One Summer

This appeared on Hallmark Movies and Mysteries which when not doing mysteries shows movies with a different flavor than the Hallmark Channel. This movie fits that mold. It is actually quite different than most of the rom/coms we're used to because the romance is secondary to the rest of the story.

This movie is about grief, and family, and starting over. As Amanda Schull points out in an interview, this movie focuses on the man rather than the woman. His backstory is a bit unusual and possibly even a bit strange. Sam Page is excellent in that role.

Sarah Drew is also good, but I would have liked to have seen more of her.

The climax simultaneously goes off the scale with sappy and with stupid (in the sense of unrealistic). Yes I know, and I've even said, that Hallmark and realistic don't always go well together, but this movie takes the cake. But I love sappy, so I was willing to forgive for the extreme poetic license.

I know Madeline Grace Popovich can sing. She was second best in The Christmas High Note, but still pretty good. When she does her feature performance in this movie, it sounds like they switched to a voice over, but I'm assuming it was her and not someone else. The song is quite good.

Hallmark was no stranger to having films revolving around serious themes and a number of their films to have things such as grief and how to cope with loss have been rather good. Not all their serious themed films have worked and plenty have been too sentimental and melodramatic, but enough are heart warming and poignant. Hallmark did quite a number of films centered around grief and loss in 2021 before and since 'One Summer' and mostly the execution was very well done.

One of the better films in this group is 'One Summer'. This was a story that could have easily been mawkish and melodramatic, but 'One Summer' executed its story with real poignancy and heart, treating the subject with respect while not taking it too seriously. As far as Hallmark's 2021 output goes, this is up there with the best and to me it's one of their better and most heartfelt films in recent years. It also manages to be a very good representation of both leads, whose Hallmark work in performance and resume is inconsistent.

It is not a perfect film, with it being a slow starter where the story takes a while to find its footing momentum wise and there is an over familiar vibe throughout the first act.

Madeline Grace Popovich personally didn't do it for me, her character's negative traits are very exaggerated and she tries too hard to the point she becomes annoying.

The performances however really impressed me. Sam Page has an easy going likeability and also never been this expressive or this moving. Sarah Drew, though her character could have been developed a little more, neither overacts or looks bored in a turn that's understated and sincere. Amanda Schull unsettles and moves and the son is adorable and heart tugging. Most of the characters are well fleshed out and easy to like or connect with, really related to them in very difficult circumstances, Popovich's is too much of a cliche and done badly but everybody else is fine.

Page and Drew do have chemistry together in my view, the relationship is not as focused on as much as the family stuff but they seem natural and genuine together. Had no issue with the character interaction, the family dynamic when in the grieving process being true to life and honestly done. The script sounds natural and has real sincerity throughout, it doesn't sugar coat the serious theme (far from it) but it didn't to me come over as over serious or soapy. Apart from some pacing problems early on, the story is very heart warming and moving. Personally didn't have a problem with the ending, there were far worse Hallmark film endings in 2021. The drama is not too soapy or over sentimental and it doesn't feel forced. Visually it looks pleasing, with the photography and scenery being equally attractive. The music plays a key role in the film while not being used too much, it has presence but isn't dominant in sound.

On the whole, very well done. 8/10.

This one is a throwback to those old time very earnest Hallmark Hall of Fame type productions that play sometimes on Hallmark Drama. Thus it makes sense that they showed it on Hallmark Movies and Mysteries rather than the main Hallmark Channel. Because Hallmark Drama just shows reruns and this one doesn't fit with regular Hallmark's mission statement. Apparently.

It is about a man who lost his wife while he himself was dying from a mysterious disease he got while deployed in Afghanistan. When his wife was getting him medicine she dies in a car crash, leaving him, his 15-year-old daughter, and younger son bereft. He "wills" himself well from this unknown but fatal disease. It's a miracle.

He takes his kids to the little (North?) Carolina Island where his wife grew up so they can heal from all of this sad trauma. He becomes friendly with a nice café owner and his daughter becomes infatuated with her son. The dead wife starts to appear to Sam Page, the Dad, to guide him through his grief.

This is not a real light hearted cheerful movie. The actors do a fine job. Sam Page, who usually plays such conservative buttoned up looking characters with the straightest hair part in Hallmark-land, really lets his freak flag fly with longish tousled hair and a scruffy beard. I liked it. Amanda Shull as the ghostly wife and Sarah Drew as the alive love interest do a fine job as usual. Madeline Grace Popovich who plays the typical teen age girl, that is, unreasonable, obnoxious, and whiny, makes you really dislike her. Almost as much as you dislike the controlling mother of the dead wife. But the young actor who plays the sad anxious little son is fantastic, and really tugs at your heart.

This drama is not about romance. What there is between the parents and their teens is only to cast a hopeful rosy glow on the final scene of the movie. Do not question or think it through. Things cannot proceed with the two single parents until the kids are out of the house because that would be more than just awkward. Enough said.

I like the direction that Hallmark seems to be going with some of their features. Whether they can keep it up throughout the upcoming rampage of Christmas Movies remains to be seen.

I've always got a kick out of hallmark love stories; falling in love in less than a week. This story was refreshing. It has real love, loss, grief, healing and romance on a realistic timeline. This is definitely one of my hallmark favorites now.

...from the new more serious Hallmark Movies & Mysteries. I like how the background story was revealed, but I am not giving anything away. While Madeline Grace Popovich is a bit old to play a fifteen year old, she gets the attitude about right.

A nice film about a family moving on without "letting go."

A solid 7, at least.