Un amour de chien

Single mom (Candace Cameron Bure) gets her lonely daughter (Katie L. Hawkins) a shelter dog. The little girl and the pooch become fast friends. But -- uh oh -- turns out the dog already has an owner (Victor Webster). He shows up wanting his dog back. Of course he can't bring himself to tear the dog away from the little girl, so he agrees to "share custody" with her. Gradually he and the pretty mom get close and, wouldn't you know it, fall in love.

Candace Cameron Bure, the reigning queen of made-for-TV movies, is likable and lovely as ever in this (despite an unfortunate haircut). Her chemistry with costar Victor Webster is nice. For his part, Webster is charming and handsome. All too often these made-for-TV flicks fail because the male lead is dull as ditchwater. Katie L. Hawkins is adorable and easy to sympathize with. I see no credit on IMDb listing his real name but the dog did a great job. Hallmark movies don't strain your brain but that's what we love about them. This is a simple love story with a little drama that you know ahead of time will be very predictable. But movies like this are for people who like happy endings and don't want to take chances on whatever messed-up stuff Hollywood calls romance these days.

As a starting point, we get the veteran of Hallmark, Candace Cameron Bure, who is, characteristically at times, overly high strung. Then we get Victor Webster who is awllllll man (and so much of it!) and who doesn't love that cutie pooch! Awwww Jake is adorable.

So we have a great playing field (pardon the pun) but then ... omg ... this show sent chills down my spine in a very UN-Hallmark way!

The way the two leads fought over the dog. If you have ever been acrimoniously divorced with a battle over child custody, you will most likely have complete sense of humour failure during this show.

The 'parents' openly yell at each other over the 'custody' (yes, of the dog). They pit the dog against each other by teaching the dog to act out whilst in the other person's custody and the tussle leads to heartbreaking scenes of goodbyes with the dog over and over again.

If these scenes were meant to be funny, then the scriptwriter needs to grow a heart.

This was a joy to watch! I thought the mom came off a little harsh in the beginning but the rest of the acting was superb and fun.

Candace is one of my favorite actresses from Hallmark and she did an absolutely amazing job with this movie. Very heartwarming and sweet!! Thank you Candace for being such a wonderful person!!

This is standard Hallmark fare, which is to say that it's solid but not earth-shattering. It's like a comfy sweater that does its job. The two MCs have good chemistry. The dog puts in a solid performance - LOL. And it's not too, too Hallmark... which is nice. My only comment is that whoever edited the final product included some odd cutaways. But that's not much of anything... Enjoy the show!