Hearts Around the Table: Jenna's First Love

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.

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.

The new series shows promise. A family of foster children return weekly for a meal with the woman who fostered them all played by Mindy Cohn. They share stories and updates as well as their hopes for the future. And many keep in touch like any family would advising and protecting each other. Each episode like this one will focus on the current situation one of the family members finds themselves in. There may also be a glimpse into the life of a current foster child and how the past fosters bolster and love on the current one. This episode had the usual Hallmark love story but the focus on fostering and a fundraiser for community support of families in need made it more tolerable.

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.

Between the green screen, poor acting, and subpar storyline, I knew this one was going to rough.

The storyline was as cliché as a rom-com meet-cute in a coffee shop, which I actually like that plot. But have we not evolved past the overworked hustle-culture woman who conveniently has no time for love-until, of course, she does? And don't even get me started on the ex. Quite condescending.

And the millionaire tech bro. The helicopter scene? Pure comedy gold, though I doubt that was the intent.

The real saving grace was the family dynamic. Their banter was the one thing that felt remotely authentic. Unfortunately, the script and cinematography left much to be desired. I truly wanted this to be better than it was. Here's hoping the sequel redeems itself-because it can't get much worse... right?