Finding Love in Big Sky, Montana

Zero, I mean... zero chemistry between the actors.

The female lead was... well.. not believable. Not particularly a good fit to lead a movie, let alone a rom-com.

Meanwhile... Where's the ruggedness, the big sky energy?!errr.. in a cowboy hat? The draw of the title seemed lost here.

I know it's difficult to make a move, especially a movie with next to no budget- but this is why it's CRUCIAL to spend the money needed on a superior actor.

Production design and script issues will be more forgiven.

Okay camera work, with a propensity for golden hour shots.

Shame, it could have been something memorable.

I love Hallmark type movies and understand who they are for and how much the cost to make (Under 2 million dollars).

I can live with the short comings of a movie shot in 30 days but it all rests on the lead actors.

In this case,, it's rough.

Hedy Nasser is completely miss casted as a rancher even if we forgo the fact that she can't ride horses.

She doesn't have the charisma of someone in charge of a ranch.

She can't convey the financial difficulty that the ranch is facing.

She acts as she would be a guest afraid to speak-up on a "Dude ranch" for city people.

She can not "act" like she belongs on a ranch or near a horse.

She belongs in a "Princess story" or a "Christmas movie".

Jonathan Stoddard plays his character like if he completely depleted of testosterone.

He was way better in "Valentine's Town" and in "Baked with a Kiss".

It's rough.

On the technical side,, the cinematography is spectacular and the color grading is good (That's where the three stars I gave it come from.).

Where it all falls apart, is in the editing room.

The "ADR" (Automated Dialogue Replacement) is obvious, the music is aggressively omnipresent and and loud. The background soundtrack (children laughing) is on a 15 second loop repeating itself and it's grating to the ears.

So, here we are, left with a movie that broke the cardinal rule of the "under 2 million dollar budget" (cast) and it's rough.

This is a rom-com from UPTV, it's an evangelical broadcaster. The plot is at least believable and most of the the dialog is ok. I agree the two leads Nasser and Stoddard are miscast, they don't seem at ease with their roles. Nathan Kehn (Sam) and Raechel Wong (Charlie) should have been cast as the leads, they can act especially Kehn.

The location is beautiful with the snow capped hills and mountains, it reminds me of Montana and Alberta, more likely it was filmed in Canada - British Columbia or Alberta. Filming in winter with overcast skies does darken scenes, a production and cinematography problem. Limited budget so there are few characters and this may have been filmed during COVID restrictions.

Two overused premises. Paisley needs to save the ranch she inherited from beloved grandpa. Josh flees LA to lay low while scandal threatens his job. The two old flames reunite and what do they do? Well lets just say it's the same thing they do in similar circumstances in hundreds of these movies. Beyond that, there isn't much story and certainly no highs or lows. As for a predictable conflict, when the phone rang just before the last commercial I said to myself, No. Please don't use that plot device Again.

The acting is fair. There's little chemistry. The dialogue is just OK. I kind of liked Hedy Nasser for her cute sweetness, but that also sapped some of the intended strong woman vibe.

It's supposed to be a bad thing to use an "info dump" especially in a movie. My thoughts were - good, let's get all that over and settled. But then the story dragged anyway. And the voice is that opening narration was slightly grating.

There is some nice scenery but there is only so much appeal to looking at snowcapped mountains on the horizon with a bright blue sky.

It isn't really that this movie has anything great wrong with it. The problem is that it is just totally bland with the same story lines as so many other movies.

I have to admit I wasn't expecting much from this movie. I'm not a huge fan of western movies and it looked boring. So it took me a few weeks after I recorded it to watch it. Then one day I needed to delete some movies, I decided to watch the first 5 minutes of it before deleting it.

I was surprised - pleasantly. I ended up watching it to the end! I thought the two lead actors gave decent performances. I liked the diverse cast. I thought the story was heartwarming.

But I think the ending was a little bit weak. There were a couple of loose ends that could have been addressed. Despite these unresolved subplots, I still thought this movie was good enough for at least a one-time viewing.