A Harvest Homecoming

Great American Family is trying hard to compete with Hallmark, but these movies continually look cheap and cut obvious corners. As other reviewers have pointed out, the leaf decor is over the top and ridiculous. No pumpkins or hay bales, and not one apple in sight -- at an apple orchard! Also, there's no character development and the story is too simple to stretch into a full-length feature. Where had Jessica Lowndes and her son been living before coming to Chestnut Hollow? What happened to her kid's father? Is he in the picture? Who is her best friend who drops by occasionally? How did this orchard stay in business without obvious things like a petting zoo and a maze? And isn't Trevor Donovan at 40 a little old to still be searching for a permanent life? GAF is certainly a player in these types of movies, but so far Hallmark continues to eat their lunch.

Trevor Donovan is experienced and I've enjoyed him in a lot of movies. I've come to enjoy Jessica Lowndes also. This movie was very disappointing. The acting is surprisingly average.

The story is average with no great highs or lows or surprises. In fact, if you break it down, it follows typical lines. This includes an antagonistic first meeting. Then that melts instantly and they get along great with no transition. There's friends and family all telling the leads to get back out there, repeatedly. There is even the line about "It's a date, no not a date..." (Ugh) There's a ticking clock as far as Drew leaving soon. The conflict occurs explosively, quick and maybe overblown. The ending is predictable.

Something was off with Donovan and Lowndes, just a little. It dampened any chemistry. The dialogue wasn't great. The sets are limited.

What about the singing? Whenever there is a movie with Lowndes I eagerly anticipate her singing. I guess there was one surprise. Donovan did the singing. He was decent in a country sort of way.

This is another totally family safe, family friendly movie. It's not bad, but it wasn't what expected with these leads. It's still a little better than many I've seen on this network with lesser known stars, so I guess it's watchable.

The best way to watch this movie is on an old black and white tv so you don't get a two hour overdose of orange. From the start there was too much autumn decorating inside and outside The fast forward button helps get through this very routine movie which has the low point at the proper time. From there is has the things working out for the happy ending in the usual last few minutes. The use of the mute button can help get through the music and very fake dancing. The whole fishing pond scene looked like a picture background on a stage set. With nothing moving in the background of the fishing scene it looked like they turned on a fan to make the close plants move a little to end the scene. This is one to write down the title for the don't watch again note book. . .

Love Jessica Lowndes and Trevor Donovan. On the positive side, the movie storyline was great and so was the supporting cast. On the negative side, Trevor Donovan, while one of my favorite actors, does not have a pleasant singling voice , It was painful to hear him sing. Unfortunately, they did not use Jessica Lowndes to sing as her voice is wonderful.

Overall, the movie was beautiful. Really loved the supporting cast. The grandfather was a hoot. The parents demonstrated a loving, long lasting relationship. The sister was memorable. Enjoyed the minor God references. The scenery was beautiful.

Highly recommend.

Good storyline, good acting, appreciated the prayers before meals, good sharing of feelings between Drew and Aiden. The downfall was the REALLY overdone autumn decor - EVERYWHERE, in EVERY scene in EVERY location. The paper leaves in the yards, on the chairs, on the stair bannister, bed headboards, walls, in the school classroom, on the porch, on the fences, on the curtains, all over the kitchen, doorposts, shelves, door wreaths, etc., etc. They even included trashy-looking brightly colored flowers at the fishing lake - they looked like litter sitting on top of the bushes. It's the same stuff everywhere, and WAY TOO MUCH. The set designers need to realize that a little goes a long way, and that the same red and orange decor just gets boring if it's seen everywhere constantly in every scene. And to add to the insult, the house gutter was painted bright orange, which didn't match the red door color - but just over saturated the house scene. No one paints their home just for autumn! Tone it down, folks. This is so unrealistic it's a distraction from the storyline.

I could be wrong, but it also seemed that the photographic saturation in the red, orange, and yellow tones was being enhanced in many scenes. Even the orange basketballs in the gym seemed to be "glowing."

Hallmark is the master of plastic colored fake-looking flowers stuck everywhere in their rom-coms. Don't copy their mistakes (which go way beyond decor). We want better for GAC family. Rethink the need for overdone decor before making future movies and tone it down! (I subtracted 2 points for this, I'd rate the movie a 9 if the decor was more tasteful and less of a distraction).