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jamhendr
Reviews
Love in the Limelight (2022)
Limelight is imperfect but enjoyable
I liked it. The strengths outweigh the weaknesses. I wouldn't mind watching it again in a couple months.
Strengths: Ivonne Coll. The leads are charming together, and I liked their duet. The Rivera family dynamic. Ivonne Coll dancing.
Weaknesses: Some holes in the plot. A lot of the dialogue. Some of the supporting cast. (Alex and Toby seem to have wandered in from separate movies.) The absence of any other Mendezes. What they have Carlos do in his rehearsal scenes. (Who would want to work with such a musician?) What they have Alexa do in her work scenes. (Who would want to keep such a job?)
Mixed bag: The fickle paparazzi plot. The agent AC and the father. Mr. Rivera (played by René Rivera) loomed large in the plot, but the actor himself was underused. His motivation changed very quickly. There's a scene where the father talks about how teenage Summer Rivera was teased because her parents had foreign accents; meanwhile, neither of the actors playing the parents have foreign accents.
Apparently, this is based on the true story of Willie Aames and Winnie Hung. Aames was a teenage star from Eight is Enough. (Before my time, but I'm told it was a thing.) I didn't know that while I watched the movie, but I do know it now. My guess is the writers took out a lot so that the story could fit in a 90-minute movie. The result is imperfect but enjoyable.
The Vows We Keep (2021)
A loving family can accomplish anything
A pleasant movie, with lovely Canadian scenery and talented, eminently watchable actors. The leads, Fiona Gubelmann and Antonio Cayonne, are both charming and attractive. For me, it was a kick to see (and hear) Linda Thorson again.
The plot involves some standard tropes of Hallmark movies. Two sisters, estranged for years, have to save a very special business, before it is sold off to strangers. A woman is unappreciated by her clueless male boss. A wedding needs to be organized very quickly; it also needs to be perfect to honor a dead parent.
Some other reviews have been pretty low. The biggest problem is one of expectations, I think. This doesn't feel like a typical romance or a usual Hallmark movie. [However, it does remind me a bit of an earlier Hallmark movie, Thicker Than Water, with Lindsay Wagner and Melissa Gilbert; years after watching it, I only remember the relationship between the estranged sisters.]
Both of the leads are so restrained, almost introverted, whenever they share scenes. Jared (Antonio C.) might look fondly in the direction of Hazel (Fiona G.), but only from several feet away. Hazel encourages Jared to do what he loves (and vice versa). In short, Hazel and Jared seem like they would be great friends, but nothing more than that. In the real world, that is a lovely way to start a relationship; in a 90-minute movie, though, it doesn't come across as romantic enough.
Spoiler: There is some kissing at the end. But only in the last minute or so. Personally, I would have rated this movie a little higher without that last minute or so; it didn't fit.
Whether it is a traditional romance or not, at its heart, this is a story about familial love.
A Dickens of a Holiday! (2021)
The Christmas Carol comes to Ohio
I like Brooke D'Orsay and Kristoffer Polaha, both together and separately, and so it's not surprising that I liked this.
As is usual with the recent Hallmark movies, there are several more plotlines than just the romance. The hero, Jake (Polaha), left the hometown and his family to become a big action hero. The nephew and the brother both felt genuine. I liked the PA, too; he would make a much better agent for Jake. All of those characters were connected to Jake, though, and not to the heroine, Cassie. Even though D'Orsay has top billing, her character does not seem to have many interesting connection to the other characters, except for Jake. (She has a mother, but we barely see her until near the end of the movie.) This really is more Jake's story than Cassie's.
I agree with the others about the OTT Ace Hardware placement. Pair that with the Ace commercial breaks, and it's too much. Speaking of too much, did they really need the exclamation point in the title?
Christmas...Again?! (2021)
Don't waste any time watching this!
Look. Groundhog Day is one of my favorite movies. This is a knockoff of it, at Christmas, with less experienced actors.
Every single character in it is clueless or obnoxious, and some are both. It goes on too long, and the music is typical Disney. I could have done without the repeated farting jokes. The 12-year-old protagonist plays hockey against a team of adult men and beats them all without getting hurt; totally believable, right?
I did laugh once, so I guess I can't give it a 1.