Kite Festival of Love

We just watched this 2021 movie and we loved it! It has a wonderful story line, low drama, and great acting. I especially like the "adult" and sensitive handling of situations and relationships such as loss of a parent/spouse, pushy girlfriend wanna be, potential step-child relationship, and parent/adult children relationships. Even the protagonist's actions in the end were a nice surprise.

I also loved the dialog between the girl and her father about her music teacher. She was very sensitive and mature. Kudos to the writer.

I LOVED it! I wish all script writers would take a lesson and lose the high school - type drama and manipulation that is often prevalent in romance movies.

So kites. That's a new one. The awkward alternate title is Kite Festival of Love. Which is probably why this very recent Hallmark slipped under my radar. Still, it's surprising considering it featured two of their biggest stars: Jessica Lowndes and Christopher Russell. They are not the most talented actors, but they interest me. Jessica because she started off so badly in the talent department with nothing but her beauty to recommend her, and Christopher because he is so handsome and likable despite sometimes walking through his part like he is asleep or on drugs. When he's paired with the right female co-star, he does a great job.

Christopher plays Gavin, a widowed father of an eight year-old who returns to his small town upon the death of his wife to be near family. He meets Hannah (Jessica) a childhood acquaintance and neighbor who is a music teacher. They start a relationship because why not? She is gorgeous, super sweet, has a cute dog, loves kids, loves his kid specifically, his kid really likes her, his parents love her, and she's single. As for her, come on, Christopher Russell. As a loving father. What could be more sexy? Oh. They both love kites. It was meant to be. Unfortunately, there is very little chemistry or spark between the two. They are very stiff and awkward around each other.

All proceeds very boringly with no conflict, suspense or problem to solve until about three quarters of the way through. That's when brazen hussy ex-girlfriend starts to get jealous and commences to stalk him and manipulate him into dates and tries to make Jessica think they are a couple. I thought things might get interesting, but right off the bat she tells him she doesn't like children and suggests his daughter, ably played by Amelie Will Wolf, is being manipulative when he wants to go home to tuck her into bed! Can you imagine? What a dummy. Not that she had a snowball's chance in Hell anyway. Even though Christopher's too nice to tell her to get lost.

Christopher is average in this one. Jessica has plateaued as far as her acting is concerned. She's not bad, but another actress could have done so much more with this part. Her delivery is still a little strange with a California girl cadence and she sometimes slips back into her habit of not enunciating and talking too fast. She is miscast in these girl next door parts. It is simply not believable that, with her glamorous beauty, she would have anything to fear from the only above average looking ex-girlfriend who's not very nice to boot.

The story is a light on the light side. It felt like the rival story of the ex girlfriend was purely filler because there wasn't a whole lot else going on other than Jennifer Lowndes. To give my statements context, Lowndes used to be one of my least favorite of the Hallmark-like stars.

Lowndes plays an appealing single woman winning her way into the family of a widower father and his daughter. There's fond history between the families but it doesn't seem like Hannah and Gavin ever dated. Lowndes and Christopher Russel have a quiet chemistry. The three-way relationship is part of the appeal of the movie.

The other appealing note of this movie is Lowndes' songs. I always enjoy her performances in movies like this.

Loved the almost Chesepeake Shores like scenery. I thought all the charachter's were lovely. Good storyline . I adore Jessica's singing in the movie. It lead me to find her other songs. Definitely one of my favorites.

This movie is ok and they dealt reasonably well with filming in the pandemic - the kite flying scenes are beautiful but in unrealistically small spaces, however that's understandable considering the global situation. As frequently happens, there's too much pressure on the lead to find love and I had to fast forward the piano lesson scenes, because progress was ridiculously fast, sadly typical in TV shows. Indeed, there's quite a lot packed into the time frame, but it's a got good age range with three generations and the dog is characterized better than in many such flicks.