The Dating List

Abby Morel (Natalie Dreyfuss) has a meet-cute food order situation with Dan Thrubrig (Andrew Dunbar). She is a single gal eager to climb the company ladder and gets assigned to temp assistant to boss lady Susan Danvers (Carmel Amit). It turns out that Danvers is looking to get married and Abby is tasked with screening over 3000 men files. In exchange, Danvers makes Abby a junior editor.

First, I don't like the digital filming. It looks a bit cold and hard. This kind of material requires warmth in the filming. The actors are all B-level and they are mostly fine. I don't really hate anything, but I don't love anything either. It's nice. I try not to be too mean.

None of these Hallmark style movies are very well written, but this one was above average. Enough twists on the standard Hallmarkish plot to keep it moving.

For me the acting was what I found most compelling. I particularly liked the female lead and was surprised I haven't seen her in more movies like this. She's quite charming on camera.

I found the film entertaining and might even rewatch it some day.

For a TV movie, it was rather enjoyable. Rom-com is a genre that I personally find the least success in. But even though it covers a lot of cliche's and you exactly how it's going to end, there is a charm to it. The characters are likable and the writing has a sharp wit to it when it needs to.

The Hallmark style rom/coms are all mostly the same dozen or so plots with another couple dozen plot devices jumbled in. As a result, for me, the ones that I'm most likely to enjoy will have one or two of my favorite actors. Sometimes the writing and dialogue will do the trick, but usually it's the chemistry between the leads.

I never heard of Natalie Dreyfuss or Andrew Dunbar, but the idea of finding a date for Abby's boss appealed to me as something to pass the time while I exercised. Was I pleasantly surprised!

The writing and dialogue is better than average. The dialogue is witty. Some of the situations are quirky. Overall, this isn't the most original story since it boils down to the anonymous recluse author being right in front of Abby's face. (The audience learns this fairly early.) And a lot of the things that develop are mostly predictable including the conflict and the general outcome.

The gem is Natalie Dreyfuss and to a certain extent her chemistry with Andrew Dunbar. Abby is fun. She is self deprecating, but underneath she is confident. She wants to be honest. Dan is also a good guy. The supporting cast is decent except for Christian Sloan who plays a cardboard head partner.

This movie is more complex than I anticipated with a few twists thrown in. The lead is surprisingly goofy and everybody is flawed but usually for understandable reasons, which makes them less stereotypical than initially appears. It almost feels like a pilot for a longer run and I would watch more. There's not a massive age range of characters, but youngsters could watch too and anyone feeling a bit unconfident in life would probably feel better about things after.