Rendez-vous au mariage!

I usually love Hallmark movies, but this is incredibly bad in every way: the plot is juvenile; the acting exaggerated; the directing uses the same gimmicks repetitively during the festival; the dialogue is immature.

I've been wishing it would get better or be over since the first couple of minutes. I'm an hour and a half in, and the first one isn't happening. Thank goodness the second will.

As far as road trip romances go, this one came across like a 1970s AAA road map. Once you open it up, it's almost impossible to fold it back the right way and you end up shoving it into the glove box a jumbled mess. This one lured you in with the premise of road trip hijinx, but in the end it just comes across as flat and the hijinx mostly forced. I like Natalie Hall, but her character was rude to a lot of people (and the backstory with Corey was just a little overdone). The Renaissance Faire added some entertainment, but also went on for way too long. The subplot with the conniving wallflower bridesmaid got way too much screen time, and the ending was just ridiculous. And for the second time this year, Hallmark allows the maid of honor to turn her toast to the bride into a soliloquy about herself. It had its moments, but not enough to merit watching again.

5.4 stars.

Take a Hallmark barrel of wine and you'll find "Road Trip Romance" submerged in the dregs. How am I going to get through this film? I am not. How far did I get before I opted to delete from my DVR? You may guess if you like. 51 minutes is where I am at this moment as I write this review. I have 260 (give or take) characters left before I've met the minimum requirement. I feel obligated to finish the review if only for the responsibility I have toward all those who will someday read this. I don't think anyone will ever read this but myself next year when I'm trudging through the huge list of Hallmarks to eliminate the dross. I will never return to this failure of an attempt at light humor. Maybe there's an audience for this, who knows.

This is pretty much what you'd expect. There are no great highs or lows or any surprises. Like so many movies about being stranded or a bad road trip, the only tension was if Megan would get to the wedding. It doesn't really matter what the obstacles were but there were definitely a flight cancellation and a car break down.

The tone and style of the movie reminded me so much of Cross Country Christmas. The silliness was a little too much at times. The sequence where everyone added "eth" to the end of every verb got annoying. But otherwise the Renaissance Fair was a highlight.

I tend to enjoy Natalie Hall, but not always. I did not like the character Megan in the early stages. I thought she was unnecessarily mean to Alden. But she and Corey Sevier had modest chemistry.

She's one of my favorites but didn't care for this movie. Something didn't mesh. Not sure if it was the dialogue or the chemistry but I was disappointed.