This is not a great movie, but some of these overly negative reviews are too much and quite transparent. Clicking on a few names tells you the story of why some are rating this so poorly and it has everything to do with Hallmark's competition. Some people genuinely didn't like this movie and that's not hard to imagine, but some of these reviews are very telling in what they say about the movie that there's no way they actually watched.
Now, to the movie overall. I rate on a Hallmark/Lifetime/TV Movie scale for these and this is about a 4 or 5 because of execution not acting. Andrew Walker (who plays Aaron) is far and away the best thing about this movie, and the script is by far the worst.
There are some very odd script choices here and it makes the lead actress (Peyton List who plays Erica) come off less likable than she should've. It would appear that she's just negative and complaining a lot, but the truth is, her entire family keeps springing things on her and treating it as if they've given her years to adjust to a new normal, when it has been about 3-4 days that she's been given to adjust to life-changing happenings going on around her.
Some of the biggest problems with the script include -
No conclusion to Aaron's father's obsession with the property in Montana. Presumably it has something to do with his wife and their visit there or something she loved, but did they go into that? No, there is no resolution and this is a major conflict in the movie. This is a common Hallmark trope, so no resolution was definitely odd, could've wrapped it up easily to heal the disconnect between father and son, and yet there was nothing but a small olive branch in their shaky relationship by the end and not a word about why he was so set on buying the land and had kept his eye on for years just waiting for it to become available.
Erica's sister suddenly not being on board with the 30-years in the making plan to re-purchase family land that they had to sell due to financial hardships. She's been involved with the running of the farm the entire time, so there was no need for this to just now be something she brought up, yet it was. And it also seems like she's been researching it for a long time and talking it out with her husband, so truly no need for it to have been sprung on Erica when the land finally becomes available to buy.
Erica's mother is planning to "vacation" in Italy following her retirement from farm life, something that wasn't exactly shocking, but wasn't well planned with her daughters either so that they knew how soon it would happen. Well, she then proceeds thru the movie to suddenly be taking this vacation with a man she's become involved with but never mentioned outside of being her like Italian language tutor, and then it's not a vacation, she's actually moving to Italy for him, "uprooting her life" was the way she put it. Not a vacation, a move. So she went from vacationing in Italy by herself, to doing so with a man she was getting to know better, to having a boyfriend, to then her daughter Erica guessing correctly based on her word choices, she's actually planning on moving to Italy and didn't actually say this to anyone.
This is followed soon by the boyfriend coming for Christmas, but true to form with her other announcements, the mother fails to articulate that he'll be arriving basically that day or the next, and keeps telling Erica at every turn to get on board as if she prepared Erica even remotely for any ounce of these life changing announcements that all occur within about 3 days time. The mom's boyfriend wants to do an Italian Christmas Eve as if he isn't crashing this party the day before the holiday. There are some truly bizarre script choices being made. It feels very rushed, like no editor took a look at it and spotted the holes in the plot to add dialogue to connect the dots better and not make things seem so unnecessarily awkward and jarring.
There are other storyline issues, but those are some of the bigger ones that stand out and help to shape how the characters come across. Erica keeps getting blindsided so it's not exactly shocking that she's coming across negative, but almost none of it feels like it was necessary. For instance, the extremely tight timeline of all these things unfolding seems unnecessary and a poor storyline decision.
There were a few good things about this movie. This is one of the very few Hallmark movies where the chemistry is there from the get go, so much so that the leads share a passionate kiss very early in the movie. There is a connection from the moment they meet and that is central to the movie. Andrew Walker (Hallmark fan favorite) and Peyton List (Mad Men, As the World Turns, Flashforward, The Tomorrow People) make this movie very watchable despite it's many flaws, and it very likely would've been considerably worse with less capable actors. It was not difficult to get thru it even though this was far from a perfect movie. That being said, they could only do so much with the material. And there was also some questionable camera work in this movie as well, too many close ups, some quite odd, and some other shots that just were head scratchers. But if you're a fan of either Andrew or Peyton, I'd suggest watching it because I can imagine others liking this more because the flaws won't be as prominent to others.
