attract the other to be in the same town they met.

Kim, her friend and camera-person Claire, and their incompetent producer, Reed, do their TV spots for the station (Kim and Reed both incompetently). Malcolm and his fellow professor and friend, Travis,  set up for the eclipse and try to find Dr. Longford. Claire and Travis meet and fall in love just like Malcolm and Kim did many moons ago. Pun not intended. The young producer who only got the job because he is the brother-in-law of the station head, screws up over and over until Kim finally loses her temper and unloads on him. They end up having a heart to heart, and getting a lot off their respective chests which causes them to, thankfully, become competent at their jobs. Reed even snags an interview with Malcolm’s famous astronomer for Kim which will go national and make or break her career. He does this right out from under a bad guy from another TV station who is a chauvinist pig and really dastardly (Hallmark mainstay, Ben Wilkinson). Yay Reed.

Through all of this Kim and Malcolm keep missing each other in the usual ways. One turns their head when the other walks by. The other sees a photo of him with their friends but the head is cut off. These almost-encounters happen a lot and as I mentioned, are very frustrating and annoying. But it really got to be remote throwing time when they actually meet and have a conversation during an eclipse party but because it is a masquerade and they are wearing teeny tiny Lone Ranger type masks they don’t even recognize each other! Despite Kim having long red hair just as she did 7 years ago! At this point I through my hands up in disgust and would have thrown my remote if I could’ve reached it. But I did yell.

After Kim and Reed carelessly lose the professor (because they allow him to wander off to the bathroom unsupervised 15 minutes before they are about to go live nationwide), Reed substitutes Malcolm to do the interview with Kim. Phew. They finally come face to face live on TV. Where they both commence to behave very unprofessionally by mooning and flirting with each other very cheesily instead of talking educationally about the eclipse. Needless to say, this is a big hit with the viewers. However, If I were a prospective employer of a fulltime TV reporter, her unprofessional display would not inspire me with a lot of confidence. But since Malcolm lives in Arizona and Kim lives in Chicago, maybe she will be the one to move and put her ambition to be a TV reporter on hold. First though, Kim needs to tell Malcolm about her 5-year-old daughter after they stop kissing.

I’m still giving this one 5 stars due to the acting and general appeal of all of the main cast members.

*It does. It’s actually famous for its hills in the second flattest state in the U.S.

Rating: 5 out of 10.

Branching Out

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Donor or Dad?

There’s probably all kinds of things wrong with a 10 year-old talking her mother into seeking out her bio-dad so that her school “family tree” project can have more than one branch with only her mother and her grandmother on it. “It’s more like a log”, she complains. And the fact that her bio-dad was a sperm donor who requested anonymity makes it even more problematical. Ultimately though, The sperm donor (T.J.) was interested in meeting his daughter and they had a lot in common. And conveniently no significant other to answer to. So because it was Hallmark and I like how they are trying new takes and new directions rather than relying on the same old formulas, I decided to give them a pass on the wisdom, ethics, and dangers of the mother’s actions.

Now what I did have a problem with was the teacher assigning such a project in the first place. For those kids who did not want their personal domestic situations exposed to the public scrutiny of the whole class, there should have been an alternate and less invasive project. Especially as Ruby, our kid heroine, went to her teacher and expressed her discomfort explaining she was conceived via IVF. The teacher just blows her off with ” A Family Tree can look like anything” and “even weeds can become beautiful flowers.” Ahem. Ruby’s mother, Amelia, should have gone to the teacher,  had a pow-wow, and escalated it as necessary. But she didn’t, needless to say.

Amelia, putty in the hands of her precocious and persistent daughter, decides to try to find the sperm donor with a DNA test. She gets a match and when she researches the background of T.J., the sperm donor, she learns that he is really rich. His family founded a huge and successful ranch which is also a tourist destination. The word “Dynasty” is used.  I am sure that had absolutely nothing to do with Amelia following through with ambushing him with no warning pursuing his acquaintance.

