Un été à Channing

What a beautiful story of a family grieving over loss. The cast was stellar and perfect in their roles. Loved it!!!

This one is a throwback to those old time very earnest Hallmark Hall of Fame type productions that play sometimes on Hallmark Drama. Thus it makes sense that they showed it on Hallmark Movies and Mysteries rather than the main Hallmark Channel. Because Hallmark Drama just shows reruns and this one doesn't fit with regular Hallmark's mission statement. Apparently.

It is about a man who lost his wife while he himself was dying from a mysterious disease he got while deployed in Afghanistan. When his wife was getting him medicine she dies in a car crash, leaving him, his 15-year-old daughter, and younger son bereft. He "wills" himself well from this unknown but fatal disease. It's a miracle.

He takes his kids to the little (North?) Carolina Island where his wife grew up so they can heal from all of this sad trauma. He becomes friendly with a nice café owner and his daughter becomes infatuated with her son. The dead wife starts to appear to Sam Page, the Dad, to guide him through his grief.

This is not a real light hearted cheerful movie. The actors do a fine job. Sam Page, who usually plays such conservative buttoned up looking characters with the straightest hair part in Hallmark-land, really lets his freak flag fly with longish tousled hair and a scruffy beard. I liked it. Amanda Shull as the ghostly wife and Sarah Drew as the alive love interest do a fine job as usual. Madeline Grace Popovich who plays the typical teen age girl, that is, unreasonable, obnoxious, and whiny, makes you really dislike her. Almost as much as you dislike the controlling mother of the dead wife. But the young actor who plays the sad anxious little son is fantastic, and really tugs at your heart.

This drama is not about romance. What there is between the parents and their teens is only to cast a hopeful rosy glow on the final scene of the movie. Do not question or think it through. Things cannot proceed with the two single parents until the kids are out of the house because that would be more than just awkward. Enough said.

I like the direction that Hallmark seems to be going with some of their features. Whether they can keep it up throughout the upcoming rampage of Christmas Movies remains to be seen.

Finally a PG-rated Hallmark movie with a little bit of zip. Also, it's a bit of a weeper, too, especially for anybody who has lost (or is losing) a partner to illness or accident. The world breaks everybody, but some become strong at the broken places., and this is a story of getting past grief. It'd help the suspension of disbelief if the ghost looked a little more "ghostie" (ethereal). Another nice break from the typical Hallmark formula is to not have "The Kiss" in the final frames of the movie, but I don't think that qualifies as a "spoiler".

Parts of it were over the top and might make you roll your eyes, but most of it was very well done. The actress who played the daughter was impressive. The father was excellent as well. I like the melancholy touches about grief and found them to be the strongest parts of the movie.

Hallmark should continue with these slight deviations from their usual movie formula. I like them so much more than the conventional fall in love in one week stories.

The film has a family love story that gradually moves from its sad part to its happy and lovable one. By creating an atmosphere full of intimacy, the film is able to convey a good romantic part to the viewer. In addition, the good music and beautiful songs that it has inside fill the romantic atmosphere of the film. In general, the film has both good drama and love romance, which with its good process, was able to make the viewer feel good at the end of the film and gives the viewer the ultimate pleasure.