Reviews

I've always said a great ending can fix a bad movie and vice versa. Sadly, the former is not true here.

I love Brooke. I didn't use to but she's really grown on me especially from the Dickens' one. And I like Will. He was great in Royal Matchmaker. And I thought they had chemistry. And the premise was good. The execution on the other hand....

They get points for having her actually apologize too, a rarity these days. But how it all played out wasn't good. She didn't miss a beat when confronted again with her own lie when accusing him and twice had the audacity to imply hers wasn't as bad. Which almost made her apology moot.

I have it a shot and they moved the mark. So this one is a miss for everyone.

Normally I like to wait until I finish a movie before reviewing but the awkward incompetent contrivance in just the first 20 minutes needed to be addressed.

1st of all, in what universe are customers and cashiers totally okay with ringing two people up at once? The closest I can think is at a restaurant but at a register like this it's just dumb. The clerk would take one at a time. It's more likely the customers would've fought over who was first but in their lame attempt to subvert expectations they went for the silliest option. So that unbelievable contrivance to get the cards switched was just ridiculous. A dozen other ways that could've done it that wouldn't have made everyone look ridiculously incompetent.

2nd, having worked a lot of places I guarantee most places aren't checking names on cards despite what protocol says. Not unless the pin isn't working and even then the customer would likely already have the card back when the error was discovered. Those people at the store and restaurant don't get paid enough to care.

3rd, what kind of idiot tries to have a convo about switched debit cards with one of the players while a hockey game is going? No one. It's not like he's likely to disappear on her given the situation.

Not sure I'll finish this but other people seemed to enjoy it so maybe I'll hope the writing improves.

And to the reviewer who complained about the 5th avenue line,

You know what I love about a good romantic movie? When the guy apologizes for messing up (when it's a real mess up not a poorly written fake mess up). You know what I hate in a romantic movie? When the girl DOESN'T apologize for legitimately messing up by thinking the worst of the guy when he actually did nothing wrong.

Thus the one star docked on my rating. There are other parts that annoy but she has enough of a character arc to not be a Mary Sue.

All in all it's a good one. I like Kristoffer Polaha and Jill Wagner together. The makers kinda made the same annoying mistake of her character being obnoxiously pushy and arrogant in the first Mystery 101 movie (and the third and almost the fourth but fixed that one) but still love them.

This story is great for KP to step into a different kind of character with Colin and JW does a great job as the sincere if often selfishly unobservant Alex.

And except for the missing apology from her at the ending it was a very sweet ending.

I like it, I bought it, I recommend it.

Seriously, I love this movie. I was so happy when I was able to get it on DVD though it took a bit of searching.

But it also frustrates the heck out of me because Jenny doesn't get it and the script won't let her. Matt is not perfect and he has that character arc where he learns it does help to get to know the people you have to make tough decisions about because it might lead to some inspired solutions.

But Jenny, oh, Jenny. She never quite understands the reality and practicality that money is finite. And I wish they would've had Matt spell that out for her or that she'd realize he's not horrible. They almost did in the parking lot where he finally gets fed up with it. I loved how he called her out about her thinking the world revolves around her. It's true, she does even when she justly trying to support her supervisor. But they ruin the moment with her getting the last word about him only looking at the data. Yes, Jeni, when you're running the books for a giant hospital that deals in millions of dollars, yes, you have to look at the data. The whole movie I'm siding with him because they wrote her as one who lives off fairy dust and magic. And all he tries to do is show her that you can be practical, and realistic, AND still be a giver. But while she can be your worst enemy, she does sincerely care about those she cares about. Kinda the two polar opposites of emotion. She cares so much about those she knows that she defends them voraciously. Unfortunately, she doesn't really she's writing off Matt the same way she accuses him of writing of the people he doesn't know. And I think he's less callous about it than she is. But their interactions do make for some great lines.

I do highly recommend this film because Jenny isn't completely horrible. I do like their chemistry and I love the story. I think they define NICU way too often as I think more people know what it stands for than not so a single definition would be good but she explains the acronym like 10 times (exaggerated but not much) and it gets a bit obnoxious. She just assumes everyone is dumber than she is on anything to do with the NICU. Could've removed one of those definitions to give Matt a chance to explain something to her that she doesn't understand and have her be left speechless at least once.

I know, I keep harping on parts that annoy me then say how much I love it, but I do love it. That's why I gave it 9 stars which I rarely do and I give even fewer 10 stars, often settling in at 7-8 unless it's a bad 2 or 5.

It's a great move in spite of the one real flaw and I loved that it was one of their outside the norm for Hallmark cookie cutter stories. Plus I'm a big fan of Kristoffer Polaha and Emilie Ullerop, both great actors. And the side characters and actors are a bunch of favorites as well.

EDIT: Upon rewatching I do see more of her character arc but one last frustration I have with too many Hallmark movies is the girl mishears something, misjudges the guy, blames him, but when all is resolved and they get together, she never apologizes for thinking the worst when she was wrong for having misheard something even once the truth comes out. He's the only one apologizing. And that is a point I can't get past.

Some great actors, some not so great. Some great moments, some not so great. And far too many "trying too hard" cringe moments. Trying too hard to be modern. Trying too hard to be quirky. The real gems of the show often were over shadowed by the less than genuine attempts in other moments. Almost like those in those moments didn't buy it anymore than than the audience.

