The Cabin

I cannot understand why this dreadful TV Movie set deliberately in Scotland to showcase everything about Scotland was filmed in Ireland with mostly Irish actors with horrendous accents instead of Scottish actors and locale. In 2011 it makes absolutely no sense other than perhaps a very bad financial decision. The well-worn, contrived storyline of two families' reservations being mixed up forcing them all to share a ridiculously small cabin in spite of getting off on the wrong foot, the lack of believable chemistry between the obnoxious father and the unsympathetic mother who fall for each other within a few days of meeting, the poor script and unrealistic depiction of a Highland Gathering of the Clans and Highland Games leaves the audience questioning why it was even attempted. The reason I have given it one star is because the families' acting is actually good in spite of what they have to work with and it has its moments but mostly because, being Scottish, I liked the fact that both families enjoyed sampling "haggis" before finding out the ingredients.

I an struggling to understand what's going on here. It seem implausible. Anyhow - not a good watch!

A note to other reviewers regarding Lea Thompson's age: This movie came out in 2011. Ms. Thompson was born in 1961. That's 50 - not almost 60. When I was 59, I had teenagers. To say she's too old to have younger children - not true. A lot of people have kids when they are older. My son and dsughter-in- law had their first child at 34 and 37. I was 30 and 32 when I had my children. My sister- in-law and brother were 33 and 43, respectively.

It is a very cliché. It is not very cinematographic. All the plot lines are obvious. Jokes too. And why people hate Huggies? Never tried this exact dish. But I have hearts and liver and other guts quite often as a meal. And yet it seems in every travel show or movie about Scottland there is a joke "how disgusting are Huggies".... So the movie is full of cliché, romantic one too. But the movie is not awful, it us even enjoyable to some extent. Give it a try, just don't expect anything huge.

Normally I wouldn't write a review for this type of movie in a million years. I'm just doing it for two reasons. Mainly, the script is incredibly one of the worst in Hallmark-type movie history. And the stupid age debate by other reviewers.

First the age nonsense. As pointed out, LT was all of 50 when the movie came out. I have no idea what sort of rock others live under, or what Deliverance type area you come from, but late 40's-early 50's is probably the *norm* for most mothers of teens, especially since the oldest is supposed to be around 17. And to claim somehow it's gross to watch a woman who's over something like 25 being sexual is repulsive. But then certain other comments from the same party tell you all you need to know about that source.

Back in reality land, as I said, even by extremely low budget, Hallmark romance movie standards this script is beyond cliché. The basic plot is boilerplate and of course it's incredibly silly to make a movie about Highland games that people supposedly travel internationally to see and set it in Ireland with a cast of about 20.

But, oh my God, the hero is actually repellent, misogynist, and verbally abusive at times! And his personality will change on a dime - I guess that's like many real abusers, so at least the writer did that well. I tuned in about 10 minutes late and at first wondered if he was going to turn out to be the villain and the games organizer was going to be the hero. He was being that gross. It was the scene where the kids are playing horseshoes. His comments towards the kids was nothing but sexist abuse. Later on it especially showed up again when he was telling his daughter she looked so bad she looked like she was wearing a Halloween mask. Now usually these type movies appeal to women by not only having a physically attractive hero but he'll also be a great dad. This man was horrifying at times, then like I said, he'd go back to being a cliché.

Just wow. I had to stop watching. It's a shame because I really like Lea Thompson and the little campground set in autumn was very pretty, even if not Scottish. The older woman who was contriving to get the couple together was cute. I don't know Steven Brand but he seemed to be more the victim of bad direction and the vile script. But wow, I would never want to run into this writer at a party or something. He needs to stay away from kids and women.

Hallmark movies can range in quality - from surprisingly good and well done to very bad. This one is very bad.

The romantic couple have no chemistry and their dialogue is unpleasant and childishly competitive, to the point that it is not fun to watch. Also, the female actress is almost 60 in real life, making the entire romance a little forced and a little creepy.

The couple and their children all behave unrealistically. Of course, the couple walks out on each other repeatedly, only to change their minds - but these scenes are poorly conceived, badly written and unconvincing. And children keep saying how they really want to be in the sports competition, despite the fact that they have hardly practiced and are terrible at almost all of the events.

The sports competition scene at the end of the film is terrible. There are two teams each consisting of two families (a low budget, even for a Hallmark movie) -but the entire competition comes down to one father versus the other team's father - because no one else on either team does anything that affects the outcome of any competition. A crowd of spectators watch as children throw a hammer 14 feet. Really, 14 feet. They announce that. Why would spectators make this competition their destination for a day? And, why are we watching this stink bomb?

I have watched over a hundred Hallmark films - and with that as context, I am telling you that The Cabin is one of the worst two or three Hallmark films I have ever seen.