Fourth Down and Love

This was a cute romance movie. I like both the leads and they usually appear in the better scripts. What I didn't like is this notion that an all girls team would beat the boys team in football. I realize this is a fantasy romance movie, so the other parts can be fantasy too but it's not right to give our girls unreasonable expectations. Men are more athletic than women because of genetics and I'm not talking just about hormones. Girls can be better than boys at certain things, but football isn't one of them. Stop the nonsense you're selling our kid's, it doesn't help to set unreasonable expectations. Back to the movie (sorry had to fill up word count), anything with Ryan Pavey is worth watching, even if it's not his best. And Pasquale Hutton has 'it'. Maybe chemistry between them was a wee bit off but it's very watchable.

I love Ryan Paevey and it was great to see him as the romantic lead in this football centric hallmark romance. I was happy to see that even though this was a football film, that they didn't make it male centric. Ryan Paevey plays the professional NFL football star Mike. He gets injured and has to go on injured reserve for his team while he rests his broken ribs and allows them to heal. His big brother Jimmy invites him to his home to rest with family support. There Jimmy and his wife Danielle talk Mike into helping Jimmy coach his daughter's all girl flag football team. Meanwhile, there is a single mom played by When Calls The Heart's Pascale Hutton whose daughter Kiera just wants to play football and is the only girl on her flag football team where they never give her a chance. One day while sharing the field she discovers the all girl team and has her mom talk to the two coaches. We learn that the reason Jimmy started his daughter's all girls team was because his daughter Zoey experienced the same thing as Kiera the year before. And this is how Pascale's character Erin meets Mike...again. As it turns out these two were college sweethearts and Erin broke Mike's heart.

This is filled with some sports romance cliches for sure...like the money grubbing manager played by the beloved Steve Bacic, the athlete having to leave town playing havoc on a romantic relationship, etc., but the truth is I didn't care. I enjoyed it and I appreciated some of the fresh aspects...like the struggle of girls who want to play, the camaraderie between the real estate partners Erin and Georgina that played out like a real friendship, and the loving and supportive family dynamic between Jimmy's family and Mike.

I though this was one of the better stories to come out of Hallmark, who has had a rough spell in my opinion trying to be too political or working overly hard to be inclusive and loosing the authenticity...that love and family that used to be their brand and attract their core audience. I feel like this was just a feel good romance that got back to that....love and family. I recommend this to all those romantics out there, especially fans of Hallmark.

Another shortened "Hallmark version" of a real movie. Been aware that Ryan had not had a new movie in almost a year. Glad to see him and Pascal. But. This is a poorly developed story, highlighting a good cast-missing a fully developed script. With the writer's strike, perhaps the best writing/rewrite was not available.

This story is more a paragraph than a good short story. Too, too bad. They had the bones, but no flesh of fully developed character background or story.

It is rather up to the audience to intuit the missing story gaps and fill them off-camera.

Gave the actors the score of 8 for doing as well as they could with the ghost of a script they had to work with. Just another disappointing, shortened version of what the story/movie could have been. Too much of this seen amidst the release of very few notable movies this year.

I recently watched a movie that left me with mixed feelings, mainly due to the lead actress, Pascale Hutton, and her portrayal of the character. Here are some aspects that I found particularly disappointing:

1. **Lack of Convincing Romance**: Pascale Hutton seemed more concerned with pushing the male lead away than convincing the audience that she was in love. It's essential for a lead actress to convey genuine emotions, and this was a missed mark.

2. **Prioritizing Spouse's Feelings**: In the movie, it felt like Hutton was more focused on her spouse's feelings rather than the character and the overall film. When you audition for a role, your job is to become the character, and this detachment was apparent.

3. **Chemistry Issues**: There were instances where Ryan Peavey tried to show affection towards Hutton's character, and she didn't reciprocate. This lack of chemistry between the leads hindered the believability of their relationship.

4. **Misleading Previews**: The movie's previews built up my expectations, but unfortunately, the actual film fell short. The quality of the previews didn't reflect the overall disappointment I experienced during the movie.

5. **Missed Potential**: The film had the potential to be great, but everything seemed to fall flat. The lead female's performance made the situation worse and hindered the movie's progress.

6. **Inconsistency with Character**: Hutton's performance felt like a repetition of her role in "When Calls the Heart," which could be seen as annoying at times. This lack of differentiation between characters was a missed opportunity.

7. **Overacting**: Hutton's tendency to overact in every scene contributed to the movie's lack of credibility. It also affected Ryan Peavey's performance, making their chemistry even more unconvincing.

8. **Lack of Character Development**: Hutton's character remained the same throughout the past, present, and future, which was baffling. Her fears as a student should have made her more mature in the present day, but this character stagnation made her seem non-authentic.

In conclusion, while the movie had the potential to be a success, Pascale Hutton's performance, lack of chemistry, and character development issues hindered its overall quality. It's essential for actors to adapt to their roles and create authentic on-screen relationships, which unfortunately didn't happen here.

I watched this the first time awhile back and remember it as a rather blah romance. However, I just watched again, this time with an eye towards finding what I didn't like. While Pascale Hutton doesn't do much for me, I realize now the script called for her to be reluctant to engage romantically with Paevy because Paevy's agent sold her a bill of goods back in college. Now that I caught this, I think her character acting was fine as she was scripted. If anything this second time, I thought Paevy was too low key on the romance angle. His style is always laid back but with engaging charm, which I usually find enjoyable, but this time, he didn't bring enough charm to make it work. I have a feeling this role, the casting match and a rather lame script caused this to be one of his lesser outputs.