Just My Type

This is one of my favorite Hallmark romances, due mostly to the performance of Bethany Joy Lenz as Vanessa, a magazine writer up for promotion, who happens into an opportunity to snag a big story. Lenz plays the character in a believable and endearing way, making Vanessa a lovable person.

Brett Dalton plays the part of Martin Clayborne, a reclusive author who shuns publicity. His chemistry with Lenz feels natural.

The action takes place in a rustic area of Washington state, but the story does not overdo the city-versus-country theme, unlike many such romances. This is a story about self-actualization.

'Just My Type' is the first of the 2020 Hallmark Spring Fling films. Hallmark always varied with their Spring-themed films and the 2020 output is no exception. Despite not caring for 'A Valentine's Match' or Bethany Joy Lenz's performance in it, which is the fault of the writing and the way her character was written, Lenz is always worth watching and was expecting that in her second 2020 Hallmark starring film (of three, the third being the very good 'Five Star Christmas').

Luckily, 'Just My Type' turned out to me as well above average. It's not great and there is not much that is exceptional about it, but there is a lot to like and it is certainly a much better representation of Lenz than 'A Valentine's Match'. As far as the 2020 Spring Fling films from Hallmark go, 'Just My Type' leans towards being one of the better ones. The title is very cute and is not too cheesy or corny, and the execution of the film is pretty much exactly that.

Am going to start with the not so good. The story is very formulaic, with many familiar plot tropes so it does feel predictable. The film does get off to a slow start, where the story is uneventful, the pace fairly pedestrian, the writing fairly bland and the characters are not easy to warm to at first.

Hallmark films often are over-scored or don't have scores that fit and 'Just My Type's' could have had more subtlety in tone and placement.

On the other hand, a lot is good. Lenz really lifts the spirits and brightens up the screen. She has great chemistry with sassy Aleque Reid. More so than her still sweet chemistry with charming Brett Dalton. Did like how restrained the chemistry was and that the development wasn't rushed while not being out of the blue either. It is also not underused or play second fiddle to anything else. The characters neither bored or irritated me once they became easier to warm to and when the negative character traits were relaxed.

Moreover, 'Just My Type' looks nice. Especially the scenery. The script is funny, without being exaggerated or juvenile, and has touching moments as well without being too schmaltzy. The story is far from perfect, but it does get the light-hearted-ness, warmth and charm just right and really did appreciate that there was less of the third act contrived conflict seen too many times with Hallmark in recent years. The direction is solid enough.

Concluding, well above average. 7/10.

For many Hallmark films, the term nice sounds reasonable to cool. In this case the term is less fair. First, for a fist of details defining the main characters and proposing a more coherent and realistic story than you expect. Second - for use of bitter fragments of life, from ambitions of a journalist and skeptikism about herself to the writer refugeed in small town after few disillusions . The romance ? Off course, it is present but the steps of transformation of two people , influencing one to the other, the differences and the sweet humor are just precious virtues making Just My Type more than expected nice Hallmark.

I love a good hallmark movie; even with the cheesiest lines, the awful acting, and plots so simple a 5 year old could predict them, hallmark movies always have that feel good, sweet essence. This movie is worlds above most other hallmark movies. The actors must've had a great time with this, as it's playful and fun, so much so that it doesn't feel manufactured or bland like so many other hallmark movies do. The actors were actually believable and had decent chemistry. The writing was not always bad. There were moments, especially when characters talked about themselves for a while, that went on and felt cliche or unreal (almost as if it were a speech or monologue), but there were other very well written parts that felt organic. I even laughed out loud a couple times, which I rarely do when watching all the cheesy hallmark movies. In fact, unlike most others, I don't think this hallmark movie had a single pun in it! As much as I love good puns, they're so overused and over emphasized in hallmark movies that it's refreshing to not have a pun. Even though there were a few tropes that this film followed, many of the usual cliches were left out, which made this feel almost like a real movie. The sets were just as bland as others, there was "another woman" and there were a few spots with long, weird speeches, making it a hallmark movie in both the best ways and the worst, but if you can ignore that this is a pretty good movie.

The set or art director went overboard on the Spring silk flowers that littered nearly every scene! It became so distracting that it was hard to focus on the film! Obviously filmed in January or February for Spring. Like many of the Holiday films, cheap and overdone decor are a staple of Hallmark movies..... invest in better props and less is more! Other than that, cute story and well acted by the leads.