The Baker's Son

Annie owns a coffee shop and loves painting. Matt is a baker and works at the family bakery with his father. They are best friends and have been since they were children. When a ballet company arrives in town and Matt becomes infatuated with the main dancer, the town seizes the opportunity to bring more tourism.

I'm kind of torn about this movie. I love the general concept, I have seen the actors before and enjoyed them, I love the small town vibe and specially, I love the best friends to lovers trope. But... it didn't live up to my expectations. I was expecting best friends slowly realising they love each other, instead I got a man who seemed genuinely in love with a girl who wasn't the lead and who, of course, didn't realise what was in front of him until he was about to lose it, and a woman willing to fly to another country rather than facing her feelings towards a man who has been by her side her whole life.

Which leads me to the following point: while I knew this would end well, there is a funny twist almost at the end, and you have no idea what's happening in the last 15 minutes because the storyline is going so fast. It was chaotic.

That being said, I actually enjoyed the movie. Brant and Eloise had great chemistry. I know I was supposed to be rooting for them to be together (and I was) but the characters seemed to have an amazing friendship, one of the kind that could prove that a man and a woman can be just friends. It would be great to watch them work together with another script.

Seriously tho, I actually liked it.

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.

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.

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!