Playing Cupid

Having the daughter play matchmaker has been done before, but under the guise of a business project was different. Pairing up her classmates, other teachers, and even singles in their community at a special Valentine & Friendship dinner broadened her business plan. It wasn't exactly "Emma," but did anyone notice the name of the middle school was Austen? Clever!

I think the story is fairly fresh, although I suppose you could generalize it as kid brings parent and teacher together. I especially liked the last 10 minutes or so beginning with the dance.

I'm a fan of Laura Vandervoort for various TV series. She did a Lifetime Christmas rom/com and I hope she does more for Hallmark. She and Nicholas Gonzalez had chemistry. The obligatory antagonism at the beginning had playful moments and the playfulness carried into the relationship. Most of the supporting acting was decent. This appears to be Mia Quaranta de la Rosa's debit, at least as far as this web site tracks appearances, and hope she can become a regular too.

The power and influence of a teacher in children's lives, first love, starting over, trust, perseverance, letting go and so many worthy themes - all there. And it took me a while to warm up to the cast - but found them all all charming and engaging as the movie progressed. An enjoyable and quite unique family movie.

Kerri Fox (Laura Vandervoort) assigns her class a project to start their own businesses. She's concerned about her student Clara Martinez and about her inattentive boyfriend. She breaks up with the boyfriend and is comforted by restaurant owner David Martinez (Nicholas Gonzalez). Clara decides to be a matchmaker for her school project.

It's Hallmark. The romance is obvious right from the start. The movie lays out its premise and it's a train on its straight forward tracks. It doesn't get off those tracks. There are no other tracks. The plot is inevitable which makes it perfect for Hallmark. The two leads look amazing and they're actually good. They have a good early safe conflict to heat up their chemistry. The kid is fine. It is perfect... for Hallmark.

Well this had nothing to do with Emma as advertised in the promos, but it wasn't bad. There was enough antagonism between the two leads to get it off to an intriguing start. The father really had some serious control issues in the beginning but he wasn't over the top for too long. He made a very attractive leading man. The appearance of the ex-wife near the end threw an interesting wrench into the romance which had been preceding pretty much by rote up to then. The romance between the two youngsters was cute. Good acting on the part of the teens.