A Scottish Love Scheme

7.3 stars.

Scoping out my thoughts, looking in from the outside, honestly I'm not in love with 'A Scottish Love Scheme'. The love factor is very minor, it's more like this should be named 'Girls trek to Scotland'. The girls are a mom and daughter combo, traveling to Scotland to see mom's old friend and family. Mom grew up in Scotland, has a full blown accent, there is no question about that aspect. Daughter (Durant) tags along, meets the old best friend lady and her family, falls in love with one of her three sons. What's not to love about this movie? I don't know, it's a bit too slow and maybe a mite depressing, if I'm being honest. The love portion is too clunky, maybe the leads lack attraction for each other, it's just not very believable.

I've seen tons of Hallmark movies. Maybe almost all of them. I'm not a critic or reviewer. I watch Hallmark movies to feel better and enhance my life. In my view this is one of the best written, casted, and acted ones ever. Kudos. Meaningful. Believable. If you choose to watch it I hope you enjoy. The photography/cinematography is also great. Dialog is spot on. The acting is excellent. The characters are believable and well played. Feelings are well portrayed. Hard to beat the scenery. Erica Durance, Jordan Young, and the entire cast is wonderful. Believable. Pretty muck the same Hallmark movie equation, but refreshing and not totally predictable.

If you want a little armchair travel trip to Scotland, this might do the trick...including music, country vistas, whiskey, Scottish burrs, Gordon Setter, tea, rugby, and highland cow lamp!

The story was actually on-point for a Hallmark film as Lily (Erica Durance) takes a mother daughter trip with her mother Cait, played by the lovely Jo Cameron Brown. The trip coincides with Lily's divorce being finalized and her leaving her marketing job at her husband's family's brewery. The plan is to go to Cait's hometown in Scotland to visit her best friend since childhood and see a bit of the Scottish countryside followed by Lily going to Spain to take a photography course and finally pursue her desire to pursue the art of photography. What Lily doesn't know is her mom has a serious illness.

Lily and Cait are picked up at the train station by the childhood friend Mairi Campbell (Juliet Cadzow) and her son the widower Logan, who they stay with. Coincidentally, Logan and his brothers run the family's whiskey distillery that is having a marketing crisis. Mairi asks Lily to help out since she is there and Lily jumps in to help with their new ice wine barrel adventure...and along the way gets reacquainted with Logan and his son Finn.

I, for one love armchair traveling and as such loved this entry into the Hallmark vault. I loved the music and the views of the countryside...and all the Scottish burrs. I liked the story and particularly appreciated the two well meaning age appropriate moms. The whiskey stuff was lost on me as I do not drink. But I did really like delicate handling of an illness of a family member and how it affects those around us. I loved learning about 99's and the Scottish National drink Irn Bru.

I felt the energy/chemistry was fine between Erica Durance (LILY) and Jordan Young (LOGAN). Since Lily just had her life upended by a divorce and Logan was still grieving the loss of his wife I wouldn't have expected sparks to be flying. Especially given logan has a son to protect and and Lily's going to Spain for six months they aren't looking for a relationship. Both admit that they are cautious about taking their friendship anyplace given where they are in life. I would expect given that they're middle-aged that they are sensible enough not to jump into a relationship but take relationships seriously. I felt the casting was great and especially loved the moms: Jo Cameron Brown and Juliet Cadzo.

This one was so disappointing. I loved the idea of middle aged actors, but there was no chemistry between the two main actors. Aside from that, while the plot was something I have loved in so many books, it was terribly translated in this movie. Hallmark has done such a better job with similar plots. I don't know why this bombed...it was definitely more than the actors, as aside from the chemistry, they were fine. I really think they were hindered but the writing. Do better, Hallmark. More detail as IMDB seems to require it...location was nice, I like that Hallmark has middle aged main characters, but do better with writing and plot.