Une ombre sur le mariage

Erica Durance is extraordinarily beautiful, talented, charming, and very watchable. And Andrew Walker has long been one of the best male Hallmark leads. But this "mystery" makes no sense.

First, why is she worried early on about losing money from a wedding that she already planned? The most basic contract would have required pre-payment. No one gets a refund when a wedding gets canceled on the day of the wedding. If anything, given that they were apparently going forward on a different day, which would have required additional work, she would have been entitled to more compensation.

Hallmark movies often ignore legal and business realities, but this one is frustratingly bad in that regard.

Erica's character would have had no time to play amateur sleuth and frankly no need to do so. And the insane threats that supposedly drive her to "clear her name" because she's a "suspect in a murder investigation" and potentially "implicated" in a convoluted "embezzlement and tax evasion" scheme?? WTF???

What possible motive could she have to kill a bridesmaid? And where's the supposed proof that she's an embezzler?

And in what alternate universe would a wedding planner have ANY civil or criminal liability for serving champagne at a wedding? The bridesmaid was barely over the legal limit and left early and unexpectedly. The detective was an idiot and truly lousy at his job.

And the reporter's threats about implicating her in some alleged embezzlement between the bride's father and/or uncle?? Complete and utter nonsense.

And sneaking around and trying to get past security to "warn" someone? Did everyone lose their phones?

And the Perry response to alleged "financial irregularities"? If I see one more Hallmark movie where a character is pressured to make a legal decision or sign a big contract or waiver without talking to a lawyer I'm going to scream.

The rest was just a bunch of lazy plot lines to create a drama that never made sense.

And talking about love and marriage before a first kiss? Seriously?

I love Hallmark movies, but if this didn't have Erica Durance, I would have given it a 1 out of 10.

Lately the Hallmark Channel has been having all kinds of amateur female detective heroes in their films. It's all in the grand tradition of that most famous and successful amateur sleuth of the female gender Miss Jane Marple.

Erica Durance is our detective here and as you see by the title she's a wedding planner. Right now she's planning her rich friend Chelan Simmons's wedding. But there are a lot of complications like a feud between her father and his former business partner, both of whom are under investigation. And then there's the death of a cousin of Simmons in a car crash where the car was tampered with.

While all this is going on Durance is also being courted by reporter Andrew Walker and lawyer Brandon Beemer. Who will she choose?

As it turns out that murder was only part of a greater scheme hatched by members of the cast. That's what Durance has to foil to get this wedding back on track.

Wedding Planner Mystery was a pleasant enough mystery with some good performances by the ensemble. Hallmark with its PG programming is providing some good entertainment with these films.

Hallmark has very up positive movies and you almost always walk away with a smile. The main character in Wedding Planner Mysteries was good but the parts of script was so unbelievably contrary to the characters personality and intelligence. She kept making decisions that were so common sense and yet she went the other way. There were many comments that should have been made to the police, that she kept secret for no real reason, other than to make her look guilty. She was obviously hostile towards the Detective for no real reason. It was like the whole story line was being placed on her part rather than setting the interaction across the cast.

This movie had a great cast. I liked most of the actors in their respective roles but the script was terrible. The situations were contrived. Most of the conclusion that the main character drew were based on faulty reasoning. The decisions they made to solve problems or get out of dangerous situations were always based on bad decision making. I found myself constantly saying aloud: "No one would do that." More than once, someone was accused of a crime based on ridiculous logic. This was a Murder Mystery; a formula that calls for a certain amount of logic and deduction. I found both sorely missing. I really liked Erica Durance in the lead. I really hated the lines they obviously forced her to say. As Hallmark Movies go this was the most disappointing one I have ever watch. Disappointing because it had all the elements to be enjoyable. If, when you suspend belief while watching this, you also suspend logic and reasoning, you may still be able to enjoy this movie.

This mystery was clean and fun. Of course you figure out early on who is going to fall in love, but there are enough complications in the plot to keep you guessing how long it will take for that to happen. In the meantime, you can stay occupied with wondering if the wedding will ever happen and which characters are good and which are evil, and who the murderer is. No, it's not Mary Higgins Clark. It's Hallmark, and it's fun. James Welch Henderson, Arkansas 3/2/2021