The first half of this movie is adorable and promising, but around the halfway mark, it falls off the rails a little bit. It starts off with comedy and lovely scenery and a sweet hometown, and somehow gets convoluted along the way with a super contrived conflict.
The turning point is when Melissa Joan Hart's character, Natalie, starts questioning if her burgeoning relationship with Chris is moving too fast, despite the fact that they haven't done anything other than hang out and go on essentially one official date. Their relationship seems like it's traveling on a totally believable pace, but Natalie feels the need to pump the brakes for reasons unknown. She changes her mind when she finds a journal from 8th grade with Chris' name in it, marking him as one of her many crushes from middle school, despite not even remembering him when she first saw him since returning to town. She has books like this for every grade full of boys she had (one can assume) superficial crushes on -- especially given that she usually scratched their names out one page later -- but for some reason, seeing Chris' name in this journal is the tipping point for Natalie to rethink her entire relationship with him, and she confesses her love to him on her podcast. Ridiculousness aside, I just couldn't quite get over the hurdle of needing to believe that Natalie would've completely forgotten Chris after crushing on him in school.
Looking at other reviews, I can see that Jason Priestley is a favorite among viewers, but he felt awfully miscast here for me. His rugged looks felt like they belonged more in a Christmas-at-the-ranch type of movie, rather than the jack-of-all-trade friendly neighbor bill he was attempting to fit here.
On the plus side, I really did enjoy the comedic aspects of this film, especially Chris' grand, slow-motion entrance at the beginning. I love when Lifetime makes a genuine effort at humor in their movies, and that's what kept me sticking around this film. Melissa Joan Hart is also GREAT at comedy and playing roles that enhance the humor. This movie was no exception in that regard!
The turning point is when Melissa Joan Hart's character, Natalie, starts questioning if her burgeoning relationship with Chris is moving too fast, despite the fact that they haven't done anything other than hang out and go on essentially one official date. Their relationship seems like it's traveling on a totally believable pace, but Natalie feels the need to pump the brakes for reasons unknown. She changes her mind when she finds a journal from 8th grade with Chris' name in it, marking him as one of her many crushes from middle school, despite not even remembering him when she first saw him since returning to town. She has books like this for every grade full of boys she had (one can assume) superficial crushes on -- especially given that she usually scratched their names out one page later -- but for some reason, seeing Chris' name in this journal is the tipping point for Natalie to rethink her entire relationship with him, and she confesses her love to him on her podcast. Ridiculousness aside, I just couldn't quite get over the hurdle of needing to believe that Natalie would've completely forgotten Chris after crushing on him in school.
Looking at other reviews, I can see that Jason Priestley is a favorite among viewers, but he felt awfully miscast here for me. His rugged looks felt like they belonged more in a Christmas-at-the-ranch type of movie, rather than the jack-of-all-trade friendly neighbor bill he was attempting to fit here.
On the plus side, I really did enjoy the comedic aspects of this film, especially Chris' grand, slow-motion entrance at the beginning. I love when Lifetime makes a genuine effort at humor in their movies, and that's what kept me sticking around this film. Melissa Joan Hart is also GREAT at comedy and playing roles that enhance the humor. This movie was no exception in that regard!