Her Pen Pal

'Her Pen Pal' is the third of Hallmark's 2021 Summer Nights films, after the average 'You Had Me at Aloha' and the fairly lacklustre 'The Baker's Son'. The main reasons for seeing it was for Hallmark completest sake and also because of Paris, which is a wonderful city in locations and culture and memories of staying there are very fond (the humidity aside). Have not seen enough of the work of either Mallory Jansen and Joshua Sasse, but their performances were agreeable enough to convince me to see more.

As far as the 2021 Hallmark films go, 'Her Pen Pal' is not one of the best (one of the stronger winners being 'A New Year's Resolution'). It is also not one of the worst, like 'Beverly Hills Wedding'. It's one of the middle of the pack ones. It is to me one of the stronger faring Summer Nights entries, while it is miles away from being flawless it has its charm and is agreeable in quite a number of areas. So worth a watch, if not enough for repeat viewings.

There are many good things about 'Her Pen Pal'. A big star here is Paris itself, which is nothing short of stunning and like a character of its own. 'Her Pen Pal' also fares better than 'You Had Me at Aloha' at making the most of the cultural aspects of the locations, something that this did quite well without stereotyping. The music is not too intrusive or over-emphasised, it's not my definition of unforgettable but it is not at odds with anything.

Jansen and Sasse are both charming leads and their chemistry has genuine warmth and is not too rushed or aimless, though it could have been utilised more. The script is light-hearted on the most part and at least flows, complete with some amusing moments. Really liked Jansen's character, who is not too perfect or over the top negative, and appreciated her development and back-story, which is one of the more interesting and believable back-stories of the 2021 Hallmark films. The story has charm and doesn't take itself too seriously or too much of a joke.

Not everything works though. Jayne Weisener badly overacts her role, have never seen ditziness this exaggerated, and it comes over as really obnoxious. Both the performance and the character. Would have liked a lot more development to Sasse's character, the film did so well with Jansen's but Sasse's is incredibly one-dimensional and at best sketchy.

Moreover, there is some awkwardness and excessive cheese and the story has very little new, feels rushed at times and has a forced and too neat conclusion.

Overall, worth a look but not something that had me jumping out of my chair. 6/10.

I love these destination hallmark movies! I did Google where this was filmed as some scenes looked like a green screen backdrop but it says it was mostly filmed in Paris! Like Jacque says in the movie, the movie feels like you are wandering through Paris at a relaxing pace. I enjoyed the music, lots of food, and beautiful scenery. I wasn't sure what Jacques' job was as it seems he just has a bunch of money and all the time in the world to be wandering around with the LA lifestyle paced Victoria. I like that Victoria acted like a professional adult and not one of those ridiculous big bright eyed characters we often see in hallmark movies with no substance. All the characters had moments where they were falling apart but resolved their issues as grown ups. It's a lovely weekend afternoon movie to take your mind off of your daily life and transport you to beautiful Paris!

It follows the Hallmark movie format to the tee. So why give it an 8? Paris, France and the leads are good.

I do have one gripe and that is the movie set up Victoria's backstory beautifully but failed miserably with the male lead. I mean come on, the dude is a square jawed handsome wealthy dude with perfect manners - Hallmark gave us...well he was traveling so he put off relationships for 15 years. I don't think so - come on writers give us something even 1% believable and we are good to go.

Premise and some of the developments are typical. The ex was pathetic.

There were some laughs and good dialogue early on, but the ending, though pretty much the usual, disappointed me for lack of anything special.

Views of Paris were nice including some places I wasn't familiar with, but were the actors shot live in all those spots or was it green screen? If it was real, it didn't look right a couple times.

The leads mostly had chemistry.

The plot had some "Huh?" moments, but it was noticeably better than most plots in this genre. I really appreciated that there were some genuine obstacles and hard feelings rather than the usual silly misunderstandings. I also appreciated that they invested some money and care into the settings rather than scraping the bottom of the barrel with their budget.

All in all, worth watching.