Coup de foudre avec une star

A tribute to the films of John Hughes, "Date with Love" is loosely based on his film "Some Kind of Wonderful". Unfortunately, it does not live up to that 1987 teen classic. Especially in the early going, the writing is uninspired and the acting is average.

But I must admit that the lead actress, Shenae Grimes-Beech, who plays Hollywood actress Alex Allen, grew on me. In the end, she gives a charming performance as the star who accepts a proposal to a high school prom as a publicity stunt. Also notable are Milli Wilkinson as Devyn, younger sister of high school student David, and Bailee Madison as Heidi Watts, the best friend of David.

While the parallels of this film to "Some Kind of Wonderful" kept me entertained, that novelty did not elevate this TV movie. Also, a lack of chemistry between the two pairs of love interests dampened the film's appeal.

This is a poorly to mediocre acted movie with great life lessons on the reality of how shallow society is. Our children should watch this knowing how real this is of the ways of the world.

High school boy makes internet "promposal" to latest Hollywood super-starlet and because of a recent embarrassing break-up in her private life, she accepts it to get publicity. This sounded like it was going to be lame and unappealing with few interesting possibilities. And the opening scene didn't help. The break-up was loud and very public occurring on the red carpet for some event. Right away it looked like two things were going to be true of this movie. I expected bad acting all the way through based on the acting in the break-up. And I expected the starlet to be arrogant and obnoxious. The latter was only partially true. At times she was all about me, me, me as she took over the prom decorations. At other times, she was open and vulnerable as she got to know Mr. Walsh. She does seem to care about the people around her at the local high school. The other characters are appealing (except for the obvious villain). This is the third time I've seen Bailee Madison recently. The adorable but sometimes incorrigible kid has grown up into a nice young lady. The final outcome of the story was pretty obvious from early on, but I will let you guess as you watch. There are a few interesting scenes and developments to keep the story moving.

While I enjoyed the plot of the movie, it felt oddly rushed, and the ending was quite sudden without much clear closure as to where the characters' futures were heading.

The first 45 minutes was difficult, and we were ready to turn it off, but it then got marginally better and we watched it to the end. Guess I'm used to more mature movies from Hallmark so this one didn't grab us.