Love in Whitbrooke

The movie had so much going on. In the course of one week Amber is offered a promotion to become a director even though she babbles like a ninny and can't make a decision, she returns to her hometown to help her parents run their cafe but has no experience as a barista, design and paint a mural because she's an artist who hasn't painted in a while, design and paint a shirt, sell one of her paintings, travel to a nearby city to fight the rent increase for the cafe, babysit her nephew, go on several outings with the leading man including a visit to her grandmother's home, and fall in love. Enter her counterpart who is a Jack-of-all-trades and helps everyone for free and even though he is a descendant of the Founders of Whitbrooke, he didn't grow up there. So I have to wonder if the writer(s) spun a wheel of cliches and then said "we should give these characters speed so that they are always happy, take on more responsibilities than humanly possible, and everybody is so nice to one another...but we'll take out the part where she has perform an emergency tracheotomy because THAT might be unrealistic."

Following the hallmark template, the girl goes home after her dad is injured, gets roped into helping with the town's festival, and finds out her family cafe is going bankrupt- how will it end?!! You probably already guessed it and are correct. I always find it strange how could do much not be done yet for the festival when it is days away?! We barely see her painting and yet this massive backdrop is completed in a matter of seconds it seems. A couple of the side characters look alike and that led to some confusion as I couldn't tell who was who. The leads have some playful chemistry although it was weird they didn't know each other when they both grew up there? I also didn't understand what she did for a living, even until the end I had no idea what it was- project manager or something where she made spreadsheets and told people what to do? It seemed she never worked in the cafe and the way she "saves" her family cafe from going broke didn't make sense either. Overall, an enjoyable movie.

There is a lot of the usual formula stuff in this movie. Woman goes home to help family with dad's injury, sister's imminent childbirth and broke family cafe. Meanwhile she considers a job promotion in far away London. Of course she meets a guy and has to work closely with him for a Founder's Day event. The misunderstanding that creates friction at the climax is slightly unusual but only in the details. Put it all together and the story has no great highs or lows or surprises.

I like Brittany Bristow. She is good with the role of winsome young woman. Amber has limited talents especially in traditional female roles, but her personality is appealing. I thought Bristow and Corey Sevier connected with quiet chemistry supported by a good amount of screen time. So I was content to enjoy their relationship despite a lackluster story.

Several reviewers (dis)credit Hallmark but Reel One Entertainment supports Lifetime and Hallmark. I saw this on UpTV and I think I would have noticed if it was aired on Hallmark.

Maybe the movie could have been good but when Amber is first mocked for being "from the city" when she has no cash and then abandons the life that she was so happy about, it went down the drain for me.

Corey Sevier often comes across as a either insensitive or just plain stupid. He seldom shows any charisma. It's true in this movie too. It's hard to understand how Amber can abandon her dreams for Jason.

I realize that I'm probably not the target audience for this film even though I really love romantic movies. But what's really stopping these movies to move with the times? It's released in 2021 for heavens sake.

Again Hallmark dropped the ball on this movie. The daughter is a clutz for a person who is supposed to be a highly respected project manager. The story lines are always predictable. Hallmark has made excellent murder mystery series, perhaps they should continue along that genre.