Amazingly the biggest pet peeves were the contrived problems like the car repair (no it does not take days to replace a standard windshield especially for a shop that advertises glass repair) and getting locked in the room just felt too dumb in the initial execution. Even Kristoffer Polaha who does incredible work in my opinion couldn't make the getting locked in moment not weird.

Sadly I'm constantly reminded these days of why after decades of wishing to get and having Hallmark Channel access, I don't really miss it now.

I've got half a movie to go but I've already fast forwarded through several too cringe moments. Who knows. I've long believed a great ending can save even a bad movie. Maybe this will be one of those.

Edit: okay finished. I'm not changing my rating though it had more sweet moments and a good ending except for the ornament. I'm now convinced the couple who owns the inn and the car shop lady are scamming people in cahoots with the marriage counselor by intentionally dropping a giant ornament on their cars. That's a way to get repeat business but I wonder what kind of kickback the therapist is getting. Another reviewer called it "cute Christmas magic." No it's vandalism and fraud, both severe crimes.

I liked that they had Pascale Hutton as the therapist but I kinda expected a simple tie to her other movie. No such luck.

I may watch it again since I bought it off Amazon digital but I'll skip to just the good parts.

So this isn't my usual form of comedy. I'm not really into more vulgar jokes. But given the subject matter it's hardly surprising.

Still it had some great moments. 1)The locker room convo with Winnie. 2) The final game. Adorable. 3) The twist ending. 4) The two unexpected cameos. 5) The expected cameos. 6) Matt Walsh smiling and hugging. Both awesome and unsettling.

I'm mean ultimately it had its flaws but still pretty impressive for a movie that went from conception to premiere in nine months. Hmm. Was that a coincidence? Imagine how those flaws could've been polished up with a bit more time.

Not exactly a family movie but it hit the real message without being cringe.

I know plenty who hate DW will disagree with that last part, but I've seen far more cringy stuff the last five years from the other perspective.

Everyone did well. Love it or hate it, you should see it before you judge it.

The female lead is absolutely horrid. The beach guy who falls for her is the worst ignorant simp. And her ex fiancé should've considered that bullet dodged but the writers somehow have no idea how to write a good story and likable characters. What were they smoking to green light this? I couldn't even finish it. Zero redeeming qualities and it appears my opinion isn't in the minority.

Why do modern writers write women and men like this? What happened to believable conflict? It's just lazy and insulting. The only people even remotely worth it from what I could stand to watch were her sister, ex fiancé, and sisters new boyfriend. But even they were lacking for not seeing how awful the supposed heroine of the story is. Someone please call her out. She takes no responsibility for her contribution to the mess, expects apologies at every turn and when her faults are pointed out she redirects back to the other person. Ugh.

Looked up the other credits of the writer. Maura sense now. It was completely immature because he's written mostly stuff for kids.

I appreciate the attempt to subvert some expectations. But the attempts weren't executed as well as they'd hoped. Problems with the execution include unanswered questions like:

What exactly dis she think was going to happen? She's the only child in a 500 year long royal family line but is completely surprised when parents come a-callin' with info about succession. Really? Sis she think mommy and daddy was going to live forever? Did she think the line would end with them in which case why was she surprise about him possibly abdicating? And really? She's the last in the line and she's allowed to run amok in NY until her child bearing years are almost over? And not once did this "total chill down to earth girl" think about what would come Next for her family. But she's not spoiled or entitled. Yeah right. She's so not spoiled in fact that her victim rant when her bodyguard tries to defend her by taking her side over dork earls comment is totally justified.

Only 30 min in and I almost can't stand it. I have to see how this train wreck ends but golly it's bad.

Not the actress. Jesse Shram can actually act fairly well when they don't give her an unlikable character to play and pretend it's fine.

But the prince repeatedly tries to tell her who he was from day one but she over road him every time. Then he has to grovel for her forgiveness until she bestows it upon him? She served to be embarrassed for her behavior. She's the epitome of the put upon Mary Sue. All this does is make him look perfect and she appears woefully unworthy.

Now that we've got the most obvious flaw out of the way, the accents needed work. Sounded like they watched a bunch of old time British tv shows to practice.

Also, the daughter, is she nice or evil? She's totally on Kaitlyn's side until her mother conspires to ruin it and now she decides to keep her mouth shut?

It had potential but the writing and plot progression and the character of Kaitlyn just made it mostly unbearable.

It was a great premise. It was a fresh take on the over done Bachelor-esque reality tv trope. It wasn't surprising. It wasn't meant to be a twist surprise. It was still predictable. But it was still different enough.

But one little thing ruined it all. The lack of comeuppance for the producer. The worst he gets is a weak reprimand from the interviewer. The bad guys were cartoonish which was bad enough but this guy went evil to an extreme. Why have him push back at all against his boss during the show if he was going to go to this level of awful anyway at the end? They should've just had him be that bad from the get go. And then he gets chewed out in a way that he obviously could care less about and that's suppose to appease the audience?

Yes in real life he'd likely get away with it. But this isn't real life. So they had all the room to satisfy the audience. They chose not to.

And yes, I'm focusing on that more than anything because again, it's a small point that ruined the whole thing. Left me utterly disappointed.

One final point, evil producer catches Will off guard in an ally (like I said, cartoonish) and Will honestly thinks there are no further strings to the interview? Kelsie showing up was seen a mile away but we're to believe he and his lawyers wouldn't attempt to head off more bad press by smelling a skunk in the upcoming interview itself? And no one involved in the script caught the stupidity of that? Are they that dumb or do they think we are?

When you treat your audience like idiots they tend to not come back for more.