Marry Me in Yosemite

The animosity, in the beginning, was tough to get through. I didn't find Jack pleasant and actually kind of a jerk. I like Cindy Busby. However, I felt like I was watching Chasing Waterfalls, but that movie is better.

I enjoyed the Native American history; the scenery was breathtaking. Some of the photographer aspects didn't add up, and as an author creating and publishing books takes more time than they conveyed.

I had low expectations going into this movie, but I hope Hallmark regroups and stops repeating storylines. There are other professions out there. It doesn't haven't to be the same five all the time.

Not the exact same plot, but close enough and Cindy and Christopher have actual chemistry. This movie didn't do it for me, and I won't rehash the story. Others already have done it well. I usually watch Cindy's movies on Hallmark, Lifetime, GAC and streaming (except The Wrong Stepmother...AWFUL), but this was a miss. It wasn't just boring and preachy, but without those elements, you will feel deja vu since it's really not that different from Chasing Waterfalls which I think aired less than a year prior. Or Journey of the Heart.

It's not a new trend, but having rude, prickly, entitled leads needs to go away. Hallmark and Lifetime's "thrillers" do it. What's wrong with a main character that has a pleasant disposition? You catch more flies with honey, but if you let HM tell it, you can treat people however you want and get your way. They'll even fall in love with you in spite of your attitude. It's very annoying and it often makes me want to turn the movie off.

Cindy's best movies are with Christopher and the Darcy movies with Ryan. And the Godwink movie. Loved that. All of her other HM films are really poor in comparison. She's been around a while, but for whatever reason, she doesn't get the good scripts.

This 600 character rule is so annoying when the movie doesn't deserve that much discussion. I can't believe that I'm sitting here typing until the error message disappears. Even with these two sentences, it's still not enough. Good grief. Ok there it is. Finally.

6.4 stars.

My best description of "Marry Me in Yosemite" is a dramatization of two people that got caught in the middle of a documentary as part of a campaign to preserve a national park. I could use a bunch of political terms like climate change and going green, and all that good stuff, but let's not forget there is a cheesy Hallmark romance intertwined in this save the planet promo which has been communicated to us by a random assortment of park ranger who is granddaughter to native American sports and camping gear shop owner at Yosemite National Park, and his great, great grandfather was one of the original natives who lived in the park and was acquainted with John Muir who wrote famous books about the park and other natural wonders in America and this and that. Enter this gorgeous female stranger to the park, from the big city who wants to be like Ansel Adams and take great pics and publish it all in a coffee table book, and she meets a guy who lives alone in the woods in a small house near the park, a hermit type, and he takes the role as her guide so they can create the perfect story for her book. Only problem is he is a fanatical scientific save the earth sort of guy and she is an artistic writer. They don't mesh.

This film is about nature and mountains and Yosemite National park. The romance and the people are secondary. Like it's said more than once in this film: this is the animals' home, we are the visitors. Blah, blah, blah. I love animals, I believe we should save them, but don't try to masquerade a Hallmark movie behind the agenda. My response is: ok, but we are also visiting this movie, and nobody is home.

Cindy Busby's character was a cardboard cutout, generically enthusiastic, with a whole lot of smiling and cringe lines. Cindy can be really funny and cute with some of her awkward, wide-eyed expressions, but nothing in this movie came close. My wife and I kept waiting for some spark, but it never happened. I agree with all the other reviews commenting about the poor script.

The movie is uninspired and boring - a far cry from the Waterfalls movie. Cindy had great chemistry with Christopher Russell in the last few movies together. Tyler Harlow's character in the beginning was a little jarring, and he never recovered. Part of the reason is because he did not have any chemistry with Cindy's character.

The history commentary felt tiresome and forced. Enough with the wokery already.

The best thing to be said about this movie is the scenery. You find yourself saying "Cool, Yosemite. Pretty. I've been there."

All-in-all, definitely a movie you can skip with no regrets.

As a professional photographer this movie is very flawed. Middle of the day glare is not what pro photographers strive for. Backpacking and sleeping in a tent lead to capturing the greatest exposures at sunrise, not in the harsh light portrayed. A coffee table book is made with multiple exposures over time, not just one click and you have it. This could have been so much better with even slight adjustments and thoughts to these details. Cindy's character would have come off so much more mature, and more in keeping with the groundedness of someone who lives in nature. Also, when holding a camera it should not be slightly tilted when creating a landscape image. And don't crop off the top of a mountain!