Wedding of a Lifetime

It's a funny premise: A couple that's been engaged for ten years has lost the spark in their relationship, though they still care for each other as best friends. They mutually agree to split up. They go to tell their families, but receive the nationally televised surprise of being entered into a competition for engaged couples, with the prize of an all-expenses paid wedding. The two protagonists decide to go on and compete a few rounds, thereby having some fun while getting some much-needed publicity for their business dreams. You can guess what happens in the process.

Comedy is there, but I wish they had dialed it up to an eleven. Also, the first 13 minutes of the movie are depressing, showing the two unhappy protagonists. It should have been trimmed down to like 5 minutes. Finally, the scene of him yelling at her was base-breaking. An upset character can still use an indoor voice, and make at least some effort to not be a total jerk about it. His lame apology later didn't satisfy me.

A pretty film for the fair image of contest atmosphere, purpoises , for Jonathan Bennett and Paula Shaw , for crumbs of realism and for the family spirit, inspired reflected.

Jonathan Bennett inspires a special form of freshness to his roles, this case not being and exception and this is one of beautiful virtues of film. Some humor, some pies , some dreams and a drop of fight are smart used for something to be little more than to o familiar Hallmark recipe.

The end - embroidery of cliches, off course but the location, the clouds and the gifts one to other are not so bad.

In short, nice and little more.

This was a really fun film. Bennett is allowed to show his impressive physical comedic talents with a director who knows how to use it. It was fun to watch his great chemistry with co-star Brooke D'Orsay, who is wonderfully appealing and fun in her performance as well. They have both been allowed to bring comedy to their previous films separately, and are great here. I WISH Hallmark would do more comedic material. They have such a great company of regulars that are capable of it. But very few of their "rom-coms" have much "com" in them. Kudos to the writers as well. "Wedding of a lifetime" had both and I look forward to more from all of them!!

First, let me qualify: 9/10 on The Scale of Hallmark. Haha! Wedding of a Lifetime has a different & fun premise. It's a refreshing change. It takes place during an intentionally cheesy reality tv show competition where a broken-up couple end up trying to win an all-expense paid wedding. Brook and Jonathan were super cute together-I found their chemistry and acting believable and was pulling for them. The plot and the many other characters of tv production staff, family members and other competitors held together well enough to keep my attention. The ridiculous competitions were kind of funny. And the musical montage of trying on of dresses and tuxes & the tasting cakes, etc was cute. This is a light-hearted movie yet the characters still do some heartfelt self-reflection and figure out what they want. No surprises. A fresh premise with that inevitable and always welcome Hallmark happy ending.

I won't regurgitate the plot, but this one really shines on several fronts. First it was an unusual plot for Hallmark. Not pulled out of the usual grab-bag of tricks. The acting was top notch from the leads. Brooke D'Orsay always adds a certain sweetness and authenticity to her roles, but this one gave her more comedy and drama to work with. Her heartbreak at the beginning of the film was very touching. I loved that they acted like mature adults despite some tense situations. Even when they had an argument, they were were still supportive of each other. The next day after the blow-up, they even apologized to each other.

Last but not least, instead of the "Big Misunderstanding" with 15-20 minutes to go, darned if they didn't have the exact opposite. The crisis actually brought them together even closer.

To add to the positives, the secondary cast was great, and didn't have the usual predictable reactions. The bickering host couple was very funny, and I loved that the publicity from the show saved their businesses.