Mom's Day Away

I'm not usually partial to Hallmark MOWs, but I rather enjoyed Mom's Day Away. It had the pace, cast, quirky banter and heartfelt moments that you look for in a G-rated Rom Com.

The story follows an under appreciated Mom who ends up taking Mother's Day weekend away with her wild child BFF. It follows a very traditional route, but there's some fun scenes at a Spa Resort. Also there's a very kooky open mic set piece.

Is Bonnie Somerville actually singing??? And also, I believe she said "yay", not "gay". Remember... It's Hallmark...

The chemistry between the two girls, Laura and Trish, really kept the movie going. Laura and Trish were actually the only characters I liked. The husband was kind of a drip, and the two kids were boring to watch. Terrible casting on the kids. Redhead, really? Regardless, it was a fun little movie and well shot. It's supposed to be in Los Angeles, but it looked like Canada to me.

Overall, I'd definitely recommend watching MDA. It's a Hallmark movie with a great cast, a fun script and a perfect way to spend a week night.

This was a cute Hallmark movie. I bought it to watch on Movie Night with my wife and we both enjoyed it. Always looking for something clean and cute to watch, and happy when I find it. James Welch Henderson, Arkansas 2/18/2021

It's Mother's Day Weekend and life is just as swamped as ever with her routine. So Bonnie Somerville wakes up, walks out for the weekend with her old friend Ona Grauer and leaves Dad to make a hash of dealing with the kids in this blandly written but well performed Hallmark TV movie.

Most of the jokes in this one are about the level of 1970s television situation comedies in which the perfectly nice kids drive work-befuddled dad up the wall -- think "Brady Bunch". As such it would make yet another of the interminable series of rote Hallmark movies celebrating some holiday or other. Miss Somerville, however, takes the same sort of rote lines and situations that appear in every other movie and converts them into a funny, neurotic character.

There's still that annoying music score that tells you before anything happens what this particular scene is going to be about and how you should feel about it. It's clearly not the fault of the composer, but someone needs to have a stern word with the musical director. Valerie Biggins, I'm talking to you!

The family is a disaster. In fact, all the cliches about an unruly and inattentive family are shown to prove it. Yet somehow the tone remains mostly upbeat. Yes the kids seem to have been trained to let mom do all the work. It is a sort of parody of that kind of family. So mom gets disgusted and takes off with her unmarried and glamorous BFF. Much of the movie is them having a great time. They have such a good time that Laura, the mom, even outdoes Trish in the fun department. The parody is that Laura becomes a sort of Trish. Meanwhile back home .... Let's just say that maybe the kids and husband do love the mom.

If you want to look at this as a story about a good family, there are lots of details to ruin that, at least for a while. I saw a comment to the effect that kids and people don't change overnight, but maybe deep down these kids were raised right but drifted into bad habits.

As I said, the tone was mostly upbeat with some fun antics followed by some sappy sentimentality. Sure it was totally predictable. But it was fun. Bonnie Somervile does a nice job keeping the mood light while she transforms.

The plot is fairly simple. There are no great surprises. There is an implied tension of the threat to the marriage, but there is never really a threatening feel.

There is a subplot about Trish and her lifestyle. Again no great surprises.

I enjoyed it. Watching in 2024, it is nothing like most of what appears on Hallmark on a Saturday night these days.

For me, this movie is the epitome of why not to have kids. Everything she experienced is what i do NOT want to happen to me. It was a cute, heartwarming movie, but unlike her bestie, it certainly did not make me want her life.