My Birthday Romance

Sure, while the 2020 romantic movie titled "My Birthday Romance" was indeed a watchable and enjoyable movie, it was at the same time still a very stereotypical and generic movie for this particular genre.

What made "My Birthday Romance" was having an interesting storyline, one that was light-hearted and yet managing to having a very realistic feel to it. Sure, it was an archetypical sappy romantic story, but hey that is what these movies are like.

Something that definitely also made "My Birthday Romance" work, was the chemistry on the screen between the lead actress Ali Cobrin and actor Jesse Hutch. They were so nicely cast for the movie and they really wear great together on the screen. Both of them had a very believable aura to their performance.

It was also nice to see Garry Chalk on the screen in this movie, and he was also nicely cast for his role.

If you enjoy romantic movies, then I will definitely recommend that you sit down to watch the 2020 movie "My Birthday Romance" from writer John Hartman and director Heather Hawthorn Doyle.

A movie such as this usually falls out of my normal spectrum of genre that I watch. But this was definitely an enjoyable movie.

My rating of "My Birthday Romance" lands on a six out of ten stars.

A vacation to romance--a dessert of delight. Ali showed her acting chops. Who could not love Ali Cobrin? Choosing between her catering future and relational desert was played well by Cobrin.

The direction by Doyle showed a delicate skill portraying relational awkwardness and angst. Slow at first, the screenplay evolved into a delightfully predictable conclusion. Sea horses indeed.

Thanks for this romantic interlude. Sometimes love is this rich, delectably rich.

The fake boyfriend is a top very familiar theme. In this case working more than decent for actors chemistry, some tender moments, for humor and reasonable cliches. Short- a dark hair Prince Charming, a young lady under pressure of family and a sort of mutual help with predictable end. So, just nice.

The fake boyfriend (fiance, sometimes even husband) is an extremely common premise in movies and romance novels. Everyone has a good idea that there is going to be a falling out and then how it's going to end.

I enjoyed the couple. I'm not familiar with Ali Cobrin but I really enjoyed her character. I've seen plenty of Jesse Hutch. These two fit well together. They seemed natural in the role they were playing.

Some minor negative points: the sets were obviously low budget. Once when Callie and Will are dancing, she is only slightly moving and at times it doesn't look like he is moving at all. He might have swayed a whole 2 inches back and forth.

Apart from a couple of errors in dialogue regarding the time frame and the pro's soufflé naivety, this movie is pretty realistic (eg the obsession with age 35 cut off when it comes to finding a partner). There's about the right amount of awkwardness in the 'fake' couple and the other relationships - the family are loving and a bit annoying, even the leading lady pressures her 'little brother'. It is all-age friendly, especially with three generations included, and highlights some of the cross-generational problems that wouldn't exist if people just stopped and thought about how we make life difficult for others through thoughtless comments etc. Whilst the pretend partner plot is not original, this movie still has merit, especially the acting of Jesse Hutch (who is almost unrecognisable with his covid lockdown-locks).