Emma's Wish

The story surprised me. A lot of the Hallmark-like movies from 20 or so years ago are different from the same old stuff on a Hallmark Saturday night these days. This is a Paul Kaufman film and I saw it on the Hallmark streaming channel, so it is Hallmark adjacent if not nominally Hallmark.

I'm not sure what I expected, but probably some sort of romance. It is in a way, the same way the Mrs. Miracle movies are. Emma is the Mrs. Miracle nanny. But she is also the kids' grandmother, so she has a personal stake and unlike Mrs. Miracle her emotions get involved. (If you aren't familiar with Mrs. Miracle, she is a little like an elderly Mary Poppins who comes to the family to fix what is broken.)

There is a subplot where the retirement home and police are trying to find the 75 year old Emma.

One thing that stands out in this story, especially in the earlier parts, is that none of these characters are role models. We learn that Emma as Joy's mother made a lot of mistakes leaving Joy feeling less than fully loved. Joy is trying as a wife who has been cheated on, but she makes mistakes also. The young Emma, the nanny, starts out with motives which are slightly selfish. She mostly just wants time with the only family she has left.

The acting is mostly good. Many of the situations are unlikely such as how quickly Joy accepts Mame (an anagram of Emma) and even more so how quickly the kids fall in love with her. I think the retirement home director and the cop are supposed to be funny, but they just annoyed me. For the most part, the pace is good.

Given that this was shown on CBS Sunday Night (after Tetched by an Angel) and co-starred Della Reese, I was expecting a treacly schmaltz-fest. In fact, the only reason I watched it was all the other networks preempted their regular programming. I was pleasantly surprised. Joanna Kerns was her usual quietly likeable, effective self, and Harley Kozak was as good as ever. While the "very special" (meaning stickily sentimental) plot elements were present as expected, the viewer was not drenched in pathos like would normally happen with this sort of movie. The whole affair was understated and entertaining.

Emma's Wish is a sweet and touching film with Joanna Kerns, Della Reese, and William R. Moses. Joanna Kerns plays a woman whom is turning 75 and wants one wish....to be with her family and be young again. She gets her wish for a month and leaves the retirement home to help her daughter's life that is falling apart. Emma (Kerns) finds time to reconnnect with her young grandchildren, daughter and son in law. Della Reese plays Emma's funny friend at the retirement home...this is a heart warming movie. James Welch Henderson Arkansas 5/5/21.