Love on the Right Course

I've just watched Ashley Newbrough and Marcus Rosner in Flipping for Christmas and was greatly disappointed. So, I was hesitant to watch this movie, but decided to give them another chance, especially when I saw this one was set in Budapest. I have to say this one did not disappoint. I loved the scenery and found the acting and chemistry to be genuine. Ashley and Marcus are great together in this movie, their characters are fun and caring. I loved the dynamic between Whitney (Newbrough) and her father as they remember her mother who has passed. I loved all the supporting cast of family and friends, they helped make this movie enjoyable, even the dog. I really enjoyed seeing Brittany Bristow playing a competitor pro golfer. I rated this down by one star as Steve Byer who plays Whitney's caddy plays his usual character that is only looking out for himself. But I suppose there had to be some drama in the movie. All in all this was quite an enjoyable movie to watch.

Unlike many of the reviewers here, I liked the chemistry between the two leads - it felt natural to me. I liked the slow building of a (predictable) friendship between the father and "Maria", both grieving the loss of their spouses. I also liked the fact that the inevitable misunderstandings come fairly early in the movie, and with one by each of the leads - and that they apologized for the misunderstanding. For a couple getting to know each other, though, I would have expected heartfelt promises not to jump to conclusions again. (Seriously, it seems that a continuing characteristic of nearly all Hallmark leads is that they don't trust their partner and instantly jump to the worst conclusions)

There were some real questions I had, though. First, why shoot this in Hungary? I don't think any of these scenes HAD to be shot in Hungary, as opposed, say, to anywhere else in Europe or North America. There was one scene where the two leads were walking up some stairs past marble sculptures which I assume were classically Hungarian, but other than that, it had me wondering if Hungary is offering big financial incentives to film there.

Second, the 8 million Euro offer for the golf course (a pro course is usually over 100 acres, according to Google) and the massive building seems laughably low. I would have expected something on the order of at least a hundred million Euros.

Not being a ball golfer (disc golf, yeah!) I had no idea whether the golfing scenes were any good, but other reviewers here have said that they were awful. Why can't Hallmark find actors even among their usual stable of beautiful people who are competent? Hallmark has been able to find competent skiers, skaters, musicians, etc., so why not golf, which is a very commonly played game. I did find that their pairing of left-handed (Rosner) and right-handed (Newbrough) players allowed them to face one another when practicing rather than both awkwardly face in the same direction.

Continuity: During the tournament, when Whitney hits the ball into a sand trap, the sand is clearly untouched. When she arrives at the trap, the sand around the ball has all been raked. It's jarring.

Fraud by the real estate agent? Pretty hard to believe of a reputable agent (which she'd have to be for a property like this). She must have been pretty desperate or dishonest. I imagine that if this was real, and we saw a 6-month follow-up, we'd hear that she'd lost her real estate license and was being prosecuted. It felt like this was thrown into the movie just to generate a bit more controversy, and didn't really add anything to the relationships between any of the characters (other than Rosner's character doing a favor for Dad).

Since Hallmark movies are generally pretty formulaic, I'd think that they could focus on some of these issues to make it at least a bit more realistic.

That said, I'll finish up by saying that Ashley in that green dress is stunning!

The story is fairly common. A sports star is burnt out and goes home to re-energize. Part of her burn out is she is still grieving the loss of her mother who was also her coach. She meets a golf pro working at her dad's club who brings back fun for the game. To add to that simple story, dad is considering selling his home and the club. There is a subplot around that. Another subplot is the appearance of the professional caddy she recently fired. Despite Andrew's good looks, supposedly the two never had any romantic involvement and there is no hint of any sexual orientation either way. Nevertheless, his arrival does make things more complicated.

The chemistry between Ashley Newbrough and Marcus Rosner is good but not sparkling. There are enough things going on in the story that Rosner and Newbrough are not together as much as they could have been. Overall the acting is good and dialogue is decent. We see some Hungarian scenery.

Hallmark lately seems to like mixing there regulars around, sometimes for cameos, sometimes for more. In this case Brittany Bristow appears as a rival competitor in the two golf tournaments shown. She gets a few lines at the end. Maybe because she wrote the story, this her first fictional movie on the small screen. Not bad, but no great highs or lows or surprises.

I enjoyed it, but my current rating may be over-generous. I like both Newbrough and Bristow and the story flows well. And it is the first non-Christmas movie I've seen in weeks.

While the story was okay and the lead actors delivered their usual respectable performances, I found the narrow depth of focus chosen for much of the movie to be simply too hard on my eyes to keep watching. We do not see the world with such short depth of focus, so prolonged exposure to that effect neither feels natural nor is easy to process. So many scenes were shot with only the actors in focus, that the audience is deinied extended views of lovely waterfront scenes, quaint village alleyways, and interesting interiors. One knows these appealing scenes are there, but they're repeatedly obscured by somebody's idea of what makes cinematic "art." Rather than focusing my attention on the characters & story, I found this video technique was such a distraction that it killed my interest in the movie.

A decent story but anyone who has a moderate knowledge of the game would have been grimacing with most shown golf scenarios. Hiring an LPGA player to consult and correct a few swings, terms used, golf situations and tournament play would have made it a much better movie.

Obviously, Taylor-Made kicked in some sponsor money for the advertising they received. That being said, tour players would be wearing clothing with the company logo. Every shirt the club pro wore would have had the club logo embroidered on it.

Other than the golf related mishaps, it an OK Hallmark movie and worthy of a watch.