This is the first Reel One Entertainment TV movie which has single mother as a main lead AFAIK. Yes, "A Playful Love" also has single mom, but so it has single dad, too which one doesn't. Compared to "A Playful Love" it's masterpiece, and it's actually better than the vast majority of ROE TV movies, too. This is market cornered by Hallmark, but I'm going to say this one is better than those Hallmark TV movies about single mothers and I watched a lot of them.
I am shocked that movie almost doesn't have any technical issues which is rare for ROE. No bad makeup, no bad lightning, no obnoxiously loud background music when cast talk/speak, no poor audio recording except one brief scene when Maria Ricossa was talking, and no melancholic or synth pop background music like in so many new ROE TV movies - this one uses signature ROE's tracks.
The first real issues is obsession with NYC like there is no other city on the East Coast, but it was obviously shot in Hamilton, Canada like so many other ROE TV movies so they have to overuse NYC stock footage to fool viewers. It's really tiring after so many times, but I watched movies with much worse overuse... The second real issue is one scene on balcony with Savannah and Patrick. The scene behind them is clearly green screened NYC. I don't know why and I hope they won't start this trend because AFAIK I only saw it once before.
This movie has three generation of women: grandmother, mother and daughter, clearly inspired by Hallmark TV movies, and the first two are not only without man but they never even mentioned past relationship/marriages not once. Speaking abot men, there is really only one male in the whole movie, abovementioned Patrick played by Luke Humphrey. This is the third time I watched him, and I can say that he is way better than so many other ROE main lead actors.
What I really like about this movie is that even it targets single mothers, there are three generations of women, Savannah is strong and independent women, there is no male bashing, and victim blaming. Furthermore, there is barely any comedy, and the last third of the movie is pretty good light hearted drama. It was telegraphed what is going to happen but it was executed very well. It's bad when there is obligatory drama but it was sudden and forced at the end of Act II so leads get separated only to be reunited at the end. This movie doesn't suffer from it. And there are no stupid "funny" fillers like throwing food, flour or paint on each other or wardrobe change sequence.
The cast was overall good. This is the first time I watched Laura Miyata and Cristiana Vidinovski and both were pretty good. My only issue is that Maria Ricossa as Savannah's mother and Christine Nguyen as Savannah's best friend should have more screen time.
And obligatory don't watch trailer because it's ROE and they always compress whole movie full of spoilers into it.
