Summer in the City

My wife and I watch Hallmark movies everyday! We love the romance and all that leads up to the final kiss. The majority of these movies, however, have a predictable theme...small town, festival or wedding, love wins out over potential life-changing career change. However, "Summer in the City" kept us guessing from beginnng until the end.

This movie was very refreshing compared to the predictability of so many Hallmark movies. In fact almost all Hallmark movies have only one kiss...in the last 10 seconds of the movie. I do not know how we missed this movie made in 2016, but it is an outstanding production and even had a kiss early on! We do not live anywhere in NY state, but it was very intriguing to see how a Midwest girl could make her way in NYC, where life is very different from other big US cities. We would love to see more Hallmark productions with unique and unpredictable happenings, but with the build-up of romance in each production. In fact, the 3rd-party actors with their romantic comments along the way keep the love theme going really well.

I hope Hallmark keeps going with these romantic movies, but hope they put more pizazz into their characters, their settings, and their romance (more than one kiss at the end).

Taylor Morgan (Julianna Guill) manages a clothing store in small town Ohio. Customer Alyssa (Vivica A. Fox) is impressed with her. She turns out to be the owner of a Manhattan clothing boutique. She recruits Taylor to work for her. Mindy (Marla Sokoloff) and Courtney (Christie Burke) are shocked to be working under the newcomer. Worst of all, Mindy is forced to take her in. Philip Bartell (Marc Bendavid) falls for her and helps her find an apartment. Kendall (Natasha Henstridge) is a famous customer.

Manhattan is an important part of the story but this is filmed in Vancouver. It's not the first movie to do the New York for somewhere else. Guill probably spent a day shooting some exterior shots in Manhattan and there is plenty of stock footage. Also she may not fit in the small town girl role. Hailing a taxi is so 2000. The fish out of water scenes don't really work. She should not quit. The story requires her to be fired. She should not be going back home to Ohio which would not require Alyssa to go all the way there to retrieve her. All in all, it's a simple story with some interesting actresses that I haven't seen in awhile. It has its difficulties but gets to the required spots. It's not the worst Hallmark.

Had to watch this with my wife. She liked it. I wanted to scream lol. This lead actress needs her acting refined. She overacts in closeup scenes. Typical Hallmark movie. Made in Canada with Canadian actors pretending it takes place in America. Shame on them.

I have a seen a lot of Hallmark movies, and this still remains as one of my favorites. I don't know if it's the plot, the way it play out, the characters, or even the New York vibe. I watched this before I went to NY and as a person who lives abroad, I wanted Taylor to fulfill the dream that many of us live through movies and books, go to the big city and do what you love. I will definitely see it again. I swear every time Phil looked at Taylor (after they got to know each other, of course) some part of me melted, and that does not happen in every movie. The actors have great chemistry, and maybe that's what makes this movie so special to me. Unfortunately it doesn't happen in every one, so my advice to you? Watch it, you won't regret it, it's a great way to spend an afternoon.

Is it cheesy? Yes. Implausible? Absolutely! Obviously not filmed in NYC? Yup.

But as far as Hallmark movies go... it's not bad. The leads are attractive and convincing. The story is not entirely cliched (although a bit predictable). It has all of the elements of a feel good, I don't want to have to think rainy afternoon movie. You know the kind of movie you put on when you just want something silly and easy.