Craft Me a Romance

When I watch Hallmark movies I'm looking for a sweet escape. The acting is generally not A+ but as long as the overall story is sweet & engaging, I don't mind. Some parts were just that - others weren't at all. Jodie's love story was forced, Andrea's was adorable - if the movie were based around her it would have been so much better. 💕 Jodie's strength, in my opinion, is comedy. She lacks emotion. Andrea outshines Jodie in most heartfelt scenes - which is basically throughout the movie. I'm excited to follow Andrea's career. I hope it's as fruitful and long lasting. She deserves leading roles in these Hallmark type movies. She was made for it.

This movie came on after another one finished on Tubi. The first thing I noticed that was bad about the movie was the music. There was electronic music, fast-paced piano and more. One thing I've always noticed about movies is that the music can make or break the film. In this case it broke the film into so many small little pieces is not worth putting back together. Throughout the whole movie it was different styles of music like with violins and then later all piano. What did someone do get free sound clips off the internet? And yes the acting was pretty bad. The only good actor was the guy that played Matthew Mitchell the lead. I never watched full House but I know that the head actress was on it. The writing was pretty bad too. And when the opening lines in the craft store someone goes "my tutorial will restock the store"... huh?

Like I wrote in the title of this, ghost watch something else. Watching paint would be more fun than wasting an hour and a half on this.

Normally I put on a Hallmark or Great American Family movie at bedtime to help me fall asleep. This one actually kept me interested enough that I stayed awake to finish it. Hallmark and GAF have done a number of variations of the main theme of the 1998 Tom Hanks-Meg Ryan Rom-Com YOU'VE GOT MAIL which is itself a remake of the 1940 Jimmy Stewart-Margaret Sullavan movie THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER: two business associates who can't stand each other are unaware that they are also anonymous pen-pals/email correspondents and falling in love with each other through that channel.

In YOU'VE GOT MAIL, Hanks and Ryan are business rivals, with Hanks a member of the family of a large nationwide bookstore chain (think Barnes & Noble) and Ryan the owner of a small bookstore in Manhattan she inherited from her mother and is struggling to keep afloat. As the newest store of Hanks's family is about to open and inevitably put Ryan's literally named "The Shop Around the Corner" out of business, the intensity of their mutual hatred crescendoes until Hanks learns his email correspondents true identity.

In CRAFT ME A ROMANCE, Jodie Sweetin plays Nicole, the manager and co-owner with her brother and the manager of a small Arts & Crafts store inherited from their parents, about to be eclipsed by a large nationwide craft supplies chain opening a new store around the corner. Alfred, owner of the chain, has repeatedly offered a generous buyout offer to Nicole as decades earlier her parents' store had caused a previous failure of their first attempt to open a store in that town decades earlier. Nicole refuses to even respond to the offer, so Alfred sends Matthew, his son and vice president, to deliver the offer in person. Matthew arrives to deliver the message, but before identifying himself he finds himself enamored of Nicole and enthralled by her presentation to a craft fair of her customers in the store. Without the additional plot element of anonymous correspondence of YOU'VE GOT MAIL,, this movie cuts to the chase of Matthew's conflict.

As I said in the review of another variant of the YOU'VE GOT MAIL theme, nothing wrong with that. Even with the mandatory formula for ANY Hallmark or GAF movie where you know within the first twenty minutes which two characters are going to be coupled up at the end and that the movie ends with a kiss. This is where the old metaphor kicks in that Life isn't a destination, it's a journey. We already know the destination is the kiss at the end, and we know that the YOU'VE GOT MAIL plot is the parameter of the journey. (I recognized it for the other movie I reviewed immediately just reading the program guide, but not for this one!) The trick is to deviate enough in the journey so that it's not totally predictable and stale and a rehash of the previous versions.

I don't know why other reviewers have a problem with Jodie Sweetin's acting; I suspect that they still see her as little Stephanie Tanner from FULL HOUSE and are frozen in time with that memory. She and Brent Bailey as Matthew have good chemistry together and it works. In all the years that Max Caulfield (Alfred) has been acting, there's only one role of his I'm familiar with, but it's my all time favorite movie, GETTYSBURG (1993) in which he plays real-life Union Colonel Strong Vincent who dies heroically in the eponymous battle. I was curious how he would come across as the only real "bad guy" in this movie. I won't spoil anything, but I was not disappointed.

I will find it difficult to fulfill the character requirement on this one. From the very start the phone conversation between Father and son was so cliched and the lead actress' acting was dreadful. She was just reading her lines with no commitment or true expression. The customers entering her store were even worse and within 5 minutes it felt like I was watching a high school play. I rarely review a film or series without seeing it through to the end but this one was impossible to watch and I generally love Hallmark movies.

It was the typical opening set-up with the son of a huge conglomerate being sent to a small town to promote their new store and tear down the competition. Won't be hard to guess what happens but with dialogue, direction and acting as bad as this, I won't be watching to find out.

The acting and the story line is pretty cheesy, even for this genre of movie. I have watched almost all hallmark movies and when this channel split off some of the actors and actresses I was excited for new opportunities, but this movie - didn't do it. It almost seems like they are trying to pack too much into the movie. Sometimes it's okay to leave out information or lines and the story can still come across. It almost feels like they don't believe their story line can survive without spelling it out for us the viewers. If you want some background noise it's okay, but if you are wanting to watch it for the acting and story - I would skip it.