T.J. himself works there but his real career is as a professional musician and back-up singer (and he’s really good!) Ruby, like him, plays the guitar. Both Ruby and T.J. start to get attached to each other and T.J.’s large and loving family welcome Amelia and Ruby with open arms. Things proceed very quickly which gives Amelia pause from time to time. She keeps saying she wants to protect Ruby from being hurt by an absentee unstable father like she had, but does very little to do so. At several points she could have put her foot down, but she really doesn’t. To be fair, T.J. is very nice, and a very good guy besides coming from a wealthy and prominent family and not to mention handsome as heck. And his family could not have been more warm, loving, and lovable. Of course, T.J. and Amelia start to have “feelings.” The romance and relationship part was good. Also two good kisses in which Sarah Drew really gave her all. Not that I blame her.

Everything goes great until T.J. gets his dream job and tells Amelia that he has to go on tour for 6 months and Amelia goes berserk. From the beginning he has been totally upfront that this scenario was in the cards. But Amelia is triggered and gets all irrational. Luckily this doesn’t last long  due to the stern talking to she gets from her friend and partner, Maura. Actually, she reads Amelia the riot act and it works. The secondary plot line involves this very admirable business partner and reflects Amelia’s struggles with leading a “guarded life” to protect Ruby and herself from pain and disappointment. Her partner wants to expand their architectural firm by designing a whole subdivision and Amelia just wants to keep things small and unchanging. It’s a metaphor!

This movie could have gone sideways at many different points and in several different ways. That it didn’t is credit to the great cast and the acting. Cora Bella who plays the very precocious Ruby is a shining star. In other hands, Ruby could have been very bratty and irritating. The good script provided her with the best lines in the movie and she made the most of them. Sarah Drew, who always gives a likable performance ensured her character’s sometimes dubious actions were at least understandable. And the same with Juan Pablo di Pace’s T.J.. Amelia’s friend and partner Maura was a force of nature. And T.J.’s family. What can I say?  I love my family, but can I please just spend a week every year with the Cruz’s on their beautiful ranch?

P.S. I have to mention one thing besides the bad teacher that really bothered me. At one point, they have T.J. busting into the Elementary School and barging into Ruby’s the classroom during class unimpeded and with impunity. He just opened the door and ran in. No one turned a hair. This made me very uncomfortable. Also, I trust we won’t have a sequel where T.J.’s other hypothetical progeny start coming out of the woodwork. That would get way too complicated.

Rating: 7 out of 10.

Guiding Emily

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That was the First Time I Saw Emily, and the Last Time She Saw Me.—Garth.

I have been looking forward to this one as soon as I started to see the previews. The story is about how a woman who suddenly loses her sight due to a rock climbing accident learns to cope with her new life. It is also the story of Garth, a guide dog in training, voiced by Eric McCormack, and how he learns to curb his rambunctiousness and love for snacks in order to focus on his role of being the eyes for a blind person. Unknown to his trainer and the head of the guide dog facility, Garth has already decided that Emily is his person even though they met only briefly. She is his motivation to be a good dog, learn his craft, and graduate from guide dog school. Unfortunately, there are many people ahead of Emily to be assigned one of the highly trained dogs. The wait time for a blind person to get a guide dog can be years. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Besides the story, one of the reasons I was anticipating this one was the cast. I’ve been very impressed with Sarah Drew, who plays Emily, in earlier Hallmarks. I like her natural acting, and I am a sucker for long red hair and girl-next-door looks due to my love for Anne of Green Gables. I also love Antonio Cupo. Have a little crush on him, actually, but he has been spending more time behind the camera in recent years, other than a few cameos and supporting roles. I figured it must be a special movie to tempt him into a lead acting role in a Hallmark production. I was also happy to see good ol’ Matty Finochio in a secondary role as well. He is a Hallmark “go-to” for a supportive friend and comic relief. And he did a wonderful job in this as usual. And Peter Benson, another Hallmark stalwart plays the owner/manager of the guide dog facility.

