The Shell Collector

Watch this one for the children and the 'grandparent' characters. They carry the lion's share of the storytelling in this one. The plot points aren't new, but that doesn't matter when it's easy to identify and sympathize with the characters.

The lead acter, Chris Russell has been around for some time, and this familiar face performs well. His counterpart, Caitlin Clark is believable in all her scenes except those with Russell, which I found a bit odd.

That's probably a knock on the director who failed at finding some spark of chemistry between these two leads. Clark is believable with every actor but becomes wooden when she's with Russell.

This movie is still worth the time but would have been so much better with just a dash of chemistry. That missed opportunity cost this rating two stars.

This was a touching and heartfelt story. I disagree with the reviewer that said the leads didn't have chemistry. I thought they had real chemistry. It took me a few minutes to get past the Botox lips of the lead actress, but I thought she did a great job with expressing grief and hesitancy and walking through healing to wholeness. Same with the lead actor. If they had had what is typically thought of as chemistry, where are they have a spark, and are all smiley at the beginning of the movie, it wouldn't have been right for the story. They had to tread carefully as they walked through forgiveness and healing and restoration. The children and the older actors were well cast, too. They were touching and very believable. With beautiful scenery on top of it all, it was a great movie. I thought the script was well written.

It's not a romantic comedy. It wasn't meant to be. I highly recommend it.