Falling in Love in Niagara

Madeline's (Jocelyn Hudo) fiancé breaks up with her just before their wedding because she is not spontaneous. Her sister Harley convinces her to visit their honeymoon spot, Niagara Falls, anyway, since the accommodations were paid for. And it would give her a chance to show him that he was wrong about her.

At the falls, the two women go for their arranged tour, and Mike (Dan Jeannotte) is assigned as their guide. Things do not go smoothly, and Madeline---who really is not flexible or spontaneous---complains continuously. Fortunately, Mike does not give up easily. He mends their fractured relationship and spends considerable time convincing Madeline that she can be adventurous. She slowly learns to live outside of her comfort zone.

The best parts of the film are the numerous shots of the falls and the surrounding area. It's like a panoramic travelogue that, no doubt, will spur actual bookings to the Niagara area.

Uneven movie highlighting the Niagara Falls region and its many attractions. The Niagara Falls setting offered the beauty of the falls, yet this movie often felt like a very long commercial for Niagara Falls tourism. The primary romance was sweet, however the secondary photographer/sister story line was abysmal and unbelievable. Too much filler and very little substance. Some of it was just so unrealistic it was hard to watch. It would have been nice if that whole storyline was eliminated and the main romance was developed further with more substance. A pet peeve I have with most Hallmark movies is rushed endings and that is the case with this one as well. Continue the story a bit further and its would be so much more interesting to the viewer.

Madeline is a type A kind of person, she likes color charts, everything planned to the minute. So, when her fiancee leaves her five weeks before the wedding all her plans go out the window. She decides to be more adventurous and go on her planned honeymoon with her sister.

There she meets Mike, he is adventurous and just let's life flow. They have a meet cute, maybe not to so cute, and they later meet when they discover he is her tourist guide.

The movie started out great, it developed great, they go on great adventures and it's fun. The actors have great chemistry. I really enjoyed their banter.

The ending was disappointing for me. It makes total sense if you consider the journey the characters went through. But I expected better from Madeline. And maybe Mike deserved better.

I totally recommend this. It follows the classic formula of a Hallmark movie.

There is no possible way that the 2 "romantic" lead characters filmed their parts together! It's like watching an old movie where the lead played their own twin. They awkwardly each stay on their own half of the screen and look at each other as of they're avoiding eye contact and just looking past the other person as if they're not really there. Especially the guy! He looks as if they replaced the romantic lead at the last minute and just superimposed this guy into each scene and hoped we wouldn't notice! Ugh! It's impossible to ignore! It also means there is absolutely no chemistry either. Don't waste your time . . .

I often think that the setup in Hallmark-type movies is extended too long, especially when it is overdone tropes like this movie starts out. Come on, I think, get to the real story. Well this movie shows me that concept to a miserable extreme. Another extreme that goes along with that was the cardboard caricature of the jerk fiancé. Such a creep and he was bad from the first second on screen. (I'm sure the actor was playing it the way he was told.)

All this might be OK if the leading lady was OK. Jocelyn Hudon had definite moments of being likeable, when her character was halfway normal. In fact, she is one of Hallmark's most likeable young lady actors. She killed it in some of her outfits. But Maddie is more than just quirky. She is flat out neurotic and crazy. To make it worse, the movie rushes her through first neurotic, then normal, then neurotic again, then normal again. Some of the confusion might make sense since this is a woman who had been put down first by her parents (backstory) and then by her fiancé. Mike and her sister show her freedom from that. This all might have worked in the story, but the transitions were rushed and the traits were exaggerated. It all left me cringing. She makes instant decisions that are absolutely insane towards the end. Maddie's character arc was not the only thing rushed, but it was the most significant.

Hudon and Dan Jeannotte are good together after they get past the ridiculous meet-cute, which wasn't that cute. Their relationship is also rushed with a lot of screen time being spent on shots of them enjoying Niagra scenery. Niagra was the star of the movie.