This is a delightful new mystery from Hallmark and I hope it turns into a series.
At first I worried that the Nelly (Pascale Hutton) character was way OTT but her acting and consistent positive energy grew on me and was charming.
She lights up every scene and has great chemistry with seasoned actor Kavan Smith who plays the new detective in town.
She is the advice columnist at the local rag who "knows" everything. Suspecting a situation arising from a letter she receives, she goes off to investigate.
This is quite a silly story but with great chemistry between the lead actors and everyone blends well in the ensemble cast. It made me smile which is what I want from a Hallmark movie.
The story is full of holes, blatant red herrings and implausible situations but that's expected from a Hallmark Mystery This one has more than its fair share but delights nonetheless. It zips along at a great pace so I forgave a lot of the silliness and bad dialogue in lieu of lighthearted banter and great rapport.
I haven't seen "When Calls The Heart" so I've never seen these two lead actors romantically linked but the fact they are so comfortable with eachother really works well. Some reviewers see it as a rom-com with a touch of mystery but I actually loved that there wasn't the obvious emphasis on their possible romantic engagement. I found it refreshing that they just hit it off and worked so well together without obvious hints of romance. Like "Mystery 101" I suspect a slow burn.
In fact, this movie has very similar enjoyable energy to that excellent series and, in addition to Nelly's perky investigative nature, Micheal also strikes the perfect balance between investigative and quiet strength and being indebted repeatedly to Nelly. His being new in town and a bit insecure around the town sheriff plays well into this dynamic and he does have a way of nicely putting her in her place which she happily acknowledges but pretty much ignores. She does genuinely appreciate it though and always promises to do better... unsuccessfully.
As other reviewers have mentioned, her interfering, energetic, busy body role is very similar to Ro's in Aurora Teagarden Mysteries and I could often hear the same dialogue and recognize her insistence on approaching anyone with questions as if a detective. But even though her character is OTT, she's such a delightful, refreshing change from the irritating, over acting Candice Bure.
Unlike the dreadful, new Curious Caterer Mysteries where Andrew W. Walker's character is weak, disheveled and boring and she ridiculously and aggressively runs the whole investigation, there's the perfect balance here and they are great together.
The final delight for me was that these two actors can really act. Lately, the new Hallmark movies are featuring irritating characters who garble their lines and all act the same way. I have to use the closed captions with so many of them and can't imagine how they got cast and why the director accepted it. This whole movie was entertaining, fast paced, funny and well directed and acted by all.
