Hallmark's 2018 Fall Harvest block was a fairly brief one, with only six films. Most of them were not bad at all, though they were also patchy. The premise is a familiar one, not uncommon for Hallmark Fall Harvest films, but it has worked more than once before. My main draw was Cameron Mathison, have seen him in a lot of other Hallmark outings and have nearly always found him well worth watching regardless of the quality of the film overall. He is popular with Hallmark for good reason.
Of the 2018 Fall Harvest films, 'Love of Course' is a contender for the best. For some reason, this reviewer was thinking it would be centered around food, before remembering that that is usually a Countdown to Valentine's Day and/or Summer Nights premise. Despite the premise being familiar, 'Love of Course' does a very worthy job with it. It starts off rocky, but it to me really did get a lot better so of course sticking with it is recommended (the temptation to bail is understandable).
'Love of Course' is at its weakest at the beginning, with the early portions being on the very awkward and contrived side in primarily the dialogue. Mathison and Kelly Rutherford don't look comfortable together to begin with.
The ending is a bit too neat and could have been rounded off a little more completely.
Conversely, there are so many good things that really make 'Love of Course' worth sticking with. Rutherford is endlessly engaging and has a lot of perky charm about her. Mathsion is very comfortable and easy going in his likeable role. Their chemistry is very genuine and mostly didn't feel false or bland. It was great that it was not underused and didn't play fiddle to what was going on in the story. MacKenzie Vega brings a lot of charm and heart to her role and is not too cutesy or bratty, with believable chemistry with Rutherford and Mathison.
Furthermore, the script is a mix of amusingly light hearted and heart warming sentiment, without being juvenile or too sentimental. The story is not an original one, but it has a lively energy, doesn't take itself too seriously while not treating it as joke and is cute. The characters are ones worth caring for and the film looks very nice (especially the gorgeous scenery) and isn't over-scored.
In summary, very well done. 8/10.
