Dernier jour d'été

Annie (Kellie Martin) lives on Long Island with her two children, Ella and Milo. A widow, her husband Andre died in a boating accident two years ago. To say the least, its been hard moving forward and Annie has never erased the last phone video recording of Andre, the one where he says this is the happiest day of his life. A fine cook and baker, Annie has been working as a caterer out of her home, even though she longs to open a bake shop. One day, on her way to a work engagement, Annie is in a collision with another driver, James (Kavan Smith). As its totally James fault, Annie is miffed, especially when the baked goods are damaged. Very wealthy, James offers to pay for everything but Annie cuts him off. Later, she discovers that while she catered the party, James had her car repaired. Wow, how nice is this! For his part, James is an extremely successful businessman who inherited a lucrative firm and who hobnobs with the elite. His mother is very snooty but always trying to fix up her bachelor son with the "best socially prominent gals." Yet, James sees something in Annie he feels he is missing so the two grow slowly closer. Ella, the older child, is not really happy. More importantly, in a most startling fashion, Annie begins to receive phone messages from Andre, worked into the video that she has saved. Could her deceased husband really be watching over her, trying to tell her important advice? Yet, each time it happens, Annie steps back from her budding romance with James. What to do? This lovely romantic drama will have some in tears, its so touching. The paranormal angle is beautifully conceived. Martin and Smith make a great couple while all of the other cast members are nice as well. Then, the LI setting, right on the coast, is very beautiful, making one wish for a beach home there as soon as possible. In short, what would fans of romance do WITHOUT HALLMARK? Thank Providence that this network continues, week after week, to rain down blessings on its loyal subjects.

This is a very enjoyable and engaging movie. The element of fantasy/supernatural is not often seen in a Hallmark movie. It is refreshing to see a family oriented movie with actors portraying real emotions of love, loss and finding happiness. The child actors are excellent, and the relationship between the two main adult characters is mature and believable. I find that in many Hallmark movies, the actors play their roles as over the top caricatures or the chemistry is absent and that is not the case in Hello It;s Me. I have seen this movie three or four times and I never tire of it. I highly recommend this movie!

7.7 stars.

There is something about this family, a widow named Annie (Kellie Martin) and her two children. There is a depth to them that is rarely seen in family relationships with Hallmark. James (Smith) is at their home and he gets to experience this wonderful trio, so endearing, and lovable, in spite of the daughter's bitterness.

This film is beautifully wrought full of deep emotion for the loss they have suffered and James is the right man to fit the huge hole that has been vacant for the past two years. The son lights up when he's around, and it's evident that Annie is falling for him. Once they are able to sort through the emotions and the complicated grief, maybe they can be happy once more. The complexity of their loss is that Annie is getting messages from beyond the grave. What do these messages indicate? Annie must figure it out for herself.

I cried not once, twice, but three times. I wept like a baby in one scene, a rare moment for a film to evoke such a measure of compassion within me. It's just a movie after all...

I really liked this movie. The story was quite touching and avoided a lot of the sentimentality and schmaltz that you often see from Hallmark movies. The characters seemed real and the dialog was very natural. Kellie Martin's performance as widow Annie was superb. You really felt the pain of her loss, her concern for her family and her growing attraction for James. Kavan Smith as her love interest James was great too. He really made you believe that this rich, successful heir to a fortune was just a nice, ordinary guy who truly wanted to connect with Annie and her children without any ulterior motives. The chemistry between the two was wonderful. Their attraction seemed very genuine and unforced.

I liked how Annie's daughter Ella was a bratty, sullen teenager. Sure, there were times you felt like slapping her upside the head, but she was much more like what you would expect a 14-year old who had lost her father to act than the saccharine sweet teens that you often see in Hallmark movies. Annie's 7-year old Milo was quite believable, too. A boy that age who had lost his dad would immediately latch onto a nice man who showed him some attention and who could play the role of a father figure for him.

I thought the initial venom from Annie when James almost ran into her was a little over-the-top. Of course, this is part of the rom-com formula. The leads usually need to start out as quasi-enemies, and, more often than not, the initial enmity is done badly and seems forced. I'm glad that it didn't continue for very long. Otherwise, I found their interactions with each other very believable and enjoyable.

The whole supernatural thing with the phone messages beyond the grave from Annie's late husband Andre wasn't done very well, and could have been eliminated from the plot, in my opinion. This was a heartwarming drama about relationships, not The Twilight Zone, and that plot element really seemed out of place to me. Other movies of this genre have used the plot device of having the widow/widower having imaginary conversations with their dead spouse. That's a little cheesy, too, but would have worked much better in this story than the phone message thing, where the messages were cryptic, one-word utterances.

Otherwise, I loved this movie. It had a lot more emotional depth than most Hallmark movies and the dialog was natural and realistic, avoiding the stilted "Hallmark-speak" that you get in many of their films. I highly recommend it.

This movie was awesome. It really showed the struggles one experiences after the death of someone close to them. Then you slowly see new love reborn. I would definitely watch again. Loved it James Welch Henderson Arkansas 5/17/21.