Sweet Carolina

I looked forward to this for the week or two it was advertised. I am a fan of both leads as well as the actors playing the grandparents. Many years ago, Chabert did a touching movie about a man and woman who each lost their spouse and eventually formed a blended family. The Color of Rain was based on a true story. Despite this movie apparently being fictional, I had hoped for much the same emotional drama.

For me personally, the movie got off to a bad start with the Grandfather, Gregory Harrison, being what I thought was cruel to Josie. At one point, after doing many things to discourage her even more than the loss of her sister and best friend, he says "I love you" and I thought, no you don't - you just want what you want. Perhaps this was realistic, but it turned me against that character. And the overheard remarks contributed to later friction with the kids.

The burnt toast was a stupid attempt to show Josie wasn't a good cook.

Then Josie makes several very poor choices. One regarding the nephew was, to me, absolutely unbelievable. I really can't imagine any parent or guardian ever doing that. She makes a poor choice in her job which also affects the kids. She makes a choice, which I actually thought could have gone either way but flops, with her niece. Yes one of the themes of the story was making mistakes but out of love, yet for me these were poor examples.

Oddly, the movie was totally devoid of Josie having to enforce discipline which naturally results in resentment by the kids. This is where you would expect such problems in this type of situation. It was like the kids were perfect and Josie the bad girl.

The whole business with her job was unrealistic, but then Hallmark isn't known for realistic. Actually, her boss was incredibly generous to her.

There's one scene, which appeared in all the previews, of the family enjoying time together in the kitchen, but I wanted more of that.

I wouldn't call this a romance movie. Chabert and Tyler Hynes had definite chemistry. (I would think it hard for anyone not to have good chemistry with Chabert.) But the story was more about the family. Cooper's role was more to encourage Josie than to generate romance. As a result, the last scene felt like a tack on rather than flowing out of the story.

Perhaps I never got over my sour feelings about the Grandfather. The movie generated some positive feelings, but not as much as I hoped. With a new movie almost every week on Hallmark, they tend to run together. This was a different story, but I really wanted something that stood out more and brought me back in the future to watch over and over.

It's not often Hallmark actresses get to portray anguish on camera. Luckily they have a real pro and bona fide actress in Lacey Chabert, who did a very credible job. I can think of very few in the stable of regulars who could have pulled off the scene where she learns her beloved sister and brother-in-law have been killed. I cried. The whole ensemble handled the story very well. You can tell they pulled out the "big guns" to meet the challenge of a script that actually called for a range of emotion: Gregory Harrison and Teryl Rothery as the parents, good ole Peter Benson as the city boyfriend who gets dumped for the small town coach, who was played by the always welcome Tyler Hynes. I appreciated that they got a normal looking kid who could act to play the introverted son.

There were very realistic problems and conflicts that had to be resolved. The father was a good guy, but too controlling. Gregory Harrison managed to keep him likable. I groaned when they were setting up for the customary Hallmark food fight ( or snowball fight if it's winter) but it was actually funny, thanks to the performances.

It was good to see Hallmark break out of it's own box a little bit. Fear not, most of the usual templates were still in place, but baby steps! Kudos.

P. S, I just noticed that Lacey Chabert was actually one of the writers. You go, girl!

I always love a Lacey Chabert HMM so I liked this but was hesitant to watch just because I don't particularly enjoy sad content and child acting. But because it was Lacey, I watched. I also was excited that she was co-starred with the male because one of my all time favorite HMM is "Winter in Vail" but for some reason they did not seem to "fit". He seemed like he would not be a good fit for her in the story. And I feel so mean saying this if he has an issue with hair loss or something but what was up with that hair????? My husband even noticed, and that is saying something! Lol It looked like hair plugs or just so wierd of a hair style? Who is he, an italian mobster? It distracted me sooo badly, I couldn't focus on the dialogue! Haha.

Again, I typically skip the sad content movies but had to watch because of Lacey. Glad I watched but way too sad for me! I watch HMM to get away from "real" life NOT watch it.

So many motives to be very critic about this film , from dialogues to unrealism of situations. But it has a great gift - the cast. When you see often Hallmark films, you have the privilege to discover same actors in almost same roles. So, a sort of routine. Real pleasant in the case of Sweet Carolina because the real provocative themes are superficial explored but the nice portraits of Josie Wilder, Cooper Avchen , parents of Josue, her boyfriend and the kids are just fair options.

I loved the advertising for water , American, becoming CZech. The flashbacks and, in same measure, the family photos . In short, little more than nice.

I thought this was a good movie. Lacey and Tyler had good chemistry. My biggest drawback was Tyler's hair. Hallmark really needs to address the horrible wigs they use. It was so distracting. He's a handsome man in a horrible wig. What's up with that Hallmark?