Hello, It's Me

7.7 stars.

There is something about this family, a widow named Annie (Kellie Martin) and her two children. There is a depth to them that is rarely seen in family relationships with Hallmark. James (Smith) is at their home and he gets to experience this wonderful trio, so endearing, and lovable, in spite of the daughter's bitterness.

This film is beautifully wrought full of deep emotion for the loss they have suffered and James is the right man to fit the huge hole that has been vacant for the past two years. The son lights up when he's around, and it's evident that Annie is falling for him. Once they are able to sort through the emotions and the complicated grief, maybe they can be happy once more. The complexity of their loss is that Annie is getting messages from beyond the grave. What do these messages indicate? Annie must figure it out for herself.

I cried not once, twice, but three times. I wept like a baby in one scene, a rare moment for a film to evoke such a measure of compassion within me. It's just a movie after all...

Annie (Kellie Martin) lives on Long Island with her two children, Ella and Milo. A widow, her husband Andre died in a boating accident two years ago. To say the least, its been hard moving forward and Annie has never erased the last phone video recording of Andre, the one where he says this is the happiest day of his life. A fine cook and baker, Annie has been working as a caterer out of her home, even though she longs to open a bake shop. One day, on her way to a work engagement, Annie is in a collision with another driver, James (Kavan Smith). As its totally James fault, Annie is miffed, especially when the baked goods are damaged. Very wealthy, James offers to pay for everything but Annie cuts him off. Later, she discovers that while she catered the party, James had her car repaired. Wow, how nice is this! For his part, James is an extremely successful businessman who inherited a lucrative firm and who hobnobs with the elite. His mother is very snooty but always trying to fix up her bachelor son with the "best socially prominent gals." Yet, James sees something in Annie he feels he is missing so the two grow slowly closer. Ella, the older child, is not really happy. More importantly, in a most startling fashion, Annie begins to receive phone messages from Andre, worked into the video that she has saved. Could her deceased husband really be watching over her, trying to tell her important advice? Yet, each time it happens, Annie steps back from her budding romance with James. What to do? This lovely romantic drama will have some in tears, its so touching. The paranormal angle is beautifully conceived. Martin and Smith make a great couple while all of the other cast members are nice as well. Then, the LI setting, right on the coast, is very beautiful, making one wish for a beach home there as soon as possible. In short, what would fans of romance do WITHOUT HALLMARK? Thank Providence that this network continues, week after week, to rain down blessings on its loyal subjects.

Annie is hard to really like, although you do kind of root for her. Her two children are barely any better off as far as the pain they carry. There is a mystical element to this story because Annie gets phantom messages on her phone from her dead husband. James has potential and lives up to it as the story goes on. Annie on the other hand carries her chip far too long.

Their initial meeting is a disaster as James irresponsibly backs into Annie destroying her day's livelihood. (Another reason not to like Annie is her stubborn refusal to accept the payment he offers which he totally owes her for the accident. In fact his liability should be far more.) Their second meeting is better with some decent banter between them.

A big subplot is Annie's relationship with her kids, especially her teenage daughter, Ella. Ella's character gets more development than the daughter does in a lot of stories like this. We see how Ella is dealing with her dad's loss.

There are some great lines. "None of the women you know actually eat." I can't say there is much chemistry between Martin and Smith, mostly because Martin keeps pulling back. Annie and James start to click and then Annie shuts it down. More than once. There is a hint of chemistry. It could have been there.

I like sappy. The climax/ending of this movie goes over the top of sappy. It almost seems manipulative.

I think I am overly generous with my rating. The movie was comfortable because I like both Martin and Smith. If two much less known actors had done this, I think I wouldn't have liked the movie hardly at all.

I love this movie for having a bit more kick than many Hallmark productions.

This is a very enjoyable and engaging movie. The element of fantasy/supernatural is not often seen in a Hallmark movie. It is refreshing to see a family oriented movie with actors portraying real emotions of love, loss and finding happiness. The child actors are excellent, and the relationship between the two main adult characters is mature and believable. I find that in many Hallmark movies, the actors play their roles as over the top caricatures or the chemistry is absent and that is not the case in Hello It;s Me. I have seen this movie three or four times and I never tire of it. I highly recommend this movie!