Now, to the movie overall. I rate on a Hallmark/Lifetime/TV Movie scale for these and this is about a 4 or 5 because of execution not acting. Andrew Walker (who plays Aaron) is far and away the best thing about this movie, and the script is by far the worst.
There are some very odd script choices here and it makes the lead actress (Peyton List who plays Erica) come off less likable than she should've. It would appear that she's just negative and complaining a lot, but the truth is, her entire family keeps springing things on her and treating it as if they've given her years to adjust to a new normal, when it has been about 3-4 days that she's been given to adjust to life-changing happenings going on around her.
Some of the biggest problems with the script include -
No conclusion to Aaron's father's obsession with the property in Montana. Presumably it has something to do with his wife and their visit there or something she loved, but did they go into that? No, there is no resolution and this is a major conflict in the movie. This is a common Hallmark trope, so no resolution was definitely odd, could've wrapped it up easily to heal the disconnect between father and son, and yet there was nothing but a small olive branch in their shaky relationship by the end and not a word about why he was so set on buying the land and had kept his eye on for years just waiting for it to become available.
Erica's sister suddenly not being on board with the 30-years in the making plan to re-purchase family land that they had to sell due to financial hardships. She's been involved with the running of the farm the entire time, so there was no need for this to just now be something she brought up, yet it was. And it also seems like she's been researching it for a long time and talking it out with her husband, so truly no need for it to have been sprung on Erica when the land finally becomes available to buy.
Erica's mother is planning to "vacation" in Italy following her retirement from farm life, something that wasn't exactly shocking, but wasn't well planned with her daughters either so that they knew how soon it would happen. Well, she then proceeds thru the movie to suddenly be taking this vacation with a man she's become involved with but never mentioned outside of being her like Italian language tutor, and then it's not a vacation, she's actually moving to Italy for him, "uprooting her life" was the way she put it. Not a vacation, a move. So she went from vacationing in Italy by herself, to doing so with a man she was getting to know better, to having a boyfriend, to then her daughter Erica guessing correctly based on her word choices, she's actually planning on moving to Italy and didn't actually say this to anyone.
This is followed soon by the boyfriend coming for Christmas, but true to form with her other announcements, the mother fails to articulate that he'll be arriving basically that day or the next, and keeps telling Erica at every turn to get on board as if she prepared Erica even remotely for any ounce of these life changing announcements that all occur within about 3 days time. The mom's boyfriend wants to do an Italian Christmas Eve as if he isn't crashing this party the day before the holiday. There are some truly bizarre script choices being made. It feels very rushed, like no editor took a look at it and spotted the holes in the plot to add dialogue to connect the dots better and not make things seem so unnecessarily awkward and jarring.
There are other storyline issues, but those are some of the bigger ones that stand out and help to shape how the characters come across. Erica keeps getting blindsided so it's not exactly shocking that she's coming across negative, but almost none of it feels like it was necessary. For instance, the extremely tight timeline of all these things unfolding seems unnecessary and a poor storyline decision.
There were a few good things about this movie. This is one of the very few Hallmark movies where the chemistry is there from the get go, so much so that the leads share a passionate kiss very early in the movie. There is a connection from the moment they meet and that is central to the movie. Andrew Walker (Hallmark fan favorite) and Peyton List (Mad Men, As the World Turns, Flashforward, The Tomorrow People) make this movie very watchable despite it's many flaws, and it very likely would've been considerably worse with less capable actors. It was not difficult to get thru it even though this was far from a perfect movie. That being said, they could only do so much with the material. And there was also some questionable camera work in this movie as well, too many close ups, some quite odd, and some other shots that just were head scratchers. But if you're a fan of either Andrew or Peyton, I'd suggest watching it because I can imagine others liking this more because the flaws won't be as prominent to others.