Summer of Dreams

I'm not a huge Hallmark person. I watched this because I did grow up with Miss Debbie Gibson and was curious. Considering this is a predictable, cheesy Hallmark movie and she hasn't done a lot of acting... it was quite enjoyable. It had a great simple story and liked that it wasn't the usual over the top mushy movie. It had heart and was great.

Can't think of anything positive to say. I guess I'm not a Debbie Gibson fan.

As a Debbie Gibson fan of my youth I actually looked forward to this movie. This movie was a let down especially because of the fact it had the potential to be a lot better. Hallmark in the last few years have mandated the rom-com format for all its movies instead of letting them go where they go.

In this moview the romance seemed very forced and the movie wasted its time focusing on that. It could have been a nice C plot to tie up at the very end. However, as they key plot of the moview it did not work. The most interesting relationship in this movie was between the sisters. One became a pop star and the other moved away to be a teacher and really was not proud of her. Also, it could have focused on her career plummet a litte more at the beginning. Finally, while her becoming a teacher is a nice plot device her becoming an effective educator and embracing that role probably would not have occurred between the 1st and 2nd day.

In summary while not awful it was very disappointing because it good have been really good.

The 2016 Summer Nights block was a mixed bag but mostly actually in retrospect pretty good. Certainly much better than the June Weddings output that year especially, where there was only one good film. While liking 'Summer Villa' and 'Summer Love' a lot, 'My Summer Prince' did very little for me. Have liked Pascale Hutton in other things and she is the most familiar name to me actually, am aware that for many others it would be Debbie Gibson and fair enough.

'Summer of Dreams' is pleasant enough and is better than its follow up, 2018's 'Wedding of Dreams'. It is though a bit half and half as a film and not particularly great, a good number of good things are here but also some not so good things too big to overlook. As far as the 2016 Summer Nights films go, 'Summer of Dreams' is possibly second weakest, though a lot better than 'My Summer Prince'. While not being either among the best or worst films for Hallmark that year.

As said, there are good things. The scenery is lovely and photographed lovingly. Hutton has the most likeable and real character and gives a very honest and charming performance, her dialogue is the best in the film too with the advice being relatable and well intentioned. Some of the music is also quite pleasant.

Robert Gant is also charming and looks very natural in front of the camera, his smile is lovely and more natural than Gibson's, and does have some decent chemistry with Gibson. Enough of the story is light hearted, heart-warming and sincere.

Having said all of this, 'Summer of Dreams' is not great. Did find Gibson rather wooden and she could have had a wider variety of emotions and less of the slightly too forced smiling. While there is chemistry between her and Gant, the relationship itself is not developed very well (her chemistry with Hutton actually has more heart) and could have been warmer. The music has pleasant moments as said, but too much of it also sounds dated within the film and Gibson's singing at times sounds tired.

Did find the dialogue too stilted too often and too heavy on the sentimentality, while the story is predictable and unevenly paced, with some dragging going on in the second half where the story got thinner. The ending is too neat, but that's not uncommon for Hallmark.

In summary, not a great film but not bad either. 6/10.

The first V stands for "V"egetarians only. Why? Because this made for TV movie is so CORNY.

The second V stands for any over-the-hill "V"ain person who believe in living in the past just like the washed up singer/songwriter/actress Debbie Gibson is by starring in this, her own vanity project.

Debbie Gibson is supposed to be pretending to be a "has-been" former teenage singer/songwriter star who once opened for Billy Joel's concert before 16,000 music fans, but today finds herself trying to get by teaching at her sister's high school. Debbie's sister is now a successful Vice-Principal so she hires her sister Debbie to teach a class of kids who enjoy singing and songwriting just like Debbie once did.

Heck, the writers even used Debbie's first name to help their audience try and remember it was the once singing teenage star, Debbie Gibson starring in this oh so corny made for TV film. I rated it a 2/10 just to give those of you who watched this boring and predictable film some sliver of hope that all your dreams could also come true some day. Yeah right.