On the most, the 2016 June Weddings films were not good at all (and that block in all the years it's been running has always been inconsistent at best), with 'Ms Matched' (one of the worst 2016 Hallmark films) being particularly bad. The only one for me that passed muster and the only one that was good, though still quite patchy, was 'Wedding Bells' which had a number of good things. 'Stop the Wedding' just about scraped watchable but had a lot of major things wrong with it.
While not quite as bad as 'Ms Matched', 'The Convenient Groom' is a very, very close second worst and another one of the misfires of the 2016 Hallmark output. The premise sounded quite cute, but the film does nothing really with it, and it is a case of a great male lead deserving a much better film. Is 'The Convenient Groom' Hallmark at its worst? No, as there are a few good things that are enough to make it a curiosity watch. Is it a good example of how bad Hallmark can be? Yes.
The best thing about 'The Convenient Groom' is David Sutcliffe, who is great here and has a very likeable character that he plays with subtle charisma and easy going, down to earth charm while not making him too perfect.
Did think too that the production values were quite nice, the scenery does catch the eye in a good way.
Unfortunately, that is pretty much. Vanessa Marcil is just terrible, she is very uptight, exaggerates many of her expressions and mannerisms and also is very affected and obnoxious. Especially when she tries to act younger than she is. Her character is truly insufferable to the point of it really unbalancing the film badly, her arrogance, snobbishness and lack of maturity grated very quickly (almost immediately) and never stopped. Really found it really difficult to see what Sutcliffe's character saw in her and there is no romantic chemistry whatsoever between them, too distant and also too much of a mismatch personality wise.
Also never found the story engaging, the predictability didn't bother me so much as that is expected from Hallmark, but the very draggy pacing, that it is very thin and near uneventful too often and non stop suspension of disbelief (Marcil's character appeal was completely lost on me which made everything that goes on hard to buy). Not to mention the lack of characters that are interesting or worth connecting, with the sole exception of Sutcliffe's, the too implausibly neat ending and phoned in support acting who seem at sea with what to do with the very little they have. Even Karen Holnness is dulled down. The writing is consistently awkwardness and the cheese and schmaltz levels are really hard to take, the cheese is hard to be believe.
Overall, very weak film. 3/10.
