There is absolutely no bias against Hallmark. They have made plenty of above average and more films, and that is including this year. They have also done quite a number of below average and less ones. 'Love for Real' did sound quite cute, despite being a scenario that felt done to death with Hallmark long before this was dreamt up and that the setting is one re-visited a lot. That is including their 2021 output, which was hit and miss but could have been far worse.
While there were hits from 2021 for Hallmark (i.e. 'As Luck Would Have It, surprisingly so as that was not an appealing premise), there were also misses such as 'Beverly Hills Wedding'. 'Love for Real' is one of the misses for the 2021 Hallmark output, though not one of the very worst. It is not a terrible film as such and it does have good things. But it also has major shortcomings that sadly outweigh the good things in quality and quantity. Worth a one time watch for Hallmark's completest sake, but not much more than that.
Most of the cast do more than adequately with what they were given (which was poor), with an appealing Scott Michael Foster. The best performance coming from a delightfully perky Taiana Tully, who gives what could have been potentially annoying if overdone a lot of enthusiasm.
Production values are also beautiful, especially the scenery. Some of the tongue in cheek humour is amusing.
'Love for Real' has a number of failures sadly. The worst aspect is Chloe Bridges, who gives a performance that is both robotic and whiny. Really did not like her character, a case of one with overblown character flaws to the extent that it is hard to detect any virtues or what anybody would see in her. She and Foster do not have any chemistry together, too distant and uncomfortable and the relationship in development is sketchy. Of the characters, the only one that appealed to me completely was Tully's. The rest were one dimensional Hallmark cliches.
Did find the music too intrusive and drab and the direction was routine at best. Moments of nice humour aside, the script is incredibly awkward and forced, with the cheese and sentiment too much. The story is very predictable, from doing nothing new with familiar ground, and drags. The charm isn't there either and the conflict is too little and has nothing to it.
Concluding, rather mediocre. 4/10.
While there were hits from 2021 for Hallmark (i.e. 'As Luck Would Have It, surprisingly so as that was not an appealing premise), there were also misses such as 'Beverly Hills Wedding'. 'Love for Real' is one of the misses for the 2021 Hallmark output, though not one of the very worst. It is not a terrible film as such and it does have good things. But it also has major shortcomings that sadly outweigh the good things in quality and quantity. Worth a one time watch for Hallmark's completest sake, but not much more than that.
Most of the cast do more than adequately with what they were given (which was poor), with an appealing Scott Michael Foster. The best performance coming from a delightfully perky Taiana Tully, who gives what could have been potentially annoying if overdone a lot of enthusiasm.
Production values are also beautiful, especially the scenery. Some of the tongue in cheek humour is amusing.
'Love for Real' has a number of failures sadly. The worst aspect is Chloe Bridges, who gives a performance that is both robotic and whiny. Really did not like her character, a case of one with overblown character flaws to the extent that it is hard to detect any virtues or what anybody would see in her. She and Foster do not have any chemistry together, too distant and uncomfortable and the relationship in development is sketchy. Of the characters, the only one that appealed to me completely was Tully's. The rest were one dimensional Hallmark cliches.
Did find the music too intrusive and drab and the direction was routine at best. Moments of nice humour aside, the script is incredibly awkward and forced, with the cheese and sentiment too much. The story is very predictable, from doing nothing new with familiar ground, and drags. The charm isn't there either and the conflict is too little and has nothing to it.
Concluding, rather mediocre. 4/10.