This is the surprise surprise still married to old husband trope. It's tried and true, but unfortunately, I did not like the behavior of the old husband and really liked the new fiancé who was eventually and inevitably dumped. Needless to say this negatively impacted my enjoyment of this movie.
This trope usually only works if the other woman/man is a jerk and the heroine/hero doesn't love him. But Amanda and Edward, her fiancé, profess their love throughout the movie. And Edward is not a jerk. He is a demonstrably better man than the hero.
Brennan, the "hero" breaks his marriage vows and abandons Amanda with no explanation a month after they were married thanks to letting her manipulating Mother bully him. Then after 20 years of silence he won't sign the papers to make it official now that she is in a happy good place in her life. There's more, but that's enough.
I appreciate that Hallmark didn't follow the usual template of making the new man a weasel, but they did too good a job and on top of that they made the so-called hero the weasel. I can blame his youth, cowardice, and lack of self esteem for the original abandonment, but not for letting it fester for 20 years and then trying to get her back once she is no longer single.
This trope usually only works if the other woman/man is a jerk and the heroine/hero doesn't love him. But Amanda and Edward, her fiancé, profess their love throughout the movie. And Edward is not a jerk. He is a demonstrably better man than the hero.
Brennan, the "hero" breaks his marriage vows and abandons Amanda with no explanation a month after they were married thanks to letting her manipulating Mother bully him. Then after 20 years of silence he won't sign the papers to make it official now that she is in a happy good place in her life. There's more, but that's enough.
I appreciate that Hallmark didn't follow the usual template of making the new man a weasel, but they did too good a job and on top of that they made the so-called hero the weasel. I can blame his youth, cowardice, and lack of self esteem for the original abandonment, but not for letting it fester for 20 years and then trying to get her back once she is no longer single.