Hearts Around the Table: Jenna's First Love

What I found most bothersome about these movies is that there is no explanation for the single, childless foster mother having an enormous mansion on a large property. Did she just do a really good job of investing her payments for being a foster parent? I mean, come on! There is nothing even slightly rational about this storyline.

7.0 stars.

Wait a minute, I didn't know they would continue the Unwrapping Christmas saga and roll it into a spring event with a new title: 'Hearts Around the Table'. So now the lead female character is a successful entrepreneur and one of her previous co-founders of the Unwrapping Christmas store is now her sister? And the boyfriend of Busby's character is now her brother? Anyways, this casting fiasco is confusing and a bit difficult for me to take seriously. So this film better be really good.

It's not great. It's full of drivel which characterizes most of these Hallmark series. This new franchise consists of several of the same hand-picked actors, yet we are to distance ourselves from the imprint of the lackluster Christmas series?

What is the theme? Something about family and the importance of family first, I think. What is the plot? It's about a woman named Jenna who was in foster care, her foster mother is one of the actors from 'Facts of Life'. There are three sisters and a brother roughly the same age who were adopted into this family many years ago. There is currently a younger boy, maybe 16, somewhat new to the family. Meanwhile the older siblings all grown up with careers, come home once a week for dinner. The boy is glum, feels somewhat left out it seems, and they are all trying to encourage him to be happy. But, it's not working.

As the story goes, Jenna has a new billionaire client and the liaison between her and the billionaire happens to be her ex-Andrew. Andrew dumped her sophomore year, and she never truly got over him. It appears he still loves her, so what happened? You can easily guess the same old overused Hallmark recipe: youthful misunderstanding and parting ways so as not to hold the other back from pursuing their dreams. Sure enough.

For real guys, this is not cool since 2021, now it's just a blatant disregard for the wheels of progress. Modify the blueprint, take a calculated risk and find some new script writers. We need originality.

And yet, I can't totally bash the film. The acting and music are good. In fact, everything is great except for the tired plot and dialogue. I must be unbiased for the sake of fans who are unaware of this repetitive aspect (one of many) of Hallmark stories.

Let me explain why we like this Hallmark movie and gave it a "10." Primarily, the female lead's clothing as well as hair and makeup were a monumental improvement from ALL earlier Hallmark movies. I would bet money that Hallmark (hopefully) fired every single person that dressed the stars in those tacky, ugly, unstylish clothing, especially the women, but men too. There is a saying that fits, which is: There only taste is in their mouth. Hair, makeup, and especially the women's clothing was always garbage. It is like they were trying to start a new and tasteless trend, that would never get off the ground in the real world. Awful. So thanks for giving good taste in clothing a chance.

The show is worth watching if only for the female lead's clothing. Very classy, and very tasteful. It complemented her nicely instead of Halmark's usual Halloween costumes.

Plus the script was pretty good too.

I wanted to like this movie or start off the series. I'm hoping the other movies are better. This one I didn't want the main ones to get together.

He came off arrogant and dismissive towards her ideas. And when they liked her idea better he made a face.

Like typical Hallmark you have miscommunication between the leads. If she "was the love of his life" why wait till like you're all old. He could have tried harder. Who carries around the old yearbook to an event.

I'm waiting for the next one. The main guy I was not a fan of. Sheri was the best of this movie.

Until the next one. Like the concept of this 4 movie series.

This series revolves around grown up foster kids who gather around the dinner table every Sunday as a family to share their lives with each other. The matriarch of the family is Angie, played by former Facts Of Life star, Mindy Cohn. The first story revolves around Jenna (Ashley Newbrough), who is an event planner. There is also a subplot regarding a teenage boy, that Jenna encourages, who is having trouble adapting to his new foster family and new school.

Jenna gets hired to plan a charity event for billionaire Tom Redlands (AL Mukadam), he has assigned his Consultant, Andrew, (Steve Lund), to work on the project with Jenna. This business relationship is awkward because Jenna and Tom were sweethearts in high school, but the relationship was ended abruptly by Andrew. Jenna still feels the hurt and pain of the breakup. If that wasn't enough Jenna and Andrew clash and have completely different ideas for the event.

Andrew still has feelings for Jenna and starts to make gestures to try to rekindle their relationship, but Andrew's boss, Tom, the Billionaire is also making a play for Jenna as well. The problem with this movie is the romance is lackluster and lacks development. The movie is slow moving and drags a lot. The performances are wooden and come across as scripted. And of course there is the usual Hallmark formula of "the misunderstanding" and the predictable outcome. A HO HUM MOVIE, maybe the other stories in the series will be better.

I really enjoy Ashley Newbrough she always brings a spark to her roles, (Operation Nutcracker, Flipping For Christmas,and Love On The Right Course to name a few) and was one of the few bright spots in the movie, but she needed a better script to work with, and better costars.

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