Betty, la chance de sa vie

The story starts 20 years earlier than present time, when Betty and her friend are teenagers at school. They are sitting at a table outside when the boy Betty has a crush on comes by. A jealous girl comes by and puts a "hex" on Betty, forever she will have bad luck with all her boyfriends.

Twenty years later in New York City (actually shot in British Columbia) Laci J Mailey is Betty. She lives in 4B. She is thriving as a risk assessment professional but has a long string of failed relationships. She really believes in the hex put on her all those years ago.

So most of the story here is Betty battling the hex but in essence she is allowing herself to be doomed by her belief in it. It comes to a head when she meets the ideal guy, a news photographer, Marco Grazzini as Alex, who moves in above her in 5B. As they get closer Betty finds ways to sabotage the relationship. Until a revelation when she and her best friend look up the girl who put the hex on her.

My wife and I shared the same take, this is NOT one of the better Hallmark movies. It comes across as a low budget movie which is a bit overly silly in some places and the script is marginal at best. But it also isn't any worse than a typical rom-com TV show, just a bit longer.

At home, on DVD from our public library.

I liked the movie. Premise didn't seem great and hadn't seen luci in anything butChesapeake Shores, but she played her part well. I think the blue contacts are too blue but her face sparkles and shows emotion. She did a really good job and probably needs more chances as hallmark needs new leading ladies. Marco was always okay but he was great here and it worked. They had chemistry , the other characters worked somewhat. I watched it twice already and say it's really good for hallmark and not bad for a regular non hallmark watch.

I don't get the review lengthrequirement from IMDb at the large number. I prefer shorter reads as most people do especially when I do t post spoilers.

It's a fun, fresh idea: A woman who's convinced that she's a bad luck charm for any man she dates. Between this and her job as a risk analyst, she has become a nervous wreck. And it's hilarious!

In real life, would the guy be too scared off to give her any more chances? Probably! But this is one allowance I'll make for a romantic comedy.

Even though I guessed that the movie would go for that late plot twist with Eleni, I'm still glad it did. I think it was the only mature direction to take the story.

My only big complaint: Isn't men and women playing rugby together a huge no-no? I mean, it's a full contact sport. And men are bigger and physically stronger than women. That's just a fact.

I really appreciate how Hallmark tries to come up with new and different variations of their successful romance formula. But this story (about a bad luck childhood curse) was just annoying. It reminded me of "Just My Luck" with Lindsay Lohan, and that's not a good thing.

Laci J Mailey (from "Chesapeake Shores") and Marco Grazzini (from "Virgin River") are good looking and engaging leads. Grazzini had the easy aasignment of being smooth and charming and then understandably befuddled by Mailey's character. But Mailey was given the thankless task of being completely neurotic and unhinged throughout much of the movie "... because all the men in her life will have horrible things happen to them if they get too close."

I just didn't like the premise. I kept hoping she'd realize the curse was nonsense. But, instead, poor Mailey is constantly forced to act like her character is having a series of panic attacks (in an elevator, at a rugby match, on a camping trip, at a fire, etc.). And they're played for laughs that weren't funny.

I also wasn't amused by the MANY scenes involving Felix, the well meaning but socially inept and frankly intrusive office nerd. Fortunately, Mailey's character wasn't unkind, but the moviemakers clearly intended viewers to see him as an object of derision.

I was also appalled at the multiple loud talking scenes during yoga classes. It was extremely disrespectful behavior that did not reflect well on the characters.

Perhaps the biggest problem with this "love story" is the lack of focus on the love story itself. The lovers were kept apart from each other throughout because of Betty's fear that harm would come to Alex if they were together. Instead of watching these two spend time together and fall in love, we are constantly bombarded with Betty saying she can't be with him.

Ugh. I'd like to see the two leads in a different and better movie.

Betty's Bad Luck in Love shows the story of a woman who believes her love life is doomed after a curse is put on her earlier in her life. This movie goes into detail on two woman who are self-centered and focused on their predicaments. While I think the movie's theme is to remind viewers not to take ourselves to seriously all the time, the plot seems to reinforce their inward focus and selfish point of view.

While most Hallmark movies have unrealistic plots and storylines, most have some interesting characters and unique situations to explore. However, Betty's Bad Luck in Love is movie which is doomed - not just her love life. My wife and I made it halfway through this creepy drivel before we switched to watching something more interesting.