A Ring by Spring

2014's 'A Ring by Spring' did sound very charming even if the plot synopsis was nothing earth shattering. My Hallmark film completest quest (which has gradually overtime included Lifetime and UPTV), that is still ongoing with no intent to stop just yet, has been a very uneven endeavour but an interesting one with some real winners. Rachel Boston has been good in other films, though her films are uneven, and have always liked the much missed Kirby Morrow's voice acting.

'A Ring by Spring' is a winner, not quite one of the standout viewings of the whole Hallmark completest project but of the early 2010's films it is one of the better ones in my view. It is not earth shattering or anything out of the ordinary, but it was watched by me in the want of something charming, light hearted and heart-warming. 'A Ring by Spring' succeeded in all three of those areas on the whole, even if not every single area quite comes off. It is also a good representation of both leads, which is a good thing as that would have been a big problem if their performances were the opposite.

There is admittedly nothing new story wise. It is very easy to tell what is going to happen before it happens and the ending is the pretty typical Hallmark Christmas film sort of ending (meaning easily telegraphed and on the too neat side) not in doubt.

It is a slight film too, meaning that there are times where it drags a little.

Despite those few things, 'A Ring by Spring' is a charming, heart-warming charmer that succeeds at a vast majority of its aims. One of the biggest strengths is the very winning performance of Boston, very honest and moving performance as well as very sweet without being sugary. Liked her character too, it was easy to root for her and overcoming adversity and she's one that doesn't start off too perfectly and goes on a convincing journey. Morrow is very subtly charismatic, easy going and charming and their chemistry is very warm and never stiff. The supporting cast are solid.

Visually, 'A Ring by Spring' looks nice. It's not drably lit, is cohesively edited and the locations are made good use of and photographed in an easy on the eyes way. The music is not constant or overpowering. The dialogue doesn't have too much cheese and doesn't fall into schmaltz, it's amusing and sometimes movingly delivered with spirit. The direction is more than capable and while the story is far from perfect it is light hearted and heart-warming, with the sentiment never becoming too much.

Overall, very well done. 8/10.

Rachel Boston's character goes through a journey -- not just of falling for the right guy, but of figuring herself out. In the beginning, she's not annoyingly cynical. Getting married is always what she wanted in her vague future. But this winter, she's jolted with a wakeup call. This sends her on a quest to discover why she's failed at relationships, and what she really wants and doesn't want for her future. Throughout the film, she has a progression of learning lesson after leason, growing more and more wise. She is being molded into a girl who's ready for her happier future. The music in the final scene is very sweet.

I thought this was great.

A really fun and funny Hallmark film, with Rachel Boston (who has a little few Emma Stone comedic similarities about her) in the lead.

With some lovely messages about finding the right person, not just the person you think you should be with, this was great.

I would rate most Hallmark movies around a 5 out of 10, but this one is just plain better than the norm. Rachel Boston is the main reason why. She is charming, delightful, and easy to relate to. Her exploration of past romantic failures is not always exciting, but it is an interesting concept. There is a realism to it that I quite like, even if I had to strain a bit to believe that her character would have struggled so much.

It's not a perfect movie (it suffers from the same Hallmark-mandated plot requirements), but I do recommend it because it packs an effective emotional punch.

6.8 stars.

I'm gonna write this review, no editing, off the top of my head, it's terrible and the grammar stinks, but I'm taking too much time on these reviews and it's only for myself and for future reference I am the audience. If you read this, hello, and sorry for the terrible writing, but I've not the time for polishing anymore.

This is about a woman who has dated a lot of men and can never figure out who is the right one for her after many years. She goes through man after man after man and at one point she has an ah-ha moment about how almost every guy she's dated in her whole life has broken up with her for no apparent reason when things seemed to be going so well. What she finds out is probably no surprise, and everyone around her knows exactly what is going on with her and why she has difficulties getting guys to commit to her, they are just making preemptive breakups before she has a chance to break their hearts first, unbeknownst to her, but fully understood and sensed by them on a deeper level.

She has always been a cynic from a very young age, and they are careful to show us this when she talks about how confused she is about Romeo and Juliet, it's about tragedy and death, but her mom tells her all girls like Romeo and Juliet and it's peculiar that she doesn't. So we find out that from early on she's always been cynical about true love, especially because of her parents who have the perfect relationship. She probably feels that she can never find a man as perfect for her as her dad is for her mom, but this is all subconscious.

She stumbles into the right guy, but doesn't realize that he's the right guy, he's just another guy to her, and to us he's just another guy too. In fact I have no idea what sets him apart from any of the other guys because the writer doesn't make him anything special to us that would incline us to think he's actually the truly perfect guy. And also the dichotomy of her own nature which is her appearing to be the perfect sweetheart of a woman who sincerely but her character is stunted and so we are not shown all of her previous boyfriends and what they saw in her that ultimately made them run the other direction. When they explain to her why they left her, their answers are similar in that they felt she eventually would have left them anyways, like her heart wasn't fully in it. But we never really see that side of her, because if we did see that side of her, this would not be a very good movie as she would not make an acceptable protagonist being a shallow woman who is afraid of commitment.

On the bright side, I think Rachel Boston really nailed the character in many respects, and she's just so cute in this I have to give it a 6.8 instead of a 6.4.