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sharonweil
Reviews
A Country Wedding (2015)
Jesse can sing!
I really loved this one - somehow have missed it for the past 5 years but am glad I caught it now! Autumn Reeser is 100% adorable - I'm not familiar with her, but really enjoyed her performance - and I always appreciate Jesse Metcalfe's movies but was happy to see him displaying new talents here. As much as I love Hallmark coming out with new movies frequently, when I see one of the older ones before they started really cranking them out I can see such a difference in quality. This movie is heartwarming, funny, entertaining, charming, just plain good! I recommend it wholeheartedly.
Fashionably Yours (2020)
It's a hit
Looking over other people's reviews it appears this movie was either a total hit or total miss - not many middle-of-the-road folks. While I won't say it's the best Hallmark movie I've ever seen (and I've seen pretty much all of them), I definitely agree more with those who really liked this one. For one thing, it's very refreshing to have new people playing the leads - I may like Danica and Lacey, Lori and Alisha, seeing them in SO many HM movies is making it harder to really buy their characters and get into the story. And I found both Graham and Sampson to be funny, believable, charmingly awkward but not to the point where I'm cringing, and likable. The storyline was at least somewhat different from the usual as well, so even if you know what the ending will be, you aren't exactly sure how they'll bring it about. I liked the supporting cast as well, and appreciated her relationship with her mom. The only part I found really unbelievable was Lauren's assistant - Paige I think? She didn't seem knowledgable or confident enough to be anywhere near ready to take over for Lauren. Overall, an enjoyable movie that I'd recommend.
Finding Santa (2017)
Disappointing
I LOVE Hallmark movies. Old, new, Christmas, springtime, I love them all. Well, almost. This one was a pretty big disappointment. There were timeline issues, there were plot holes, there was mediocre acting, there was nonsensical dialogue, there was really nothing to the story. There was no spark between the leads. The music was laughable, especially that horrendous candy cane one near the end. Grace is an artist, and at the end of the movie cranks out this huge painting of Santa with some children (in a few hours, as near as I can tell) that is so obviously a photo I was actually cracking up. Then when she's interrupted she proceeds to throw a cloth over the painting she was just working on! The unexpected blizzard/whiteout was barely flurries, and certainly wouldn't have shut down the interstate immediately. One ongoing issue I have with these Christmas movies is their lack of realism regarding the weather and when it's daylight or dark out. The Christmas movies generally take place in colder climates, and yet people wander around without coats, gloves, hats, etc. for long periods of time, totally unaffected, even when it's snowing. I live in a colder climate, and I'm here to tell you, that's just not realistic. (And considering how many of Hallmark's hunky heroes hail from Canada, I would think someone would have been able to clue in the sun-worshipping southerners on what it's like to deal with winter weather.)
I could go on, but what's the point?