A Harvest Homecoming

Alright, so I had a little free time and decided to watch "A Harvest Homecoming" with Trevor Donovan in the lead. Here's my take on it. The plot's not reinventing the wheel here. We've got a small-town setting, where people are as close-knit as the stitches on a handmade quilt. The story revolves around the annual harvest festival, which is facing potential cancellation. Enter Trevor Donovan's character, who's back in town after a long time, with memories and old feelings resurfacing. You probably know where this is going - there's some light drama, bits of romance, and the challenge of saving the festival. Familiar? Sure. Comfortable? Absolutely. If you're looking for a cozy, easy watch that'll leave you with a smile on your face, then go for it. It's the sort of movie that feels like a warm hug on a cold day. Trevor Donovan does a commendable job, the setting is delightful, and the story, though predictable, is heartfelt.

Good storyline, good acting, appreciated the prayers before meals, good sharing of feelings between Drew and Aiden. The downfall was the REALLY overdone autumn decor - EVERYWHERE, in EVERY scene in EVERY location. The paper leaves in the yards, on the chairs, on the stair bannister, bed headboards, walls, in the school classroom, on the porch, on the fences, on the curtains, all over the kitchen, doorposts, shelves, door wreaths, etc., etc. They even included trashy-looking brightly colored flowers at the fishing lake - they looked like litter sitting on top of the bushes. It's the same stuff everywhere, and WAY TOO MUCH. The set designers need to realize that a little goes a long way, and that the same red and orange decor just gets boring if it's seen everywhere constantly in every scene. And to add to the insult, the house gutter was painted bright orange, which didn't match the red door color - but just over saturated the house scene. No one paints their home just for autumn! Tone it down, folks. This is so unrealistic it's a distraction from the storyline.

I could be wrong, but it also seemed that the photographic saturation in the red, orange, and yellow tones was being enhanced in many scenes. Even the orange basketballs in the gym seemed to be "glowing."

Hallmark is the master of plastic colored fake-looking flowers stuck everywhere in their rom-coms. Don't copy their mistakes (which go way beyond decor). We want better for GAC family. Rethink the need for overdone decor before making future movies and tone it down! (I subtracted 2 points for this, I'd rate the movie a 9 if the decor was more tasteful and less of a distraction).

Love Jessica Lowndes and Trevor Donovan. On the positive side, the movie storyline was great and so was the supporting cast. On the negative side, Trevor Donovan, while one of my favorite actors, does not have a pleasant singling voice , It was painful to hear him sing. Unfortunately, they did not use Jessica Lowndes to sing as her voice is wonderful.

Overall, the movie was beautiful. Really loved the supporting cast. The grandfather was a hoot. The parents demonstrated a loving, long lasting relationship. The sister was memorable. Enjoyed the minor God references. The scenery was beautiful.

Highly recommend.

This movie would make Christopher Walken happy so long as you replace the cowbell with fall decor. I'm all for setting up a nice movie set that makes you wish you were somewhere where you can actually wear sweaters in the fall, but this was definitely overkill. They even had the actors wearing fall colored clothing...good grief! They also must have filmed this in summer because everything was fake. The leaves, the one pumpkin... I'm guessing the apples too. Didn't see a single apple tree at the apple orchard either. Geez, can you imagine if you had to inventory all of the set props? Yikes! You'd be there for months counting all of the fake leaves!

The movie itself was comical and cute. Didn't really expect much from a Hallmark style movie. Though it was pretty hard to stay focused with the fall vomit everywhere.

I might watch it again, probably to turn it into a game of guessing where there aren't any leaves.

This one was actually produced by GAF, not acquired from an independent studio. So we have shirts buttoned up to the top with no troublesome decolletage or hints that two adults might be having extra marital sex, or relationships based of deceit and lies that generated so much unhappiness and feelings of betrayal in some of their loyal viewership. We had meal time prayer, references to faith and God and blessings. And, by Golly, we had leaves.

I have never seen so many fake decorative leaves in all of my life. Leaves of every shade of orange or red imaginable. Stringed up everywhere. Twinkling. On the eaves, on the window sills, wound around fence posts, gates, rails, in wreaths, pasted to walls (indoor and outdoor), on tables and every other surface. Even at the school, the barn, and in every room. It was hilarious. GAF must have raided every Hobby Lobby in Canada. I can only imagine the behind the scenes convos that broke out between the professional set decorators and the powers that be.

MORE leaves??!!! But....

YES! YES! YES! MORE MORE MORE!

But this is an Apple Orchard! How about a few Apples?

NO! Apples don't say Fall, Autumn or Harvest! Our viewers need more leaves, not more Apples!

I think the final autumn overload was the revenge of the Set Decorators.