Game of Love

This movie, Game of Love, stars the handsome Brooks Darnell and the well-known Kimberly Sustad, along with several other promising supporting actors. I may not be well-versed in the names, fair warning, but I will do my best to use the character names.

Matthew (Darnell) is a marketing research consultant assigned to create a game that focuses on love connections; this is also true for Audrey (Sustad), who is a game creator in her own right. They - together - start this path of creating a game from scratch. They use the talents of Audrey's staff at the company funding this project, a young woman (Patty) and young man (i am not sure of his name) - along with her friend (Evie?) from the local game cafe, the Boardwalk.

The premise is strong, but the execution isn't riveting - I think this is where the 1 star is lost for me, because while it is somewhat interesting, the game creation process is probably a bit too nuanced to draw in the normal Hallmark viewer. They do some impressive tossing-around of terminology (a funny scene) and then venture into the creative process. All along, Audrey is getting texts from an online friend that she has never met (you can see there is some foreshadowing here). These texts are more of a friendship/'venting buddy' nature, and this element works well to help reinforce whatever point the plot may be trying to make.

I really enjoyed the movie, but found no truly romantic chemistry throughout, until the very end, when Audrey relents and learns to feel her feelings and actually let people inside her heart. The movie could have better developed the 'why' behind her closed-heart status, and they also could have shown a more clear realization on Darnell's part that his texting "online buddy" (spoiler) is Audrey.

I also loved the supporting roles, and am disappointed that none of the cast credits I've seen online (either on Hallmark, IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes, and more) will offer proper credit to each supporting role. They spoke and did a great job, so why would we not have that info?

I Digress because I really enjoyed the overall movie; I loved:

• Brooks - he's awesome and super alluring in some way. I'm old enough to be his...older sister...so I just figure he's magnetic to almost everyone.

• Kimberley - while I was not a fan of hers initially, she did a great job of at least giving me a reaction or feeling -- some movies leave me so disinterested, I have no opinion at all on the character.

• the scenery, of course - way to go, as always, HM!

• the lovely relationships abounding -- so much love and inclusion in the entire movie among friends, coworkers, etc. It reminds me a lot of my own life, which is incredibly fortunate/blessed to have good people. I love watching movies that reinforce the goodness still in the world.

I would love to see it again and will.

The story is pretty much along common lines for a Hallmark Saturday night. The leads, Audrey and Matthew, must work together for a work project. In this case they are to develop a new board game. The goal of the game is about bringing the players together in love. Audrey and Matthew start out totally at cross purposes. Is it any surprise that the game development and the story seem to parallel each other and that being the case it is likewise not surprising that the whole thing is pretty predictable. I hesitate to call it a subplot because it is embedded in the story, but if you will, a subplot is Audrey learning to accept help from others.

I was a little surprised at how the conflict developed but I can't expand on that without giving a spoiler.

Audrey, at the beginning, is quite the narcissist and I found that difficult to accept in the usually appealing Kimberley Sustad. It's not that Sustad doesn't play the part well, but more that my familiarity with the actor is such that I didn't want her to act that way. It's inevitable that Audrey's personality will undergo a 180 degree change, but I was surprised how long that took. Brooks Darnell did an excellent job across from her and after she lightened up there was good chemistry.

The dialogue and comedy are ok but not sparkling. I was happy that the movie didn't depend on overly exaggerated silly situations for laughs. Both Sustad and Darnell have good delivery and timing. I would definitely say that it was their mutual performance that was the most appealing part of this movie, but I'm not quite sure how much I will want to watch this again.

This is not a review of the movie, but rather a comment on the information accompanying the movie.

Notice that the "top cast" and "full cast" listings both have only eight names. There is NO MENTION of (AT LEAST) the actors who portray Patty, the Asian woman on the team, Evie, the older woman who plays the game near the end of the movie and gets a date, and Susie.

What is even weirder is that, in the captions accompanying the pictures, the actresses who play Patty and Evie are not named--complete ignored--while the other actors' names are listed, as usual!

Why the "boycott" of the woman? What is going on here???

6.4 stars.

Imagine a nerdy and uptight board game creater (Sustad) with a predilection for seclusion, who meets a relaxed but sophisticated and personable businessman. These two are total opposites and this story is about how he softens her hard-shelled and crusty exterior and molds her into a more likable and cooperative woman. She eventually learns how to be a collaborator instead of a distance maker. To put it simply: this is about a woman becoming better. While he's helping her improve, unbeknownst to them both, he's falling for her. She tries to push him away more than once, but eventually it all works out and she falls for him too. They have to understand love in order to make a game about love, but the only way to learn of love is to fall in love.

'Game of Love' is mediocre at best because it lacks charismatic personalities. Both of our leads are difficult to familiarize with. They have strange quirks and weird reactions to things they shouldn't; she is stiff and his performance doesn't make up for the writer's failed attempts at comedy.

Very surprising for me , but I admitt : just I like it !

The basic motives are three: the remind of childhood- first youth society games, Judith Maxie and the fair work of Kimberley Sustad and. Brooks Darnell.

I do not ignore the humor, fails of game, dialogues and the bizarre date in fancy restaurant of the first part. Or lovely young part of team.

A good charming film and this real matters when the recipe is more than familiar and the story becomes a kind of definition for film itself because , indeed, Game of Love is a ...game between director and audience or a form of parable of genre.

In short, just nice surprise.