I liked this movie, though I wouldn't say I loved it as much as many apparently did. You had a decent story and a somewhat compelling mystery. You wondered how they would ever track down the mystery phone caller and his long lost love Madelyn, and they kept you guessing till the end.
The performances were pretty good. I liked Holland Roden as Elizabeth. She was warm, engaging and likable. Tyler Hynes as Josh was just okay. I know he is one of Hallmark's top leading men, but I never thought he was that great. In this movie, he seemed too subdued and he lacked a certain charisma. It also annoyed me how he tended to slur his words and swallow his syllables. I felt like I needed closed captioning to know what he was even saying at times.
My big problem with this movie was that the whole plot relied on stupid actions by the characters and unrealistic plot points. First off, our mystery man leaves a message on our heroine Elizabeth's phone, proposing a reunion with his long-lost love Madelyn, thinking the number is hers. Wouldn't her voicemail normally say, "This is Elizabeth", in which case, he would know it was a wrong number? He calls on the hotel phone instead of his cell phone. Who does that these days? He doesn't leave a callback number. He doesn't even leave his name, just assuming that, after 3 years, Madelyn will know who he is. He also just leaves things up in the air, saying he will meet in "our spot", assuming she will know where he is talking about. Any normal guy wouldn't have just assumed he was leaving voicemail on the right phone. He would have tried time and time again until he talked to the girl in person.
Then, there's the silly miscommunication where Elizabeth was telling her friend Andrew about her romantic feelings for Josh, and he just assumes she is actually in love with Andrew. You know that's what's going on from the start, and them dragging the thing out till the bitter end just seems contrived.
Finally, there's the guilt that the mystery man Carter carried around for years because of the accident that killed Elizabeth's friend Andrew. This guilt apparently even caused his relationship with his old flame Madelyn to fail. But why should he feel so guilty about hitting a patch of ice and sliding into another car? It's really a stretch for him to feel so guilty about something that's so clearly out of his control.
If you can suspend your disbelief about the above absurd plot points, this is a pretty good movie. The characters seem real and genuine and the dialog is pretty natural. The plot sucks you in, and you want to know the answer to the mystery, and you also want Elizabeth and Josh to finally stop with the pretense of being "friends" and just get together as a couple already. Ninety percent of Hallmark movie fans will come away from this movie more than satisfied.
The performances were pretty good. I liked Holland Roden as Elizabeth. She was warm, engaging and likable. Tyler Hynes as Josh was just okay. I know he is one of Hallmark's top leading men, but I never thought he was that great. In this movie, he seemed too subdued and he lacked a certain charisma. It also annoyed me how he tended to slur his words and swallow his syllables. I felt like I needed closed captioning to know what he was even saying at times.
My big problem with this movie was that the whole plot relied on stupid actions by the characters and unrealistic plot points. First off, our mystery man leaves a message on our heroine Elizabeth's phone, proposing a reunion with his long-lost love Madelyn, thinking the number is hers. Wouldn't her voicemail normally say, "This is Elizabeth", in which case, he would know it was a wrong number? He calls on the hotel phone instead of his cell phone. Who does that these days? He doesn't leave a callback number. He doesn't even leave his name, just assuming that, after 3 years, Madelyn will know who he is. He also just leaves things up in the air, saying he will meet in "our spot", assuming she will know where he is talking about. Any normal guy wouldn't have just assumed he was leaving voicemail on the right phone. He would have tried time and time again until he talked to the girl in person.
Then, there's the silly miscommunication where Elizabeth was telling her friend Andrew about her romantic feelings for Josh, and he just assumes she is actually in love with Andrew. You know that's what's going on from the start, and them dragging the thing out till the bitter end just seems contrived.
Finally, there's the guilt that the mystery man Carter carried around for years because of the accident that killed Elizabeth's friend Andrew. This guilt apparently even caused his relationship with his old flame Madelyn to fail. But why should he feel so guilty about hitting a patch of ice and sliding into another car? It's really a stretch for him to feel so guilty about something that's so clearly out of his control.
If you can suspend your disbelief about the above absurd plot points, this is a pretty good movie. The characters seem real and genuine and the dialog is pretty natural. The plot sucks you in, and you want to know the answer to the mystery, and you also want Elizabeth and Josh to finally stop with the pretense of being "friends" and just get together as a couple already. Ninety percent of Hallmark movie fans will come away from this movie more than satisfied.