Emily is the head of a professional team at work and is popular and respected. She is also engaged to be married to someone who was not Antonio Cupo. So I knew he was destined to exit stage left after Emily had her accident. He was not a bad guy, but he did not have the time or focus to give Emily what she needed after she lost her sight, even though there was every reason to believe it would be a temporary situation. About an hour in, when the bandages are removed, Emily finds out it is permanent. We follow Emily through her despair, depression, and apathy for doing anything other than sitting on the couch. She struggles to cope with everyday challenges and is pretty defeated. When she asks her friend and work buddy, Matty F., to give HR her resignation letter, he returns with the whole team, and they refuse to let her give up. This is a turning point for her. She enrolls in blind school, eventually returns to work, and reconnects with her old friend Matthew (Antonio Cupo), who runs a rock climbing fitness thingy. It’s all uphill from there. No pun intended.

Meanwhile, Garth is having his own journey with his training. When Emily shows up at the guide dog facility, Garth is overjoyed. But this is where he learns that dogs can’t pick their owners and vice versa. There is a waiting list, and they are matched accordingly. Will Garth and Emily be reunited? Well, it’s Hallmark, so we know the answer. But how it all came together made sense and was quite touching.

This was an excellent movie. It was a romantic and very engaging story, full of suspense, interesting, and educational. They did a good job condensing Emily’s journey into the last hour of the movie and still found time to fit in a romance and Garth’s story as well. I liked that she does not go from defeat to triumph but to just learning to cope with challenges, standing on her own two feet, and getting back to her old self. It was good that other than Sarah Drew, the blind characters in the story were all played by blind actors.

Rating: 8 out of 10.

Reindeer Games Homecoming

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Good Show.

**Spoilers**

Most of the aging TV romance actresses should take a page from Sarah Drew’s book. Sarah is 42 years old but looks 10 years younger. It might be genetics, but in my opinion, it was the minimalistic lowkey way in which she was made up. Of course, that gorgeous red hair doesn’t hurt either. I love that tomboyish girl next door look. As the hero says about her character, “She is a breath of fresh air.”

Mackenzie “Mac” is a high school science teacher in her old hometown school. A former classmate who is now a famous movie action star comes to town to help his pregnant sister, whose husband is deployed. He goes to the school to visit his nephew in the middle of class. There must have been a good reason for this, but I don’t remember what it is. It turns out that Mac had a crush on Chase back in the day, and Chase started to return her feelings when they were on a field trip together to a science fair in New York City. But when they got back home, he dumped the school brainy nerd to hang with his usual popular kids’ group.

Mac is still devastated by the grief of losing her beloved father a few years before and can’t move forward. We learn later that she completed medical school but quit her residency when her father died. She is torn about going back. She would make a great doctor but loves her community and teaching. “Big grief puts things in perspective,” she says.

Chase’s career has taken a downward turn and he wants to branch out to more serious movies. While competing together in the “Reindeer Games” for charity they renew their acquaintance. They help each other, start to flirt, and ultimately fall in love. I think they might even have gone to bed together off-screen. There are a few subtle hints. Chase is even thinking of not going back to Hollywood as he has fallen for Mac and the joys of small-town life. Mac still doesn’t entirely trust Chase because of his history of getting swept up in the moment but moving on when he comes down to earth. He begs her for a second chance to show he can go the distance. He encourages her to read the last Christmas Eve letter from her dead father, and she is inspired to complete her residency and become a doctor. At this critical juncture, his agent shows up with the 3 picture deal of his dreams which will revitalize his career and probably win him an Oscar. But he has to go to Munich and will be away for months making these movies. This is trouble. She breaks up with him (before he can break up with her) so they can both pursue their career dreams on opposite sides of the universe. Don’t worry, love triumphs in the end. I won’t say how but it involves a crossword puzzle. They both will pursue their dreams and their relationship deciding they will just “figure it out” somehow. I liked that.

