The Baker's Son

I was hoping to like this movie. I like the lead actors and what's not to like about a bakery? That's about the only thing I liked about the movie. Magic bread is a silly premise for a movie. And the lead female's utterly childish behavior is counterproductive to the plot development. She's supposed to be slowly realizing she's in love with her best friend. Instead she acts like a childish, vindictive high school girlfriend. The older baker's fake French accent is excruciating to listen to. For the first half of the movie Brenda Crichlow does an imitation of the Queen instead of playing a convincing upper class matron. Whenever she's supposed to play a boss or a wealthy woman she sticks her nose up in the air and pretends she's a benevolent monarch a la Edna Mae Oliver. She's normally a good actress so I blame the director. The ending was as preposterous as the entire plot. Hallmark needs better writers!

I enjoyed this movie! It had Hallmark's positive romantic vibes, but the story was a little more involved. The cast was good overall, with a quirky character or two. I especially enjoyed Eloise Mumford and Nathaniel Arcand (who isn't on IMDB's cast list at the time of writing this). I wish Hallmark would use these two actors more in future movies. I would watch this again, and recommend it to others!

This movie follows the common premise of a man not realizing that his female best friend is or at least should be the love of his life. It does it, however, with a ridiculous story where Matt's bread becomes magically delicious when he's in love, but that is OK because it isn't meant to be taken seriously. I feel like the whole movie was tongue in cheek.

That only slightly lessened my dislike for Matt's narcissism. It certainly was all about Matt and Annie calls him on it briefly at one point. But up until that point, and when he inevitably repents, he is a total jerk.

It gets a little twisty toward the end and the last segment is total chaos but kind of cute and maybe a little funny.

Brant Daugherty and Eloise Mumford have that easy friendship vibe going but I wouldn't call it chemistry because after Matt meets the dancer, he treats Annie so badly.

Despite my contempt for Matt, the quirkiness of the movie appealed to me.

Eloise Mumford was in my one of my worst reviewed movies of 2018 but it totally was not her fault. I like her, as well as her co-lead, Brant Daugherty. He's not a favorite of mine, but he gets the job done. The friends to lovers plot was good, and I didn't mind the magical bad bread-good bread-bad bread plot line. It was something a little different from Hallmark. I liked the setting and Brenda Crichlow always does a great job. I even thought the mayor was funny.

Here comes the shallow part.

What the heck was with Eloise's lank hair and harsh make up? Her hair was a dull mousy brown and looked like it was chopped off with an ax. And her make-up! What was she trying to convey there? Or hide? Did she get a rash? She is a natural beauty and probably needs only subtle highlights. It aged her at least 10 years. Her foundation seemed to crack at every laughline and crinkle. Terrible choice of lip color through much of the movie, and too much eye stuff. Make-up tip #1: Bold Lip or Dramatic eyes, but not both. And as usual, Hallmark actresses do red carpet level make-up for an ordinary workday at an ordinary modest job. Eloise's look was a bad choice and totally fixable. I would not comment otherwise.

P. S. Upon further investigation, I see her hair was probably due to her role as Trudy Cooper in The Right Stuff. So maybe I was a tad too harsh. About her hair.

The leads in this movie were great. The chemistry was there. The acting was there. But the story was pretty bad. With better material this could have been a great movie.