I just watched this again, but this time I had it on in the background while I was distracted by other things. That's because I knew it was just OK and not one of Hallmark's best. But it is worth a watch. For me, that's almost entirely because of Eloise Mumford (who just shined in a great Hallmark movie called Presence of Love). She's easily one of my favorite Hallmark stars. She's beautiful and talented and she made Annie the most believable character in the movie. Mumford played Annie as sparkling, charming and lovable, but she also effectively conveyed Annie's angst, uncertainty and heartbreak.
The cute island town was nice, but the mayor was a bit over the top (who grabs and eats food from the plate of a stranger without asking??). If the success or failure of the town turns on whether Matt's bread is any good, well, they might want to elect a new mayor. And the magic infused bread story line was... tough to swallow, at least as it was presented.
The biggest problem, however, was Matt, played by Brant Daughterty (who I liked in A Royal Runaway Romance). Jackbv123 did a good IMDb review of the movie ("a bit quirky") that conveys exactly what I hated about Matt. His character was completely self obsessed and very irritating.
And it was asking way too much of the audience to buy into the premise that he only saw Annie as a friend. He would have had to have been gay not to have fallen madly in love with Annie once his hormones started acting up during his teen years. That "friends to lovers" trope would have, should have, played out for them a long long time ago (unless they were separated, and then found and only recently lost other partners).
Instead, Matt is presented as a clueless doofus who inexplicably "falls in love" with another woman who's only on the island for a few weeks. Really? Yeah, she was pretty but not like Annie. And yeah, she was nice, but not like Annie. Love? Really?
But the movie did have some charm. The big scene at the end was presumably an homage to the scene with Colin Firth in Love Actually. And It went a long way in somewhat repairing the movie's complete lack of credibility (like the fact that island boy Matt didn't know how to swim).
And thanks to Eloise Mumford, I may one day watch this again. Did I mention I loved her in Presence of Love?
The cute island town was nice, but the mayor was a bit over the top (who grabs and eats food from the plate of a stranger without asking??). If the success or failure of the town turns on whether Matt's bread is any good, well, they might want to elect a new mayor. And the magic infused bread story line was... tough to swallow, at least as it was presented.
The biggest problem, however, was Matt, played by Brant Daughterty (who I liked in A Royal Runaway Romance). Jackbv123 did a good IMDb review of the movie ("a bit quirky") that conveys exactly what I hated about Matt. His character was completely self obsessed and very irritating.
And it was asking way too much of the audience to buy into the premise that he only saw Annie as a friend. He would have had to have been gay not to have fallen madly in love with Annie once his hormones started acting up during his teen years. That "friends to lovers" trope would have, should have, played out for them a long long time ago (unless they were separated, and then found and only recently lost other partners).
Instead, Matt is presented as a clueless doofus who inexplicably "falls in love" with another woman who's only on the island for a few weeks. Really? Yeah, she was pretty but not like Annie. And yeah, she was nice, but not like Annie. Love? Really?
But the movie did have some charm. The big scene at the end was presumably an homage to the scene with Colin Firth in Love Actually. And It went a long way in somewhat repairing the movie's complete lack of credibility (like the fact that island boy Matt didn't know how to swim).
And thanks to Eloise Mumford, I may one day watch this again. Did I mention I loved her in Presence of Love?