The Convenient Groom

On the most, the 2016 June Weddings films were not good at all (and that block in all the years it's been running has always been inconsistent at best), with 'Ms Matched' (one of the worst 2016 Hallmark films) being particularly bad. The only one for me that passed muster and the only one that was good, though still quite patchy, was 'Wedding Bells' which had a number of good things. 'Stop the Wedding' just about scraped watchable but had a lot of major things wrong with it.

While not quite as bad as 'Ms Matched', 'The Convenient Groom' is a very, very close second worst and another one of the misfires of the 2016 Hallmark output. The premise sounded quite cute, but the film does nothing really with it, and it is a case of a great male lead deserving a much better film. Is 'The Convenient Groom' Hallmark at its worst? No, as there are a few good things that are enough to make it a curiosity watch. Is it a good example of how bad Hallmark can be? Yes.

The best thing about 'The Convenient Groom' is David Sutcliffe, who is great here and has a very likeable character that he plays with subtle charisma and easy going, down to earth charm while not making him too perfect.

Did think too that the production values were quite nice, the scenery does catch the eye in a good way.

Unfortunately, that is pretty much. Vanessa Marcil is just terrible, she is very uptight, exaggerates many of her expressions and mannerisms and also is very affected and obnoxious. Especially when she tries to act younger than she is. Her character is truly insufferable to the point of it really unbalancing the film badly, her arrogance, snobbishness and lack of maturity grated very quickly (almost immediately) and never stopped. Really found it really difficult to see what Sutcliffe's character saw in her and there is no romantic chemistry whatsoever between them, too distant and also too much of a mismatch personality wise.

Also never found the story engaging, the predictability didn't bother me so much as that is expected from Hallmark, but the very draggy pacing, that it is very thin and near uneventful too often and non stop suspension of disbelief (Marcil's character appeal was completely lost on me which made everything that goes on hard to buy). Not to mention the lack of characters that are interesting or worth connecting, with the sole exception of Sutcliffe's, the too implausibly neat ending and phoned in support acting who seem at sea with what to do with the very little they have. Even Karen Holnness is dulled down. The writing is consistently awkwardness and the cheese and schmaltz levels are really hard to take, the cheese is hard to be believe.

Overall, very weak film. 3/10.

Why does Vanessa constantly play with her hair? Too many contradictions. Mature professional woman dressed like she just graduated college. Bad lighting through the whole movie. I like the story though.

I agree with all the comments made about the lead actress - she was clearly miscast, and everything has been said about her sad performance.

David Sutcliffe however, WHY hasn't he been picked up by the major studios instead of acting in low budget movies ? He's a good actor and VERY easy on the eye - but clearly hasn't had the breaks that Brad Pitt did, and that's such a shame.

The 5 stars I've given, four are for him, and one for the storyline which was typical Hallmark.

I wasn't a huge fan of the main character or her blog. She was very critical. Although her character got better at the end, really, I still didn't like her that much. I did enjoy the romance, though. It got cute at the end!

I have watched Hallmark movies for years. I cannot recall ever being this disappointed. Though I liked the story concept, this was extremely slow and boring from the start. The biggest reason, possibly the only reason I watched the entire movie is that I like the leading actors.

I've enjoyed watching both Vanessa Marcil and David Sutcliffe in a number of films over the past few years. Because of this, I was surprised at how bad the acting seemed to be. Then, I realized that the directing was where the problem must be. I believe the script must be sub-par as well.

At least some of the makeup in the film left a lot to be desired. On more than a few of the shots, Vanessa's makeup looked as if it was "caked up" on her face. The only reason I mention makeup is it seemed to be sloppily done and made her look older than she is.

The biggest reason for rating this as high as 5/10 is that I liked the concept.