Right in Front of Me

Carly decides to take some well deserved break from work, so she goes to this lodge up north where her best friend from college works. There she reunites with a group of girls from the same dorm she was in and her crush from that time. She also meets and befriends the sous chef from the lodge, Nick.

I'm disappointed to say that this wasn't for me. I was really was looking forward to the movie and I was let down. I liked both actors in their parts and the chemistry was great. I do enjoy Janel Parrish as a lead and I wouldn't mind more movies with her. But...

What even was the plot? I finished the whole movie and I still don't know. The first part was awfully boring, nothing happened the first 35 minutes, it was just Carly wandering around the place. So, plotwise? Nothing exciting, it was quite a let down.

I did liked, as I mention before, the dynamic between Carly and Nick. They hit it off at the beginning, and they set a nice path for their relationship: from strangers, to confindants, to friends. They really encourage the other to be the best version of themselves, and that was the highlight of the movie for me.

Marco and Janel did the best with that snoozefest they had.

This film has a long, slow, awkward first half. The initial meeting of the two main characters was especially awkward. Perhaps the fact that they are stuck in one location for the majority of the film increased this aspect for me, because I know many Hallmark movies feature a "meet cute" moment that is sometimes pretty awkward. The movie improved in the last half, but overall this is a forgettable one from the Hallmark movie machine.

This was a sleepy little surprise that I absolutely loved! The story is about Carly who had to work her way through college and ended up playing it a little bit safe with her career. Carly has a successful bridal styling business, but with a degree in design should really be designing for her own label. She is quite successful at what she does and is booked for every weekend for the next year, until her latest celebrity wedding ups the date by three days...freeing her up for the weekend to take up her friend on her offer to treat her to a spa weekend at the lodge she manages outside of San Francisco. There Carly meets the events chef Nick, who really wants to have his own restaurant and make some experimental Asian fusion foods. Carly is so natural with Nick that not only do the two really hit it off, but they get to know each other's passions and foibles...including Carly's quirky eat desserts at home thing. She becomes his official taste tester and he becomes her wingman as it turns out there is a wedding of some old college acquaintances and her college crush is there to attend.

Nick and Carly have wonderful chemistry and are the exact kind of sweet lovely people that you want to know and root for in a delightful romance.

I thought this would be one of the standard Hallmark Rom-Com's, but I ended up being delightfully surprised. It was so much more. I loved the showcasing of some different careers. I loved people being nice to one another...for no other reason than to just be nice and help one another. And I truly loved the tiny fork story, with both the follow through on a thoughtful thank you gift and the naming of the restaurant (although I am really surprised the restaurant wasn't named Lola).

This may be the best Hallmark Romantic Comedy that I have seen this year.

Anything positive for me in this movie is Janel Parrish. I loved Holly and Ivy and the character of Melody. Parrish has hints of that same character here although not quite as selfless.

The plot revolves around the triangle with Carly and her college crush and Nick. That means a lot of screen time with the crush and Carly, but that felt like a waste to me. With Nick, I was distracted by what seemed like his determination to get fired. He rebels against Chef Edward from the beginning. In short, the story didn't appeal to me.

I have been a hard time watching Hallmark this last year because of all the craziness of the pandemic. The movies with lots of families, restaurants and parties did not seem normal during this time- but I really enjoyed this movie. Both lead characters were very charismatic and they had a lot of chemistry together. The rest of the movie was the usual Hallmark fluff, but the two actors and they're on screen rolls really made it all worthwhile.