Coup de foudre à Valentine

Yes this is a Hallmark movie, and there are rules to Hallmark movies: There is the small town with a big heart, the icy business man who needs a small-town makeover, the parentless protagonist etc, but this movie felt playful. I appreciate the sense of humor throughout- it was very refreshing. Mickey is the cutest child ever- he was so sweet! My heart melted for him and his valentine for his dad! The woman who played Miss Hackey is perfect.

"The parade is nigh" is a hilarious line. There is good dialogue cracking through. I want more movies like this! More funny Hallmark movies! More writing like this!

This was flat and dull. Not funny, not romantic, not dramatic...there was nothing to the story line.

Acting was listless and we bailed out on it. As reviews come in, the rating will drop. The father-son interaction was forced. Giving up the CEO position was cliché and not realistic. They only had one "Frankenstein-face" (bad plastic surgery) which is at least consistent but they didn't do any facial close ups, mercifully. Opening seen with two women and a boy rolling on top of each other was cringe worthy. The actors are talented but they deserve good writing. They had nothing to work with.

Maybe new writers?

Boy, I hated to give a movie like this a 5 rating. I'm usually a little more generous. This movie tried hard - too hard! At a certain point, it struck me: "WHY is there so much overacting in this movie?" Except for the fairly appealing male lead (Markian Tarasiuk) most of the actresses need to tone it down a great deal. Gestures too big, facial expressions too big, emotions too big... Then I realized several of them have a lot of stage experience, or maybe they've done a lot of emotion-fraught dramas. Whatever. In a big theatre, an actor HAS to be "big" or the audience can't see what's up. These actresses seemed not have have learned how to "bring it down" for the camera. It got to the point that I had to start skipping through the movie.

Also, the writing was just a little too self-conscious, too "New York," too "Neil Simon-esque" to be enjoyable in a small-town romance Hallmark movie. It sounded unnatural. As I said at the beginning, trying too hard - and it just didn't work. Beautiful faces, for sure, but...no.

I'm halfway through the movie, but the leads are still bickering with each other. I really want Hallmark movie writers to stop making the leads behave in such an antagonistic way. It doesn't add any drama to the plot since we know how these movies all end. It just makes it hard to buy into the couple and makes several scenes unenjoyable to watch.

It was also tough to cheer for Olivia since she was lazy producing any art, incompetent enough at her other job to get fired, mooching off her friend by sleeping on her couch for months, moving into her sister's place for free, and volunteering to work on a parade instead of actually getting (and keeping) a job to pay her own way through life. What a catch!

In the commercials, Welcome to Valentine looks like a road trip movie, which morphs into a "let's put on a show" movie. And that's all true. But this movie seems to want to be a lot of different things.

The hero is poised to take over the family business, while the heroine wants her artistic career to begin with the help of an influential gallery owner. Within the first ten minutes, the hero causes the heroine to spill food on that gallery owner. She loses her cater-waiter job and her apartment. (Calgon, take me away!) Oh, if only she had a way to get back to Nebraska. The hero has a car, and we're off.

With all these well-worn tropes, a lot of the plot (and the dialogue) is going to be predictable. Follow your heart. The show must go on.

I liked it. The leads were attractive and they had good chemistry together. Is this the best movie ever? Of course not. But it's cute and sweet and exactly what I expected. I don't think that's a bad thing.