Hearts Around the Table: Jenna's First Love

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.

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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I like another reviewer's comments about the continuation of the Unwrapping Christmas saga.

The story didn't flow well, but that could have been some bad acting by a fairly regular Hallmark star Steve Lund. He looked like he was suffering for playing the part. He didn't seem sincere or natural. I can't see how Jenna could love Andrew so don't even look for chemistry between Lund and Newbrough. Even right up to the climax, Andrew was acting like a loser.

Then there is Sheri. I'm sure she will turn out to be nice when it's her movie, but I thought she was beyond rude. Mostly to Andrew.

The kid, Rory, looked somewhere between asleep and comatose in early scenes at the dinner table.

I couldn't decide how Jenna felt about the way Tom was coming on to her. I wasn't sure she was picking up on it, or trying not to, but it was so obvious. Then a little later it almost seemed like she was giving him a chance, but like Lund, Newbrough didn't seem invested in her role as it related to Tom.

The whole movie felt off.

Let me just start off by saying I really wanted to like this movie. But it was so difficult to watch even though the leading lady is traditionally a great actress, but every other character was just awful. The leading man was such a bad actor and lowkey looked like he was holding in a fart the entire movie. The foster mom, Angie, was so weird looking it was hard to focus. The whole "foster family" dynamic was just so strange to me, and all of her siblings were just as bad at acting as the leading man.

He was extremely condescending, childish, and dismissive of Jenna. I really didn't think they should've ended up together. I thought she deserved way better than a grown ass man who gave her the silent treatment after the tiniest most irrelevant misconception. I would not have been disappointed if she chose herself at the end. Save yourself the hour and a half and don't bother watching.

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.