Sweet Carolina

I enjoyed the movie and the family relationships. Lacey Chabert and Tyler Hynes are good co-stars. This could be a great new episodic Series.

It's not often Hallmark actresses get to portray anguish on camera. Luckily they have a real pro and bona fide actress in Lacey Chabert, who did a very credible job. I can think of very few in the stable of regulars who could have pulled off the scene where she learns her beloved sister and brother-in-law have been killed. I cried. The whole ensemble handled the story very well. You can tell they pulled out the "big guns" to meet the challenge of a script that actually called for a range of emotion: Gregory Harrison and Teryl Rothery as the parents, good ole Peter Benson as the city boyfriend who gets dumped for the small town coach, who was played by the always welcome Tyler Hynes. I appreciated that they got a normal looking kid who could act to play the introverted son.

There were very realistic problems and conflicts that had to be resolved. The father was a good guy, but too controlling. Gregory Harrison managed to keep him likable. I groaned when they were setting up for the customary Hallmark food fight ( or snowball fight if it's winter) but it was actually funny, thanks to the performances.

It was good to see Hallmark break out of it's own box a little bit. Fear not, most of the usual templates were still in place, but baby steps! Kudos.

P. S, I just noticed that Lacey Chabert was actually one of the writers. You go, girl!

I looked forward to this for the week or two it was advertised. I am a fan of both leads as well as the actors playing the grandparents. Many years ago, Chabert did a touching movie about a man and woman who each lost their spouse and eventually formed a blended family. The Color of Rain was based on a true story. Despite this movie apparently being fictional, I had hoped for much the same emotional drama.

For me personally, the movie got off to a bad start with the Grandfather, Gregory Harrison, being what I thought was cruel to Josie. At one point, after doing many things to discourage her even more than the loss of her sister and best friend, he says "I love you" and I thought, no you don't - you just want what you want. Perhaps this was realistic, but it turned me against that character. And the overheard remarks contributed to later friction with the kids.

The burnt toast was a stupid attempt to show Josie wasn't a good cook.

Then Josie makes several very poor choices. One regarding the nephew was, to me, absolutely unbelievable. I really can't imagine any parent or guardian ever doing that. She makes a poor choice in her job which also affects the kids. She makes a choice, which I actually thought could have gone either way but flops, with her niece. Yes one of the themes of the story was making mistakes but out of love, yet for me these were poor examples.

Oddly, the movie was totally devoid of Josie having to enforce discipline which naturally results in resentment by the kids. This is where you would expect such problems in this type of situation. It was like the kids were perfect and Josie the bad girl.

The whole business with her job was unrealistic, but then Hallmark isn't known for realistic. Actually, her boss was incredibly generous to her.

There's one scene, which appeared in all the previews, of the family enjoying time together in the kitchen, but I wanted more of that.

I wouldn't call this a romance movie. Chabert and Tyler Hynes had definite chemistry. (I would think it hard for anyone not to have good chemistry with Chabert.) But the story was more about the family. Cooper's role was more to encourage Josie than to generate romance. As a result, the last scene felt like a tack on rather than flowing out of the story.

Perhaps I never got over my sour feelings about the Grandfather. The movie generated some positive feelings, but not as much as I hoped. With a new movie almost every week on Hallmark, they tend to run together. This was a different story, but I really wanted something that stood out more and brought me back in the future to watch over and over.

Please continue with a TV series of this excellent film. Great ensemble cast. Good plotlines. Drama with romance and comedy.

I thought this was a good movie. Lacey and Tyler had good chemistry. My biggest drawback was Tyler's hair. Hallmark really needs to address the horrible wigs they use. It was so distracting. He's a handsome man in a horrible wig. What's up with that Hallmark?