One Summer

I read the book a few years ago and hoped this.movie would be made. It came true, only a character or two went missing from the book but great version in compromise.

Finally a PG-rated Hallmark movie with a little bit of zip. Also, it's a bit of a weeper, too, especially for anybody who has lost (or is losing) a partner to illness or accident. The world breaks everybody, but some become strong at the broken places., and this is a story of getting past grief. It'd help the suspension of disbelief if the ghost looked a little more "ghostie" (ethereal). Another nice break from the typical Hallmark formula is to not have "The Kiss" in the final frames of the movie, but I don't think that qualifies as a "spoiler".

I've always got a kick out of hallmark love stories; falling in love in less than a week. This story was refreshing. It has real love, loss, grief, healing and romance on a realistic timeline. This is definitely one of my hallmark favorites now.

This one is a throwback to those old time very earnest Hallmark Hall of Fame type productions that play sometimes on Hallmark Drama. Thus it makes sense that they showed it on Hallmark Movies and Mysteries rather than the main Hallmark Channel. Because Hallmark Drama just shows reruns and this one doesn't fit with regular Hallmark's mission statement. Apparently.

It is about a man who lost his wife while he himself was dying from a mysterious disease he got while deployed in Afghanistan. When his wife was getting him medicine she dies in a car crash, leaving him, his 15-year-old daughter, and younger son bereft. He "wills" himself well from this unknown but fatal disease. It's a miracle.

He takes his kids to the little (North?) Carolina Island where his wife grew up so they can heal from all of this sad trauma. He becomes friendly with a nice café owner and his daughter becomes infatuated with her son. The dead wife starts to appear to Sam Page, the Dad, to guide him through his grief.

This is not a real light hearted cheerful movie. The actors do a fine job. Sam Page, who usually plays such conservative buttoned up looking characters with the straightest hair part in Hallmark-land, really lets his freak flag fly with longish tousled hair and a scruffy beard. I liked it. Amanda Shull as the ghostly wife and Sarah Drew as the alive love interest do a fine job as usual. Madeline Grace Popovich who plays the typical teen age girl, that is, unreasonable, obnoxious, and whiny, makes you really dislike her. Almost as much as you dislike the controlling mother of the dead wife. But the young actor who plays the sad anxious little son is fantastic, and really tugs at your heart.

This drama is not about romance. What there is between the parents and their teens is only to cast a hopeful rosy glow on the final scene of the movie. Do not question or think it through. Things cannot proceed with the two single parents until the kids are out of the house because that would be more than just awkward. Enough said.

I like the direction that Hallmark seems to be going with some of their features. Whether they can keep it up throughout the upcoming rampage of Christmas Movies remains to be seen.

This appeared on Hallmark Movies and Mysteries which when not doing mysteries shows movies with a different flavor than the Hallmark Channel. This movie fits that mold. It is actually quite different than most of the rom/coms we're used to because the romance is secondary to the rest of the story.

This movie is about grief, and family, and starting over. As Amanda Schull points out in an interview, this movie focuses on the man rather than the woman. His backstory is a bit unusual and possibly even a bit strange. Sam Page is excellent in that role.

Sarah Drew is also good, but I would have liked to have seen more of her.

The climax simultaneously goes off the scale with sappy and with stupid (in the sense of unrealistic). Yes I know, and I've even said, that Hallmark and realistic don't always go well together, but this movie takes the cake. But I love sappy, so I was willing to forgive for the extreme poetic license.

I know Madeline Grace Popovich can sing. She was second best in The Christmas High Note, but still pretty good. When she does her feature performance in this movie, it sounds like they switched to a voice over, but I'm assuming it was her and not someone else. The song is quite good.