Review of From Friend to Fiancé

I am amazed by the poor reviews this one has gotten so far! I thought this was one of the better Hallmarks. The lead actress, though not super-great was more than adequate. And Ryan Paevey is a big favorite with me. This also had some surprising elements to it that moved it out of the usual very predictable Hallmark template. First of all the rival of our heroine, Jess, who is set to marry Jess' best friend, Ted, was a high school mean-girl. As any Hallmark aficionado will predict, she will show her true colors, and prove herself to be the fiance from hell. Our heroine will rescue her buddy from her evil clutches at the last minute and win his love for herself.But no! She has actually changed and is now really nice, if a little suspicious of Jess. Her instincts were correct. Jess has decided she is in love with Ted. We are teased a few times that mean Kimberley is going to emerge from her clever phony facade. But No! It is actually Jess's stupid antics and non-stop lying to herself and others, that show Kimberley in a favorable and sympathetic light. It was getting to be the last 15 minutes of the movie, and I was cudgeling my brain as to how the writer was going to resolve this. It was shaping up to be another My Best Friend's Wedding, which I knew was impossible because, come on, Its HALLMARK! They managed it thanks to Kimberley, who, in a faster that the speed of light last minute epiphany realized that she was just marrying Ted to prove that she wasn't a mean girl anymore, and Ted realized that he wanted to marry Kimberley to prove he wasn't the fat nerd anymore. It was actually pretty neatly done. The other things I liked were the voice over narration at the beginning and the end, Ted's granny, Jess' elderly adviser, and the rest of the secondary characters. So Kudos, Hallmark, try to step outside the box more often!