Finding Love in Mountain View

This is not your typical Hallmark movie that has been common for the two Hallmark channels.

I found this enjoyable. Not at all what I expected from viewing the trailer for the past few weeks.

It didn't have the typical music, the cookie cutter children, the same old romance story. It had depth and realism. With a story that was actually touching.

I certainly hope that it means that Hallmark is moving away from their usual fare and are returning to the meaningful movies with different stories that they showed when Hallmark was younger.

Good for them. Keep it up.

6.6 stars.

Margaret left her life behind, that's the best description of this film as a whole. Margaret's cousin and best friend has died and left her two kids. Now she has to wrestle with a major life decision: to take the kids or let grandma take them.

There are so many flaws in this story, I'm not sure where to begin, so I will touch on a few very lightly, and move on with my day. I have bigger and better films to rate. First of all, her best friend in the whole wide world has two kids, a wonderful little girl and boy, and Margaret has never met them? Talk about an outstanding friendship...who just leaves everything important behind for so many years, not just a few years, these kids are like 8 and 10 years old? Next, Margaret's ex-boyfriend teaches at the school where the kids attend, and he actually helps take care of them and has been, and so they both have a connection again through the children. And so it begs the question: why did you leave all of this behind? And why would your ex-best friend/cousin leave her kids in your care? Nope, no way, uh-uh. Margaret is currently dating a very professional and business oriented man who tries to integrate into her new situation as she is caring for the kids. It's a very awkward situation, and we can see that he's on his way out, so it fits with the Hallmark formula.

The movie is slow, the music and sound are a bit wonky, the rest is average. The kids are cute. You can detect some sort of issues with the boy, he's bullied at school, seems to have a mild form of autism or something. His sister tries to take care of him. I think she's younger, but she acts older, looks younger, talks older? Really hard to tell. This movie doesn't do it for me. I can see the potential for appeal to some audiences, just not this audience of one.

'Finding Love at Mountain View', seen as part of a newly started project of watching more non-Christmas Hallmark films, is another one of the Hallmark films where expectations were mixed. Hallmark have done many misses but also many surprising hits, so there is absolutely no bias for or against them. The premise was quite appealing and there are some good Hallmark Mystery films out there. The two leads are relatively unfamiliar to me, so this was seen with no bias.

After seeing 'Finding Love at Mountain View', it left me feeling very mixed and finding it difficult to rate and review. Which by the way is not always the best of experiences, as someone who is trying to be more decisive about opinions and everyday life. It is not one of the worst 2021 Hallmark films, as there are films that had less appealing characters, more unrealistic endings and uninvolved a lot less. It is also not one of the best, with there being nothing particularly special. Another middle of the road effort.

By all means there are things that are good. It looks good, once again the scenery is beautiful to look at. The music doesn't feel too much and doesn't feel discordant, it's pleasant on its own too. The acting is well above average, the standout being Skyler Elyse Philpot. Myko Olivier is an amiable presence too.

Did think too that there were some charming and sweet moments.

However, 'Finding Love at Mountain View' had potential to be better. Danielle C. Ryan did get better as the film went on but there was quite a lot of duration where she seemed stiff. Her and Olivier's chemistry could have been a lot stronger, it felt too low key and underdeveloped. While the characters don't bore or annoy, they are rather stock.

It is also very predictable, even when knowing what to expect from Hallmark, and emotion and substance wise there is just not enough, so it all felt bland and by the numbers. The ending is very cheesy and too tidy.

Overall, watchable but average. 5/10.

The acting wasn't that bad as a whole, but the directing was off. The script wasn't great either. A tragedy has happened a few days before and there's more smiling in the wrong places at the wrong time by those who would have been more affected. The lead actress was okay, the kids did well. The story's been done before much better. Raising Helen being the best example. Even Sweet Carolina was done more effectively. Very predictable; nothing memorable about this movie. Watched and deleted.

I didn't care for this one. I found the acting of the main girl, Margaret, flat and stiff. I didn't like the kids either. Of course the story was predictable to the max, but did not have any thing else to offset that flaw. And who makes a cousin the guardian of their children without asking them or even letting them know? Real classy. Aunt Bertha's southern accent was way over the top. The actress is from Arkansas so I guess she comes by it naturally, but it sounded phony. The ending was cheesy in the extreme. The actor who played the little boy gave a good performance at the recital.