Lettres à un soldat

I enjoyed this one quite a bit following Lori Loughlin as a divorcée who falls for a soldier home on leave who through a pen-pal friendship becomes a mentor to her 10 year old son. Despite their mutual attraction the pair are hesitant to start a romance in light of the soldiers upcoming deployment overseas.

This was just one of those nice romances where by the end you are really pulling for the couple, very sweet and slow burning. Johnny Messner as the soldier is easy on the eyes and plays a super nice guy. I also enjoyed Lori Loughlin as the mom and fun to see Stephanie Powers again as grandma.

Not much not to like here, everyone is likable and nothing terrible happens, no violence. Except for some repetitive dialogue and the lame military scenes at the barracks this was a sweet little movie. Contains a small amount of prayer and god talk as most of these Hallmarks do, nothing too in your face though.

This is one of my top 10 Hallmark movies! The chemistry between the two leads was wonderful that you could feel it!! I'd hoped the ending would have had a follow-up or a sequel. The story was realistic and believable and it was a joy to watch!! Unlike today's Hallmark movies, the kiss came in the middle of the movie along with several more. Plus, they weren't interrupted. LOL.

Here's the premise. A recently divorced mom takes her 10 year old son and moves in with her mother in California. The kid's dad was mostly absentee. The kid wants to play baseball, but stinks. For a school project he writes a Army sergeant in Bosnia.. In one letter he tells him about his problems with baseball. The sergeant gets shipped home and ends up where? You guessed it. 20 miles up the interstate from the kid. Now sit down and write the plot outline for the rest of the movie. Say maybe 5 or so plot points. At least half the people who do this will write the exact outline of this movie. The rest will miss only a couple plot points.

So why did I enjoy this? It's simple and wholesome. Forget about Lori Loughlin's criminal history. Unfortunately that hurts her reputation as Miss Wholesome, but it does change the fact that she fits that part 100%. This is a nice feel good romance with decent chemistry. I thought it interesting that there was a whole lot of kissing, but even the kissing was simple.

There's no surprises. The only tension is Vince's looming deployment.

A great movie - plot moves along well, positive portrait of a real dad, enough romance without the sexual junk. Clean, family oriented, my whole family (wife, kids, in-laws) loves it. The actors and actresses are wonderful. Would have liked to see: - Chapel scene - the plot talks a lot about God, yet there is no scene depicting worship, I think a simple chapel scene would have been a great way to build the spiritual commitment to each other. - Family Support Group scene - the military is very good at welcoming in the new family members, especially those new to the military and pairing them with other women to support one another during deployments.

Other than that this is one of those movies we will end up buying and watching many times. No cursing, no sex, no violence, just a plain, simple yet moving - movie. This is what film making is all about!!!!

I don't write many TV related reviews. In fact I have not written one in many years. Having said that, I was clicking my way through the 350 or so FIOS channels on this rainy and cold day and caught in progress (I missed the first 10 or so minutes but it was easy enough to pick up the plot) this movie on the Hallmark Movie Channel. The HMC is not one of my favorite channels and I always thought of it as an LMN type channel with silly plots with outrageous detours along the 2 hour route.

What a pleasure watching a movie for a change without cursing, screaming, sex, etc. OK so it has a nice predictable ending but it was even nicer the way they got to the ending. How great it is to sit through a 2 hour movie without the usual distaste along the way. See it for yourself.