The Baker's Son

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!

The bread thing was kind of silly but not too silly for me. I liked a few things about this movie, like the various characters from the town and the way the love story plays out, not following the typical formula. There were a few genuinely funny moments, and comedy usually isn't a strength of these types of movies. I watch a lot of these Hallmark romances. Often I don't finish them. I did watch this one right up until the end. But it's not quite good enough to watch again.

I thought this was a dumb story line for a movie but I actually enjoyed it more than I thought I would. I like Eloise Mumford but as one reviewer stated WTH was up with her hair. Eloise and Brant have great chemistry and I liked the ending of the movie.

At least neither main character was a party planner or a corporate busy bee who buys out family owned shops. Everyone who is scoffing at the idea of magic bread needs to go watch Like Water For Chocolate.