So You Said Yes

2015 did see some good and more Hallmark films, such as 'Surprised by Love', 'A Country Wedding' and 'All of My Heart'. It did also see some duds, like 'Merry Matrimony', 'Love by the Book' and 'Portrait of Love'. The 2015 Countdown to Valentine's Day block was mostly a solid one, with 'All of My Heart' faring the best. The premise for 'So You Said Yes' left me feeling unsure, being unsure as to which way it would go between charming and fun or unbearably cheesy and irritating.

Unfortunately, 'So You Said Yes' is closer to the latter extreme, while not quite bad enough to be embodying it. It is one of only two disappointments in the 2015 Countdown to Valentine's Day block, the other being the marginally worse 'A Wish Come True'. 'So You Said Yes' is not quite one of the worst Hallmark films that year, but one of the best it most certainly isn't in my view. Not an awful film, but also not particularly good with a lot of bad things. Mediocre is the best way to describe it.

There are good things. Chad Willett does give an amiable and down to earth performance as a character that was easy to like up to a point. The other good performance, and the only performance of the supporting cast that stands out in a good way, is a fun Bruce Boxleitner.

Furthermore, it looks nice, especially the scenery, and the music is pleasant enough and doesn't feel too much in tone or placement. There are a few amusing moments.

'So You Said Yes' does have a lot of drawbacks however. Kellie Martin is much too neurotic, even in a role that is pretty all over the place, and it made her come over as very annoying. She also is too mature for a role clearly intended considering the writing for someone younger, and whenever she tries to look, act and sound younger it comes over as very artificial. Jennifer Dale does give it her all, but for me her character was really over-bearing, too domineering and pushy and it did unbalance the film. Did appreciate the attempts to develop her character, but it comes too late and feels too rushed and too suddenly introduced when spending so much of the film's length intensely disliking her. The rest of the cast fail to register in very sketchy roles.

Didn't detect any chemistry between Martin and Willett and also found them mismatched in personality. The relationship is underdeveloped and also underused, one remembers Dale's character's pushy antics and the increasingly neurotic whiny personality of Martin's one a lot more which is not a good one. The story is not a well written one at all, it is just too over the top ridiculous, very dully paced and too reliant on forced contrivances and convenient coincidences. Not to mention excessively predictable and too neatly and easily resolved. The dialogue never sounded natural, instead coming over as awkward, and the cheese really got too much.

All in all, mediocre though semi watchable as a curio. 4/10.

Kellie Martin is always good value in these Hallmark romantic comedies, and this proves to be a good outing overall.

It helps that this is more of a 'mature' Hallmark film, with less time being spent on the couple getting together, but more about them staying together.

With some lovely moments, and identifiable characters, this was good fun.

I managed to get through 1/2 of it, but it was agony so turned it off. Kellie Martin has not aged well and always has a stressed look to her in any roll she plays anymore. She looks much older than what she actually is, so her playing the romantic lead in a movie just doesn't work. Maybe she'd be better in a heavier roll as a detective or a librarian---or maybe she could learn to lighten up and smile. It was not an enjoyable movie even though the male lead did a great job. Jennifer Dale was good as his snooty mother but she seemed too young to be his mother. I agree with the person who said Kellie and Jennifer looked close in age. Bruce Boxleitner is always a joy to watch.

The story is OK. A bridal shop owner runs a business which caters to clients looking for non-traditional wedding attire. A chance meeting with a lawyer brings a man into the shop owner's life. A man whose mother also happens to own a competing bridal shop but with a snobbish slant. Overall the actors do OK. But, the characters just don't seem to fit together logically. I just don't buy it. Kelli Martin is a good actress but just is not the right person for this role, bless her heart. Quirky has been used in previous reviews to describe her character, but to me she comes off as a bit pitiful, unattractive, whiny, and just too odd and difficult for any sane person to want to have a relationship with. I did like the love interest character although I can't see why someone like him and from his background would have any interest in the bridal shop owner played by Martin. I am a guy, and not embarrassed to admit I like Hallmark chick-flicks. But this one for the reasons listed above is nowhere near the top of my Hallmark "like" list.

7.2 stars.

My feelings are all over the spectrum just like Miss Martin's personality in this film. Her character is supposedly "neurotic" (according to some reviewers), but she's not. She would be best described as a colorful personality or borderline eccentric. Neurotic is not what many people think and has no similarities to the character portrayed in this story. She is actually more quirky and odd, opinionated, but not forceful. She claims to not eat sweets, but she binge eats them every day. She also claims to be a vegetarian and gluten free, but you will see that she certainly breaks all of those dietary rules in every dining scene. Obviously, what she means to say is that she doesn't want to eat sweets (and meat, and gluten, and...), would like to avoid them, but she can't.

The story is fine, there are ups and downs with the flow. But it's actually a very endearing movie if you can look past the monster-in-law. Oh boy, what a major barrier to a fun and light movie watching experience. It was painful to see her push buttons, but I think that was the intent. The lead male is so-so. I don't know if he's the right person to be lead male in a romance film. I suspect a lack of high ratings may have something to do with his casting.