Au coeur de la famille

I have no idea how I stumbled upon this one. It's a Lifetime movie-Independent hybrid. In fact, I think it was actually Hallmark that picked up the broadcast right for this straight-to-video movie. It's got an interesting cast -- Jane Seymour, Ben Savage (Boy Meets World,) Madeline Zima (The Nanny,) Richard Moll (Night Court,) Jeff Fahey and Scottie Thompson. The acting is mediocre from them all, mediocre story, nothing special there whatsoever. What makes it worth it is the fact it was filmed on Smith Mountain Lake in Virginia, the same location as What About Bob. Gorgeous. Absolutely beautiful! I'm not in any rush to ever see this again but I'd strongly consider it for the filming location alone.

5.6 / 10 stars

--Zoooma, a Kat Pirate Screener

I really wanted to love this movie as I live on Smith Mountain lake. The storyline is OK. Unfortunately, the acting and/or direction is just awful.

By all means watch it, but don't let your expectations get too high.

Sara and Lily grew up at Smith Mountain Lake. Sara became estranged from the family and without explanation moved to Los Angeles to study law. Her sister Lily, an artist, teaches locally and lives with their parents, Ray and Vivian, until Dad dies in an accident.

The best hing about this film is the cast. Every great character actor is here, plus Jane Seymour and the nearly-forgotten Ben Savage. Unfortunately, it seems most of them gave the bare minimum level of performance, or the director simply did not attempt to get better out of them. The whole thing comes off as an amateur affair with no budget and actors eager to collect their (meager) paychecks and move on to the next project.

I am sorry to disparage something with the legendary Jeff Fahey, but Hallmark (much like Lifetime) is not known for its quality. If anything, they are known for trying to pull the heart strings of easily-affected house wives.

I figured a movie with some pretty good cast would have something interesting happen. I was extremely disappointed. It was so boring! Also, I usually like Jane Seymour, but what was going on with her in this movie? Her accent kept changing for what few lines she seemed to have, and she was a bit too quiet and hard to understand. I get her character's husband just died, but it still seemed inconsistent, and just wrong.

Lately I seem to be more likely to leave reviews on movies I don't like, as I feel like I'm over using the word boring. I also wsh there wasn't such a high word minimum, as I feel it makes my reviews boring too.

Nice to see this lake in Virginia and so many familiar actors. Story about small town values. Enjoyable and slightly underrated.