Felices para siempre

7.5 stars.

After reading several abysmal reviews, I was a bit uncertain about whether or not I wanted to continue with this film or just move on. But I saw something in the list of actors and the storyline that got my attention. So I decided to watch as much as possible before deleting and proceeding to the next Hallmark film in my watchlist.

To my surprise, around halfway, this movie does a complete 180 and becomes more entertaining, fulfilling, endearing, romantic. Good feelings emerge, relationships blossom, and everything comes together nicely, wrapped up and tied with a pretty bow. You have to watch this movie beyond the midpoint if you wish to experience the joy that it brings.

The acting was appalling, the premise a joke and the whole thing was a waste of time. I usually like Kellie Martin but this was just embarrassing for all concerned.

I enjoyed this more than I expected given what Hollywood sometimes manages to do to English "aristocrats" in "comedies". Here we have a Marquis (Kassianides) suffering from amnesia and a young girl (beautifully played by Kiernan Shipka) who doesn't like killing frogs, is willing to believe they can turn into princes, and wants her widowed mom (Martin) to find happiness. It's a charmingly told story with witty character development and always on the light side. But....

Kellie Martin can act, and there are certain scenes in the film she handled okay, but she didn't convince me at all that there could ever be any chemistry between her and a man other than her dead husband, not ever. It irritated me to bits from the start it really did, and then I thought maybe it was part of the plot. Unfortunately it wasn't because her confinement didn't relax for a second even in the best scenes of the whole darned film. And in the meantime daughter Zoe is acting her socks off.

Nick Ullett was very good as Wilkins, and young Rod Myers does well as Sam. In fact the cast do really well altogether. It's just the miserable Gwen who lets it down ever so irritatingly for me..... but still, six out of ten because chemistry is a purely personal thing!

This was fairly cute and endearing, though it's not something I'd watch again. It wasn't good enough for multiple rewatches or to be a favorite.

This is a cute little TV movie in the "Miracle on 34th Street" vein. Besides some rather amusing acting -- particularly Simon Kassianides as a Marquis or perhaps Prince who prefers to get drunk and fall into an amnesiac fugue rather than marry his horror of a social-climbing fiancée, and Kiernan Shipka as a straightforward young girl who would rather believe in magic than live a rather empty life, there is plenty of subtext in this movie about hope, expectations and San Francisco -- although that highly cinematic town is not shown to any advantage. Surely a few more original pickup shots could have been arranged.

The romantic interest is provided by Kellie Martin, who is directed in the manner typical of a Hallmark TV romcom: brittle, fast-talking and ready to fall. There won't be much in the way of surprises in this work, but a light, almost negligent handling of the issues by director Ron Oliver keeps things moving along at a decent clip