Expectations were rather mixed for 'Love in Design'. Hallmark did do some well above average and more films in 2018, having literally just come fresh from watching one of the best from the year 'Pearl in Paradise'. Andrew Walker is always worth watching, even when the film isn't good (and that has happened quite a number of times). The concept didn't really excite me though. Am also not the biggest of fans of Danica McKellar, who tends to be typecast and plays most of her roles pretty similarly.
'Love in Design' didn't work for me. It is not unwatchable and has its good things, have almost always seen one or two redeeming merits in the Hallmark films that miss big time. It is also not particularly good and fails quite badly in a number of crucial areas, well strictly speaking the areas that matter the most. Is it one of the worst 2018 Hallmark films? Probably not, there were definitely worse. In my mind, 'Love in Design', while not one of the worst of the batch, is one of the duller ones.
Am going to begin with the good things. Walker is an amiable and subtly charismatic leading man. Also thought that the production values were attractive, it's not lavish but it didn't look cheap or shoestring budget like.
The music is pleasant enough, nothing memorable but it didn't feel at odds or melodramatic.
However, quite a lot doesn't work. McKellar is very bland and shows a rather limited range of expressions, literally the most believable expressions come from the eyebrows and even they are mainly one emotion. The two have no chemistry together and seem incredibly distant, they wouldn't even be believable as friends. For a story so heavy on the personal drama, the relationship felt very undercooked and the drama was thin and what there is lifeless. Didn't care for their cliched and really difficult to endear to, due to the overwritten negative personality traits (especially with McKellar's) and the characters have very little to them.
Supporting cast are undistinguished at best. The script has nothing to it, did not sound like everyday conversation, is too talky and is very forced and over heated towards the end. The story doesn't engage at all and drags badly most of the time, too much of the drama going nowhere. What there is is very predictable, with there only being one surprise in the whole film and it still managed to not be that big. For a setting as promising as this, nothing really is done with it. We even don't get to see much of a final result. The ending is not as too neat as most Hallmark films, but this reviewer did lose interest quite some time before the end to really care about the outcome and part of me thought it contrived (like the whole conflict itself) and anti-climactic.
Overall, very lacklustre. 4/10.
