Breakup Boot Camp

The story uses a couple of common premises. Reporter does a hit piece. A break up boot camp is a slightly different take on: romance expert has her own romance problems. Throw in the trope of: can't date a client so we're just friends.

The reporter angle usually goes one of two ways and this follows one of them.

Ryan Paevey and Italia Ricci connect from early on. Watching them together was enjoyable. Their conversations are a little deeper than in some of these movies.

Yes we have seen this story before, but a good cast and not too sappy writing lifts this above the usual romance trope.

The leads have real chemistry, Ryan Paevey is particularly good.

This was actually a pretty cute story. Italia Ricci and Ryan Paevy are actually very good together. A sequel would be nice.

Now on to location! The sweeping views of the bay are laughable. Portland had no bays. There's a river. A big, wide river - but no bay. If Hallmark is going to use Portland as a "location" for their movies (but are filmed in British Columbia), they need to be more careful about showing the surrounding area in BC. They've done this before showing huge mountains in LaJunta, CO (The Christmas Train) - when LaJunta is on the easter plains - nowhere near mountains. Obviously, Hallmark thinks people don know these locations - so just throw it in there.

Based on the commercials, I didn't expect to like this movie, but I like both Italia Ricci and Ryan Paevey a lot, so I gave it a chance. Both of the actors did a great job and the story was good. I'd watch again.

Don't Go Breaking My Heart is one of the better Hallmark movies for 2021. Great script written by Nina Weinman, who consistently delivers great movies for the network. Fun idea of a boot camp for the broken hearted but also realistic and totally possible that this business exists. LOVED the supporting cast who played the boot campers.

Italia Ricci and Ryan Paevey had strong chemistry, felt believable as a viewer. I was invested in their storyline.

Movie felt like it had a fully fleshed out story with a good budget (featured a Shawn Mendes song at the end).