Lettres à un soldat

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.

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.

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.

I loved this story because I served in the military and I know how lonely it can be for many who haven't any family that give a darn to send their very best, so they don't send anything at all. It was like that for me, but now I realize just how badly I wanted to leave my home state and head into the service to get so far away from them that it didn't matter. It stinks to be that way, but what use and good were they to me back then? They proved the same while I was in the service, so I stayed away and rarely looked back. Now I'm back home and most of my family are the same as they were back then, go figure! You think all those years would have made a difference, but not really. But back to the movie, it hit home for me because I could relate to the service member. He found love in a very unique manner. It was a heart-felt, touching Hallmark beauty! Without going into any details, it's just one of those movies you have to see to appreciate. I've experienced love during my military career, some the best ever and some like 'what the heck was that?'. Regardless, I never had a pen-pal like the service member in this movie did. We need more of this in our world, helping find unique ways to truly pour our hearts out to those who join our military and risk their lives by going into harm's way. We could be thinking outside the box about things we can do to support those who fight for our country's freedom. It's paramount that we stand for this. Most don't understand how important it is to support our military forces. Don't take what they do lightly, as that would be taking them for granted here. Some of them truly have a passion to put an end to the resistances against us in foreign lands. These movies, touch me deeply because of the duty I gave with my service commitment. But I hope you enjoy the movie as much as my household did. Lori Loughlin is a natural. She has been in many Hallmark movies that I've loved. And Johnny Messner, what a phenomenal actor! He has the best eye contact I've ever noticed in a movie. I definitely have to see what other movies he has been in. There's a wonderful display of emotions just in his eyes.

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.