This was one of the usual plots, but it was good. It had plenty of humor, including both situational and funny one-liners, but it also had some sadness and heartbreak too. It was well-balanced and well-rounded with no silliness. Her grief for her father was a little over the top, but it was well-acted. Justin Breuning who played Chase was good too and he and Sarah Drew were good together. Mac’s gay friend was overdone and got on my nerves. I explained Mac’s whole story up front, but in the movie, it is slowly revealed. I liked wondering what was up with her and Chase and why a girl who was nicknamed “Pre-Med” in high school wasn’t a doctor, but a teacher. Good show.

Rating: 8 out of 10.

One Summer

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Jack takes his son and daughter to his late wife’s beachside hometown hoping to heal and become closer. The summer brings visions of the past that could forge a new path forward.

Hallmark Blues

This one is a throwback to those old time very earnest Hallmark Hall of Fame-type productions that play sometimes on Hallmark Drama. Thus it makes sense that they showed it on Hallmark Movies and Mysteries rather than the main Hallmark Channel. Because Hallmark Drama just shows reruns and this one doesn’t fit with regular Hallmark’s mission statement. Apparently.

It is about a man who lost his wife while he himself was dying from a mysterious disease he got while deployed in Afghanistan. When his wife was getting him medicine she dies in a car crash, leaving him, his 15-year-old daughter, and his younger son bereft. He “wills” himself well from this unknown but fatal disease. It’s a miracle.

He takes his kids to the little (North?) Carolina Island where his wife grew up so they can heal from all of this sad trauma. He becomes friendly with a nice café owner and his daughter becomes infatuated with her son. The dead wife starts to appear to Sam Page, the Dad, to guide him through his grief.

This is not a real light-hearted cheerful movie. The actors do a fine job. Sam Page, who usually plays such conservative buttoned-up-looking characters with the straightest hair part in Hallmark-land (other than Paul Campbell), really lets his freak flag fly with longish tousled hair and a scruffy beard. I liked it. Amanda Shull as the ghostly wife and Sarah Drew as the alive love interest do a fine job as usual. Madeline Grace Popovich who plays the typical teenage girl, that is, unreasonable, obnoxious, and whiny, makes you really dislike her. Almost as much as you dislike the annoying and controlling mother of the dead wife. But the young actor who plays the sad anxious little son is fantastic, and really tugs at your heart.

This drama is not about romance. What there is between the parents and their teens is only to cast a hopeful rosy glow on the final scene of the movie. Do not question or think it through. Things cannot proceed with the two single parents until their infatuated kids are out of the house because that would be more than just awkward. Enough said.

I like the direction that Hallmark seems to be going with some of their features. Whether they can keep it up throughout the upcoming rampage of Christmas Movies remains to be seen.

Rating: 8 out of 10.

October 8, 2021

Christmas Pen Pals

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Great Casting and Acting Count for a Lot

Despite the female lead (Sarah Drew) being extremely unlikable and annoying at the beginning, this turned out to be one of the best of the Christmas entries in the Hallmark sweepstakes this year. Probably because it’s not really a Hallmark, but on Lifetime. They use the same actors and writers and probably directors, but they always seem to be just a cut above the Hallmark movies.

The plot had a lot of holes and some questionable elements. Almost the whole town agrees to be matched up to a pen pal by one woman postmaster? What are her qualifications? How does she go about this? How does she handle last-minute entries? Do they just get the dregs? How will Hannah and Sam work out the logistics of their coming marriage? How will she incorporate and sell people on the idea of writing letters before meeting face to face per her failing app/ social media company? Will Sam ever follow Hannah’s advice and get WiFi for his coffee shop? These burning questions and probably more go unanswered.

This movie ended up high on my special Hallmark rating scale because of good acting and appealing actors and actresses. Especially the male lead and Hallmark veteran, Niall Matter. My, was he appealing and had great chemistry with Sarah Drew. Michael Gross of Tremors and Family Ties added his veteran acting chops. The cast of secondary characters was exceptional. A special shout out to Latonya Williams who lit up the screen with her smile.

By the end, there were 6 match-ups that had some potential. Great job, Santy Claus… uh…Madam Post Master!

Rating: 8 out of 9.

December 16,2018