Heart of the Matter

Well, colour me completely and absolutely surprised! A deep, complex Hallmark movie where romance isn't the main plot? What is going on!

What's going on is Aimee Teegarden - one of my favourites, right back to her Friday Night Lights days - playing the role of a doctor who is responsible for the death of her patient. The decisions she made and the fallout deeply affect her life and she faces further complications when she approaches the dead patient's mother (well played by Gail O'Grady of NYPD Blue fame - remember the Rangers-obsessed receptionist Donna Abandando?) to try and apologise, leading to disciplinary action.

Don't watch Heart of the Matter if you want the usual family-friendly, tropey Hallmark movie. This definitely isn't one of those...but it is one of the best Hallmark films ever made.

In my top ten hallmark Christmas movies Ms Teagarden has two. The Christmas miracle on, forget the name, and my Christmas Family Tree. She is great onscreen. This one misses a beat( pun intended).

I watch the other two over n over but will wait awhile before I watch this one again. It wasn't ad it was just kidding something always there in her previous movies.

Very happy hallmark signed her to a longer deal. Her movies and acting are usually spot on.

Probably one of the most dramatic movies on Hallmark Movies and Mysteries. Well cast. Aimee Teagarden is becoming one of my top favorite actresses on Hallmark channels. She plays a cardiologist, Andie, in tune with her patients, and personable. One of her patients was one of those "special" ones that she got to know. Tragedy strikes and Andie is having a challenging time dealing with it. Gail O'Grady plays the mother, and she's superb in the role. I encourage you to see the movie, as it ends teaching life lessons of love and forgiveness.

Adding: When you look at the whole picture, the mother was just as responsible for the outcome of the son driving. She could have told him to stay put and she would come and get him or call an ambulance. The mother should have known better, instead of blaming Andie. This is not brought out in the story.

Like others, I'd watch any story with Aimee Teagarden ever since I first saw her in "Once Upon A Christmas Miracle", and she'd done some work that would never air on Hallmark, yet this movie was quite different from what I expected from the previews. This was almost pure drama, and the romance was incidental to the story. The overriding message is how one can be one's own worst critic, and potentially forfeiting a promising future over tragic lapses in judgements, and yet one can rise above that by being open and honest with those who care, and even with those who have every right to hate them, if only they are brave enough to rise to the challenge. At the time of this writing, Hallmark is barely airing this story at all, and that seems like such a bad idea.

I too love Aimee Teagarden. Her facial expressions and her acting in general are very good. The surprise for me was that the whole cast were excellent. The story line breaks away from the traditional romance comedy sometimes silly Hallmark movies into a well written drama with true to life characters with very real and relatable emotions. There is romance, sadness, struggles and of course a happy ending. It will go down as one of my favorites from Hallmark. The other one that surprised me this year was Presence of Love with Eloise Mumford. Give them both a try.