Betty's Bad Luck in Love

This Hallmark romance left me a little disappointed. I think the two stars are very watchable, but the story lacked variety.

Betty (Laci J. Mailey) has gone through her adult life under the belief that she was cursed. Consequently, she has seen every romantic relationship fail, and she believes she is better off not getting involved. When a new neighbor moves into her building, she notices his charms, but she wants to keep Alex (Marco Grazzini) at arm's length.

They both feel the attraction, so they dabble in dating. Betty withdraws whenever there is a hint of a problem, but never tells Alex why. This kind of behavior occupies much of the film, effectively undermining the charm of the two stars.

This is a bit of an unusual premise with the curse and all. Some of the adventures are a little quirky too. But what strikes me most is how uncomfortable everything is around Betty. As is often the case, our heroine is just that in her job. Extremely competent at least. But even in that I was holding my breath through much of the movie. By the time I let it out, I should have still been wary. And Betty is so neurotic that it makes me cringe. I just don't see how someone like her who jumps at absolutely everything can hold down a job much less be great at it.

Laci J Mailey and Marco Grazzini were OK together but the story just didn't sell how they reached the point of being in love. The acting was OK and the dialogue was OK, maybe better if you like quirkiness.

There was a nice role reversal in the awkward date scene.

"Betty's Bad Luck in Love" (2024) Hallmark

I had not seen Laci J Mailey in a movie before this one, I'd only seen her in "Chesapeake Shores." I'm a fan of hers from that, and I really liked her here too. I had seen Marco Grazzini in "Right in Front of Me," where he costarred with Janel Parrish. I really liked that movie, and he didn't disappoint in this film either.

I read other reviews where people psychoanalyzed Mailey's character and tried to compare a Hallmark fantasy romance with real life. I don't do that. I tend to watch movies, especially romance movies, for entertainment. I found "Betty's..." to be a lot of fun. The curse thing just added to the fun. Whoever thought of that and wrote it into the script came up with a new twist for a Hallmark story. There were a lot of fun and admittedly goofy--but entertaining--scenes in this movie.

I'm not going to spoil the story, so I'll just say that if you are looking for a fun romance that will take your mind off real life--if you let it--here is another one from Hallmark that should do the trick.

This was a cute romantic comedy mainly because of the two romantic leads and their great chemistry. Both Laci J Mailey and Marco Grazzini are young and attractive and even though the script wasn't perfect they made it work and I enjoyed seeing these two together.

The story starts when Betty is in high school. Spurred by her friend Mya she gets up the courage to talk to her crush...only to have a curse put on her by another girl who liked him...fastforward to today when Betty actually crunches statistics for a living doing risk management. Every time she has gotten close to a boyfriend something has happened to him or she has called it off before it can. She has a new neighbor move in, a high risk taking traveling photographer...who doesn't seem daunted by what could happen to him. He even plays rugby!

I loved the banter between our two leads and I have to say that the character of Alex was almost too perfect and I loved his apartment's aesthetic! I think most guys would have run from Betty, good thing she is beautiful.

It's a fun, fresh idea: A woman who's convinced that she's a bad luck charm for any man she dates. Between this and her job as a risk analyst, she has become a nervous wreck. And it's hilarious!

In real life, would the guy be too scared off to give her any more chances? Probably! But this is one allowance I'll make for a romantic comedy.

Even though I guessed that the movie would go for that late plot twist with Eleni, I'm still glad it did. I think it was the only mature direction to take the story.

My only big complaint: Isn't men and women playing rugby together a huge no-no? I mean, it's a full contact sport. And men are bigger and physically stronger than women. That's just a fact.