Family History Mysteries: Buried Past

The title seems to be a bit of a misnomer. The mystery, such as it is, does not need the skills of a genealogist to solve it, and Sophie shows no signs of any professional skills. As a supposedly successful New York physician, Jackson should be better placed to find a bone marrow match for his brother. And if he is such a hotshot, why hasn't he done so instead of playing second fiddle to the girl he once had a crush on but never admitted it. As in the Aurora Teagarden Mysteries, Niall Matter is once again playing the male eye candy sidekick, rather ineffectual love interest meant to be an intellectual equal but only there as an occasional action man's who goes along with the lead taken by the heroine. And he doesn't really get the girl in the end, either; just a chaste high school sweetheart kiss. Not much history, not much mystery and not much chemistry.

Sophie McClaren (Janel Parrish) is a genealogist in Buffalo. Her friend Jonathan needs a bone marrow donor. He and his twin brother Jackson (Niall Matter) are lifelong friends. Their mother Dorothy (Sherry Miller) hires Sophie to find their assumed-dead father Clark Higgins who may be still alive.

Sophie has an easy out, but she doesn't take it. She could easily tell the boys that she's looking for any unknown distant relatives for Jonathan's treatment. It's the first indication that the writing isn't good enough. One may have low expectations for a Hallmark movie. I still appreciate stories without giant holes in the writing. The concept has potential and this has a functional mystery. The romance is fine. It's not the worst idea in the world.

We're Niall Matter fans from back in his days on Eureka, and so we tend to give his vehicles a real chance. While we found this movie good enough to keep our attention, I did expect much more from it.

It had quite a few cliches, such as the romantic leads only finding out years later they'd always been attracted to each other. That comes up so often in these movies they need to give that one a rest for 10 or 20 years. LOL

The story itself was pretty predictable. When Niall's brother needed a match for a bone marrow transplant and a question came up as to whether his "missing and presumed dead" father might really be alive and the match they can't find with anyone else, the ending is obviously telegraphed.

The two leads had great chemistry!!! I was so happy about that! I really hope they make a second movie! And even a third!

The only thing I didn't care for was making one of the brother's gay. They just snuck that in for no reason. Just to have it in.

I was also very impressed with the casting of the main family! The brothers really looked like brothers, and the dad really looked like he could be their dad!

And the story was compelling! And I loved the sets and props! Loved the "old phone"!

I would definitely watch this again! And I hope the next one is just as good! And I hope we get a good onscreen kiss! The kiss in this one was sweet too!

Given the HMM network and the telltale signs, I assume this is the opening entry of a new Signature Mystery Series. I'm not sure and I'll have to see, but I like the premise much better than half of the amateur murder detective ones that just keep spawning on that network. Sophie is a legit PI focusing on reuniting families with lost relatives.

The search is interesting although I would say there were any great surprises. Like the other SM series there is a budding romance between the two main characters involved in the search. I got hooked on Janel Parrish in Holly and Ivy, but this is the first movie other than that which I particularly enjoyed and even so she doesn't quite have the same magic here. She does have chemistry with Niall Matter.

So here's hoping that HMM has decided to give us a new mystery series that isn't based on amateur detectives risking their lives putting their noses in dangerous places and breaking tons of laws and procedures of real crime solving.