Jamais sans toi

6.3 stars.

I like Marshall, she is one of my faves, taking into account a couple of movies, but mainly due to the show she is most noted for. If you haven't seen that show yet, give it a shot. I'm not going to name it, you can look it up and see for yourself. The title rhymes with "parkland".

This is an odd film with sad faces, disappointment, strange people...the performances were off. The male lead is abnormal in his presentation, almost like he's trying to be someone he's not, and it's off-putting. Trying too hard is the impression I get. The other fellow was just too secondary to have any impact on the story, his personality is absent. The grandmother was inconsistently nice, but unforgiving, and angry, and then maybe reversed? I can't put words to the way each character was portrayed, but it's a mess. Ms. Marshall's character comes off somewhat depressed and scared and hesitant, maybe that's intended, but not fun for a main character to be this way throughout a film. The only person I enjoyed was the injured best friend, and we don't get to see nearly enough of her. She's uplifting, cheerful, fun, full of zest. Rethink the final product next time, director.

Emma is coming back home to visit her best friend of 20 years, they both had an accident a few months ago and after that, Emma just fled town. Will, Emma's childhood friend and Tracy's brothers blames her for the accident and for leaving afterwards.

That's all you need to know to go into it. Once there, you discover Will and his buddy want to re-open the winery of the town and modernize it as well. So, they present a project to the city council. Emma helps them a bit with said project.

I enjoyed this movie. It reminded me of the first movies of this kind that I watched around 5 years ago. It's also quite different from what Hallmark and Lifetime offers. It's not centered around romance, which I don't mind but... here goes my main problem: I understand that Emma and Will had known each other for 20 years but before confessing feelings I would have liked for them to spend more time together, all we got was a montage and 2 scenes. It's not enough. It would be more believable that way. They cannot create a relationship out of thin air.

Unlike Hallmark, the plot IS more believable, I can see this happening in real life. I understood where the Grandmother was coming from even though she was wrong.

It was my first time watching Amber Marshall. I liked her. I might watch more things with her (should I watch Heartland? I've had my eyes on it for a while). However, I have my doubts with Eric Hicks. I didn't disliked him but I would have liked for his character to be more cheerful, at least towards the ending. And honestly, I'm still confused about the chemistry, they did not have enough scenes (again, it's not centre around romance).

I think it is worth a watch, the first hour of the movie flew by, I was truly entertained and it was 12.30 in the morning.

Could not hold interest Amber Marshall as Emma and Will no chemistry at all.so bland Gram is the best in it.

The grandmother is the most interesting character by far. The plot is ridiculous; the town development proposal' was like sixth graders developed it vs. Professionals actually from the town who want to preserve its charm.

What's really bad, and typical of so many of these movies, is that the producers make overtures to add people of color in speaking roles, but then they give them the WHITEST names possible. A man of Asian descent is named Flynn Rutherford? Would it have killed them to actually give him a name reflecting his ethnicity?

The premise is somewhat fresh and the story doesn't use all the formula tropes like so many of this genre, but those are the only positive things I can say about the story.

I wish I had measured how much screen time was spent in the actual city council presentations, which made me cringe to watch. Add to it the amount of screen time in personal politicking. The climax was predictable as was the ending.

I can't say there was any chemistry between Amber Marshall and Eric Hicks because the amount of screen time they spent together with any harmony (sorry no pun intended) didn't seem much longer than the time they spent where he couldn't stand her. And unlike some movies where the obligatory antagonism between the leads almost seems like flirting, there was nothing positive in that part here. Paula Barrett seemed one dimensional as Rose.

Note about BALLOT BOX STUFFING in reviews: check out all the 10 star reviews where this movie is the only movie reviewed. And the rating distribution chart shows way heavier than usual bias for 10 stars.