Love by the Book

Let's get out the checklist. Pretty leading lady with a squeaky voice and a rigid way of looking at the world, running an improbably successful business in an undefined town? Check. Handsome leading man to make her hate him until the inevitable moment when he turns out to be right about everything? Check. Handsome other man who sweeps her off her feet but who, we know, will turn out to be a phony? Check. Tweedly, intrusive musical score that tells you how you must feel about this particular moment whether there's anything else to raise emotions? Check. Plot proceeding almost entirely via dialogue? Check. No jokes or gags? Well then, the form book tells us we must be looking at a Hallmark Channel romantic comedy.

And a particularly dire example of the beast it is. Leah Renee seems to be under orders to act like a four-year old in a Princess tutu having tea with her stuffed animals. I'd urge you to not look at it, but it doesn't show up under the title it plays on the Hallmark Channel.

My main reason for seeing 'Love by the Book' was for Hallmark completest sake, started watching their work as undemanding escapism (or at least that was the intent) back around 2019. Focusing solely on their Christmas output for a while and then watching overtime their other seasonal blocks. Have seen Leah Renee in other things, and she is rather take and leave for me depending on how her character is written. Am less familiar with Kristopher Turner.

'Love by the Book' did sound charming, have seen Hallmark films centered around literature and romance before and in some cases quite well and even very well in the best cases. 'Love by the Book' is one of the films that didn't execute the formula very well at all. Hallmark did do quite a lot of good films in 2015 and most of the most that year was watchable, but this was one of the misses and actually one of the worst examples. A few good things, but a lot of bad with the worst aspects done pretty awfully.

Am going to start with the good. It looks nice, with the scenery being lovely.

It has two good performances, Turner as an easy going and likeable leading man and Cherilyn Wilson as the very charming and spirited sister that she attacks with gusto without over-compensating. Her subplot is much more interesting than the main one and would have liked to have seen more of it.

However, Renee is really quite terrible in a very affected performance, which sees a lot of hamminess and very breathy line delivery that all got really irritating when the film went increasingly overboard with her negative traits. Which far outweigh her virtues and make the further mistake of being ridiculously exaggerated, which made her character absolutely impossible to like or root for. The supporting cast are undistinguished at best, with only Wilson standing out, with very little to work with. There is no chemistry between Renee and Turner, what he saw in her the shallower and more selfish she got requires some suspension of disbelief.

In fact the chemistry between the entire cast is barely existent and only Turner and Wilson's characters are likeable or interesting. The others are dull or/and annoying to an over-bearing degree, especially Renee's. The script is very stilted and sophomoric and is full of cringe worthy cheese and cavity inducing sentiment, and the story has no energy, is very predictable and emotionally is very bland in every way, wit, charm, emotion, tension are completely absent. It also ends too neatly.

Summing up, very mediocre effort. 4/10.

I should have listened to the other reviewers and skipped it. The on reason I continued watching it was because Kristopher Turner was so cute. Stephanie Powers and John Schneider looked great.

A Hallmark movie. Pink sauces, mountains of cliches, simple to childish story, a sort of acting from the lead actress.And the so familiar romance . The frame for love troubles and business difficulties, not a restaurant or family shop but a bookshop. A dreamer young woman, The Charming Prince and the version of Shrek. Enough for something who can be defined as nice. The consolation prize- for me, the presence of John Schneider. Is it enough ? Off course, when the expectations are far to be high.

It's an enchanting, quirky film about real life and real decision and relationships. Before you judge this movie, take in consideration of little girls who grew up watching Disney fairytale a their entire lives, hoping and dreaming that they would actually find their Prince Charming. Is he really going to ride up on a white horse? Of course not. These girls as they grow up realize that, but the idea of Prince Charming with all his bells and whistles still captures their thoughts. Love by the Book allows that fairytale to come to life in a completely different light: that is not about the romantic things a guy does, but his support and love to help you become a better person. We see Emma grow through the story as Eric helps her. And we also see Eric grow as well.

As Phil declared after Emma read her first blog post, "this one gets an A."