6.4 stars.
Hallmark burnout is the best way to describe 'Love, Once and Always'. This is the story of a woman who left her summer hometown in Rhode Island 10 years ago and went to London to pursue a career working in a museum. This whole idea of female protagonist leaving town, going to London, or some other big city, and coming back to town where she left a man behind...It's way too dreary a plot once you've seen it 126 times.
We aren't sure if she actually grew up in this town, but she says she loved the memories of spending the summers there at her great aunt's estate. She left a man behind who should have begged her to stay, but he didn't and the rest is history. Note the usual Hallmark repetitive stuff: she was gone for 10 years exactly. When someone leaves town and comes back it's almost always for 10 years. Sometimes 15 years, and rarely 20, but we never see an odd number like 13, or a reasonable number such as 6, 8, or 11. And when people have died, it's always 2, 4, or 5 years ago, sometimes 10.
She returns to town because they have both inherited half of her great aunt's huge estate. This whole "inherit half the estate" madness has been beat to death and it's so unlikely, so I'm just bored with it at this point. But the film was in 2018 so maybe if I'd seen it back then I would not feel this plot was overly abused at the time.
There is a lot of tension and anger for the first 45 minutes of this film which is quite alienating for the audience. These two leads have very little chemistry. He's a very good looking man, and I don't recall ever seeing him as a lead, so maybe his acting is a bit off. I've seen her in several Hallmark films, and I typically enjoy her work.
I won't be re-watching this movie ever again, unless perhaps I'm stuck watching it at a car dealership or the doctor's office waiting room.
