Anything for Love

Hallmark congratulations... A strong female lead in a wonderfully developed story. And the character was in the mid range of the 30s in age. So maturity was central to the theme of this movie. So few characters today and movies for women are mature and successful and strong. Please hallmark please develop scripts for women of all ages not just the young and "innocent". And please let's not have scenes where bosses their employees to acquiesce to their wishes with a promise of promotion in order to get what they want. That's almost like forced labor. We need employees to be appreciated for their gifts and celebrated for their talent.

This is a good movie more on that later. My nitpick is not with the movie but some of the reviews that say being a nurse is nothing to he ashamed of and at no point is he ashamed of being a nurse. His friend is the one who lied which fed the plot.

The point in the movie is that women given a choice prefer a doctor who makes at least 5 times what a nurse makes there is a scene with a balding doctor with giggling women to show the point. And men generally prefer women who are below them financially and work wise so she plays down her abilities. Or they use them to climb the social and corporate ladder

Now the movie it's hallmark acting and plot are ok and reasonably predictable they however make you feel good. Plot points errors etc get over it, these are fictional stories don't over analyse just enjoy.

In the realm of hallmark movies, I rate this one as better than average. Sure, the premise was dumb--in real life it is not controversial to be a man who's a nurse. But if you can get past that then I thought the two leads really did develop some chemistry together and I was convinced that they cared about each other. I'd say the acting was better than average for hallmark too. The female lead had a big role in the show Parenthood, and I think she's a good actor. The ending was a little cringeworthy because hallmark thinks you always have to wrap things up with a big public romantic gesture, which kind of kills a lot of movies, but oh well. You could do worse if you're looking for a film to pass the time with on this station.

In Chicago, Katherine Benson (Erika Christensen) is a driven CEO of a successful family property developer company. Everybody is concerned about her dating life. She has been nominally dating Charles Hodges but she figures that he wants to take over the company from her and her father. Jack Cooper (Paul Greene) is a charming honest guy. He's happy to be a nurse but all the girls look down on his job. Kate gets pushed into internet dating by her assistant and switching profiles with her. Jack decides to do the same but his immoral friend changes his profile. They fall for each other but the lies are inevitably uncovered.

It's Hallmark. The leads are beautiful. They would make beautiful babies. The premise comes out of some sort of sitcom misunderstanding and awkward lies. It's not the best. It would help if Kate isn't dating that jerk. At the very least, she needs to break up with him. The attitude about male nurses seems very outdated and oddly universal. Once the father goes to the hospital, there is no reason to not tell the truth except it is needed for story construction reasons. The best friend Reggie Le Duca is annoying and Debbie is completely out of his league. The obvious move is for him to lie about his job and Debbie falls for it. The movie doesn't do that and I hate it even more for it. It could have tied into the original premise. The premise is problematic for many reasons, mostly since either person could have told the truth at any time. His reasoning after discovering the truth is problematic as well. It's all a little problematic although I do like the two lead actors. There are surprisingly deep moments like Kate accidentally sideswipes Debbie with a comment. Even that scene could have done more. Despite liking the actors and the characters, there is lots that need some massaging.

On the most part, while uneven, the 2016 Countdown to Valentine's Day Hallmark batch was not bad at all. 'Dater's Handbook' was the only real misfire, with 'Valentine Ever After' being particularly good. The premise for 'Anything for Love' didn't really sound that promising, actually it sounded dumb and unrealistic, but still it anyway as a Hallmark completest who saw plenty of good and more 2016 Hallmark films and who likes Paul Greene in most of his work.

'Anything for Love' was not bad at all and actually quite enjoyed it. It is far from perfect and doesn't completely avoid the traps that the premise had, but it surprisingly did not turn out as over silly and unrealistic as it sounded on paper. As far as the 2016 Countdown to Valentine's Day films go, it is not on the same level as 'Valentine Ever After' but it is infinitely better than 'Dater's Handbook' (not that that is particularly hard, a film would have to be near irredeemable to be worse than that).

There are things that don't quite come off. The story is admittedly often very silly and some serious suspension of disbelief is needed. Especially in the contrived final act, where a lot of awkward and forced dialogue can be heard and where some characters are at their most frustrating in their vague and rash decision making.

Did find a few characters annoying and less than subtly played, particularly Reggie, and the ending was unpleasantly syrupy and far too neat (undeserved too). The story can be very predictable and can drag at times.

However, the acting is fine on the whole with very appealing performances from both Greene, amiable and subtly charismatic as ever, and Erika Christensen who isn't robotic or affected. Their characters aren't too perfect or have overblown flaws, and their chemistry is genuine and sweet while not exactly on fire. It is well filmed with lovely scenery, while the music isn't too constant or over-scored.

Enough of the writing is fun and light-hearted as well as charming and heartfelt. The story is very flawed, but doesn't take itself too seriously and doesn't treat the subject as too much of a joke. Did appreciate how it covered some very relevant and important issues, not many Hallmark films tackle prejudice/discrimination but 'Anything for Love' does and more than decently.

Concluding, decent if unexceptional. 6/10.