Gilded Newport Mysteries: Murder at the Breakers

I was so looking forward to this as I am a fan of Hallmark mysteries and have been very impressed with their period works like "Three Beds, Two Bathrooms and One Ghost" (with the incredible Madeline West) and "A Biltmore Christmas". But, this movie is a huge failure.

The entire cast (except for Nanny) is awful, with the lead actress sleepwalking her way through the role. The lead detective looks like a surfer dude and the third component of this "love triangle" is a complete bore. Add to that a story with horrible pacing and some unbelievably sophomoric detective work. I finally fast-forwarded to the last 10 minutes to find out whodunit because I couldn't take it anymore.

Hallmark, you've been warned. If this really is the first episode of a series, recast the main leads and for crying out loud, enough with the dopey curls!

Does Hallmark not hire professionals to write and direct their movies? I found the script to be typical and extremely lazy. The continuity of emotion was all over the place... it just didn't make sense at times and left me scratching my head and rolling my eyes... and it was obvious it was to create drama that just wasn't realistic at all. The main character's dialect was that of a high school teenager from Southern California in2024 while the accent of her main love interest was like he was a part of the British royal family itself.

Racism sucks and we all hate the way it was in the past, but for a historical piece it was just not realistic at all.

And finally why is the main character the ONLY ONE who does ANY investigating? It's like every one of the other investigators are completely incompetent.

I looked forward to this group of Hallmark movies. I was so disappointed to see them ignoring historical truths of the time. I don't think different races mixed in higher social settings.

The clothes didn't fit right and were of the wrong fabric. Baggy full length gloves , baggy bodices, even the men's jackets and shirts were baggy.

The female hairstyles had curls dangling onto the face. In this time, hair was put up and didn't usually have curls hanging on the face. If curls were present, the were next to the ears, not in face.

Houses could have been wonderful but instead looked cheap and had the wrong floor coverings.

The plot wasn't bad but the directing and production aspects left it wanting.

I think these mysteries have big potential but can't be done on the "cheap".

I confess that, yes, I usually like Hallmark movies. And I like period pieces. So this movie is a terrible disappointment.

I just finished watching season 2 of The Gilded Age so I hope I didn't grade this movie further down in comparison but these are the thoughts that came to mind while viewing:

It has second rate acting.

It has third rate plot and dialogue.

It has fourth rate directing. Over directing.

(Third rate on average.)

The endless and all too frequent quick cuts during conversations were nauseating. And the puzzling way some of the actors uttered their lines had me blaming the director too.

Kept trying to like it, but the acting was so bad. For a period piece, only a couple of the characters portrayed it well. The others characters were like JR high students merely just reading lines for a play. I like the lead in Firefly Lane, so I expected a much better performance from her.

I was excited for a new mystery series on Hallmark, so I hope if they do more if these, they improve the acting. I enjoy most of the Hallmark mysteries and he really find the acting and stories to be decent. I managed to finished it but only because I really hoped it would get better, but it didn't but at least I know who did it.