Welcome to Valentine

6.0 stars.

He calls the little boy a "they"? I think I heard that correctly. So I realized at that moment that whatever else they want you to hear, or think, the agenda is for us all to slowly ease our way into woke. Ok, so I guess I'll talk about the film now. I always rate a film primarily on entertainment value, quality of lead actors, chemistry, dialogue, story, cinematography, the usual. "Welcome to Valentine" has zero chemistry between the leads. I'm sorry, the 15 seconds of a "moment", or the last 30 seconds of the film are insufficient to meet the definition. This story is so overdone and boring. The dramatic part about their careers is so understated, it's practically non-existent. Will he measure up to the man his father wants him to be to run the company? Frankly, I don't care. Will she someday attain her dream of being the true artist that everyone knows she can? Actually, no she won't. Her art is pedestrian and amateurish. I've seen teenagers with a flare for that sort of art doing similar paintings with more skill. Waste of time this movie.

Boy, I hated to give a movie like this a 5 rating. I'm usually a little more generous. This movie tried hard - too hard! At a certain point, it struck me: "WHY is there so much overacting in this movie?" Except for the fairly appealing male lead (Markian Tarasiuk) most of the actresses need to tone it down a great deal. Gestures too big, facial expressions too big, emotions too big... Then I realized several of them have a lot of stage experience, or maybe they've done a lot of emotion-fraught dramas. Whatever. In a big theatre, an actor HAS to be "big" or the audience can't see what's up. These actresses seemed not have have learned how to "bring it down" for the camera. It got to the point that I had to start skipping through the movie.

Also, the writing was just a little too self-conscious, too "New York," too "Neil Simon-esque" to be enjoyable in a small-town romance Hallmark movie. It sounded unnatural. As I said at the beginning, trying too hard - and it just didn't work. Beautiful faces, for sure, but...no.

In the commercials, Welcome to Valentine looks like a road trip movie, which morphs into a "let's put on a show" movie. And that's all true. But this movie seems to want to be a lot of different things.

The hero is poised to take over the family business, while the heroine wants her artistic career to begin with the help of an influential gallery owner. Within the first ten minutes, the hero causes the heroine to spill food on that gallery owner. She loses her cater-waiter job and her apartment. (Calgon, take me away!) Oh, if only she had a way to get back to Nebraska. The hero has a car, and we're off.

With all these well-worn tropes, a lot of the plot (and the dialogue) is going to be predictable. Follow your heart. The show must go on.

I liked it. The leads were attractive and they had good chemistry together. Is this the best movie ever? Of course not. But it's cute and sweet and exactly what I expected. I don't think that's a bad thing.

Those of us that are Hallmark fans and viewers appreciate a good story, decent acting, and likeable characters. Most of the movies fit the bill. But once in a while there is a movie that has a weak story, unlikeable leads, no chemistry, confusing plot points, and not much to like. This movie definitely falls into that category, and it didn't even have some lovely scenery to add to the story. The lead female had such odd facial expressions and way of speaking. She might want to consider a few more acting lessons. I have seen the male lead in other movies and quite liked him, but he missed the mark in this one. The last few minutes wrapped up several story lines, but left us wondering how all of that could happen in such a short time. All in all it was just a disappointing effort from Hallmark. This year has not been their best.

I'm halfway through the movie, but the leads are still bickering with each other. I really want Hallmark movie writers to stop making the leads behave in such an antagonistic way. It doesn't add any drama to the plot since we know how these movies all end. It just makes it hard to buy into the couple and makes several scenes unenjoyable to watch.

It was also tough to cheer for Olivia since she was lazy producing any art, incompetent enough at her other job to get fired, mooching off her friend by sleeping on her couch for months, moving into her sister's place for free, and volunteering to work on a parade instead of actually getting (and keeping) a job to pay her own way through life. What a catch!