Hearts Around the Table: Jenna's First Love

7.0 stars.

Wait a minute, I didn't know they would continue the Unwrapping Christmas saga and roll it into a spring event with a new title: 'Hearts Around the Table'. So now the lead female character is a successful entrepreneur and one of her previous co-founders of the Unwrapping Christmas store is now her sister? And the boyfriend of Busby's character is now her brother? Anyways, this casting fiasco is confusing and a bit difficult for me to take seriously. So this film better be really good.

It's not great. It's full of drivel which characterizes most of these Hallmark series. This new franchise consists of several of the same hand-picked actors, yet we are to distance ourselves from the imprint of the lackluster Christmas series?

What is the theme? Something about family and the importance of family first, I think. What is the plot? It's about a woman named Jenna who was in foster care, her foster mother is one of the actors from 'Facts of Life'. There are three sisters and a brother roughly the same age who were adopted into this family many years ago. There is currently a younger boy, maybe 16, somewhat new to the family. Meanwhile the older siblings all grown up with careers, come home once a week for dinner. The boy is glum, feels somewhat left out it seems, and they are all trying to encourage him to be happy. But, it's not working.

As the story goes, Jenna has a new billionaire client and the liaison between her and the billionaire happens to be her ex-Andrew. Andrew dumped her sophomore year, and she never truly got over him. It appears he still loves her, so what happened? You can easily guess the same old overused Hallmark recipe: youthful misunderstanding and parting ways so as not to hold the other back from pursuing their dreams. Sure enough.

For real guys, this is not cool since 2021, now it's just a blatant disregard for the wheels of progress. Modify the blueprint, take a calculated risk and find some new script writers. We need originality.

And yet, I can't totally bash the film. The acting and music are good. In fact, everything is great except for the tired plot and dialogue. I must be unbiased for the sake of fans who are unaware of this repetitive aspect (one of many) of Hallmark stories.

Let's start by summing this movie up with the extremely ridiculous post in the main character's , Andrew, yearbook which read - "You smelt like farts all sophomore year." If you find this humorous or cute, this movie is for you. If you are over the age of 18 and wondering why that was allowed to make it in as a prop, ummm not so much. (Prop person - you had one job). The characters weren't interesting so I wasn't invested in their story. The acting was kind of wooden for such an amazing cast (I blame the director). The storyline had promise but felt so rushed. I think with some more thought and edits, and removal of some of the silly dialogue, this would be a great movie. I would love to see a redo. With a different director.

The new series shows promise. A family of foster children return weekly for a meal with the woman who fostered them all played by Mindy Cohn. They share stories and updates as well as their hopes for the future. And many keep in touch like any family would advising and protecting each other. Each episode like this one will focus on the current situation one of the family members finds themselves in. There may also be a glimpse into the life of a current foster child and how the past fosters bolster and love on the current one. This episode had the usual Hallmark love story but the focus on fostering and a fundraiser for community support of families in need made it more tolerable.

Between the green screen, poor acting, and subpar storyline, I knew this one was going to rough.

The storyline was as cliché as a rom-com meet-cute in a coffee shop, which I actually like that plot. But have we not evolved past the overworked hustle-culture woman who conveniently has no time for love-until, of course, she does? And don't even get me started on the ex. Quite condescending.

And the millionaire tech bro. The helicopter scene? Pure comedy gold, though I doubt that was the intent.

The real saving grace was the family dynamic. Their banter was the one thing that felt remotely authentic. Unfortunately, the script and cinematography left much to be desired. I truly wanted this to be better than it was. Here's hoping the sequel redeems itself-because it can't get much worse... right?

This series revolves around grown up foster kids who gather around the dinner table every Sunday as a family to share their lives with each other. The matriarch of the family is Angie, played by former Facts Of Life star, Mindy Cohn. The first story revolves around Jenna (Ashley Newbrough), who is an event planner. There is also a subplot regarding a teenage boy, that Jenna encourages, who is having trouble adapting to his new foster family and new school.

Jenna gets hired to plan a charity event for billionaire Tom Redlands (AL Mukadam), he has assigned his Consultant, Andrew, (Steve Lund), to work on the project with Jenna. This business relationship is awkward because Jenna and Tom were sweethearts in high school, but the relationship was ended abruptly by Andrew. Jenna still feels the hurt and pain of the breakup. If that wasn't enough Jenna and Andrew clash and have completely different ideas for the event.

Andrew still has feelings for Jenna and starts to make gestures to try to rekindle their relationship, but Andrew's boss, Tom, the Billionaire is also making a play for Jenna as well. The problem with this movie is the romance is lackluster and lacks development. The movie is slow moving and drags a lot. The performances are wooden and come across as scripted. And of course there is the usual Hallmark formula of "the misunderstanding" and the predictable outcome. A HO HUM MOVIE, maybe the other stories in the series will be better.

I really enjoy Ashley Newbrough she always brings a spark to her roles, (Operation Nutcracker, Flipping For Christmas,and Love On The Right Course to name a few) and was one of the few bright spots in the movie, but she needed a better script to work with, and better costars.

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