Marry Me in Yosemite

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!

This movie was pretty good. The plot is a professional city girl needs a seasoned/ rugged tour guide for a book project with a deadline. This story was pretty basic and somewhat predictable but both of the lead actors (Cindy Busby and Tyler Harlow) were both really good. They do a lot of outdoor activities together while researching for a book about Yosemite. She does the pictures/photographs and he is the expert for the story. There were a few hiccups that the characters had to work on and get thru, but they seemed to have fun with the plot/script. The scenery was very beautiful. The film looked great and the outdoor movies are always like another character in the film.

Cindy Busby has done this movie before. I found her character both clueless and selfish. The conflicts they tried to set up were resolved within the same scene repeatedly. Can she find the reclusive guide (haven't seen him in weeks. But hey, complete stranger, here's directions to his house.) (No I will not help you. Ten seconds later: Okay sure I'll help, but I can't start until next week. Okay I'll start tomorrow.) The script was sorely lacking. There was no palpable chemistry between the leads. If my son hadn't visited Yosemite this summer (we asked him many times, did you see this?) the movie wouldn't have been worth watching. But the scenery was great.

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.

Hallmark almost got it right, almost... I really liked the movie as a whole but there is so much untapped potential. I would like to see Hallmark do a series of multiple movies on this, instead of trying to rush important topics, amongst the main romantic storyline and scenery in 1 hour and 23 minutes.

Particularly the ending was rushed. I won't give anything away but trying to make any kind of heartfelt, meaningful end to the story in under 2 minutes is just a bit futile. I think Hallmark didn't want to take the risk of committing to two movies but it's so compacted that the depth of the story that is hinted at is really just kind of neglected. The romance, the leads' personalities, the leading topic (the making of the photography book in this case), the story of the most important supporting cast, as well as the important topics of conservation and native tribes. A sequel was actually really needed to complete this story and might have given the room to really work out every topic in any kind of meaningful way without sacrificing the romance.

For example: the male lead is passionate about conservation, I would have loved to see some actual scenes with examples. I think the screenwriter really needed more screentime to do the story justice so I think Hallmark should start doing two or three part movies, screened over a couple of weekends in a row, to make these stories informative but easy to watch while keeping the romance.

I do like that Hallmark seems to be focusing on movies where relationships are not built on deceit. It's oddly refreshing to see Hallmark movies where people aren't pretending to be a different person, breaking off agreements left and right, and not focusing storylines on inconsequential bakeoff competitions, corporate developers, and kid birthday parties. I like the idea of learning about topics in an accessible, fun way but Hallmark should really give these things more time so that the scenes can breathe a little bit.