North to Home

This was a beautiful drama. Unique story with depth and heart. Love the importance placed on the family working through difficulty and reconnecting. I won't elaborate in order to avoid spoilers.

It's been a while since HM offered a high-quality drama, and North to Home is it. It's excellently cast, with the exception of one character (the guest house guest). Great chemistry between all the actresses who portrayed the sisters--they make you truly believe they are sisters--and Barbara Niven as their adoptive mother. Original backstory about the tragedy that brought this family together and the acting was top notch. I can actually see this as a series--are you listening HM? Highly recommend. Oh, the actor who portrayed the youngest sister's love interest--he wasn't convincing in his part, especially with his backstory, and could have been portrayed much better by any of HM's stable of supporting cast actors.

The network Hallmark Movies and Mysteries is where I go, especially during the Christmas season, for the sentimental, the sappy, the tearjerker. I was very disappointed during Christmas of 2021. HMM started out well enough with 2 good movies in that tradition. Not the first week, but early in the season. For me, Christmas 2021 was a bad year. Since probably early November, there hasn't been a truly heartwarming movie on HMM, or for that matter UpTV or GACF. Until now, two weeks after all the Christmas premieres were done and I wasn't expecting it. Don't get me wrong. There is nothing about Christmas in North to Home.

This movie is about family and loss. It's about sisters. There is one romance, but it is definitely not the focal point. Until somewhere past the half way point, it was a very nice movie about a family struggling with loss and guilt and little secrets. There are a few different threads going, but nothing major. Then there is a very nice twist. Maybe there were clues, but I don't remember them. It caught me totally by surprise and that doesn't happen all that often.

The rest of the movie after the twist gets very sentimental and sappy. The good kind. I won't say more about the story.

The acting is good. All of the three sisters were good.

I didn't not like the movie...however, this book was so well rounded. I found the characters stilted in the movie. I know that comes down to timing - there just isn't time to delve into each character like you can in a novel. It was also "hallmarkified" which took away from the characters as well. If I hadn't read the book first I would have enjoyed this much more.

Hallmark Movies and Mysteries has shown it likes to take on some heavy topics, particularly around the death of loved ones. This one was well-acted and well-directed but a little too heavy on melodrama, particularly between the sisters. An enjoyable film with strong performances. Really like Lyndsy Fonseca and hopes she does more movies with Hallmark, but feel like she's cut out for a more lighthearted role.