User Reviews

I must say this movie was quite awkward watching these two like each other. It's understandable from characters they are playing. A picky sarcastic teacher and a heartbroken widower neither really looking for love until they're struck (common for a Hallmark movie). Jodie Sweetin's character comes on a little strong, I mean leaving her class to basically go find out if the new student's father is single. She just met him and it comes off desperate instead of lovestruck.Totally awkward!

It develops into a sweet romance but I found myself wanting things to wrap up with a half left and just get to the ending kiss. It's definitely worth a watch for Hallmark movie lovers, but it's not the most exciting or endearing. I personally find Jodie Sweetin's acting heartless and self-centered, but there are definitely worse actresses I've seen in Hallmark movies.

BTW Those that review and want to pick apart the movie based on "reality" need to find something better to watch than Hallmark movies. They're fiction, predictable feel good movies and only the main characters pretty much matter. it's a fantasy world not real so there are people that are put in place for a single purpose and things that will happen that may come off ridiculous or absurd. There are some horrible Hallmark movies, but this is not one of them. And there are most definitely a lot better Hallmark movies to watch than this one.

This movie is typical hallmark. David Haydn-Jones. Jodie Sweetin. Children who serve as plot devices.

The characters aren't well developed, as each character only gets one interest: Lucy's father gets 'baseball', Sophie gets 'rainbows', etc.

Also, I really thought Sophie's classmate captured lightning in a bottle with that clean compost idea!! justice for that kid-- deserved that science fair win for sure!

BUT it's sweet and I will never quit watching these movies for anything.

The acting was decent, the music was nice, but some of the plot details left a lot to be desired. I really don't believe teachers leave their phones on their desks all day to answer their texts, and the other teacher texting her outside her classroom is ridiculous. I've never heard of a science fair award being given to the "most colorful" project. How stupid is that? Apparently, the writer has never been to a school science fair. All she did for her project was make a rainbow on a poster and hang some prisms on a pole. That wouldn't have won anything in any school science fair I've attended (and I've been to a lot). Then there's the teacher taking her whole class on a field trip and just letting them run out of the bus all over the place. No other guardian with them at all. I don't think the writer of this script has any kids at all. Otherwise, not all bad.

I love Full House, but I'm not a huge fan of Jodie Sweetin in some of these Hallmark movies. It seems like she is always in her head (react this way, rehearsing her line with no thought to what's going on around, stand straight, make this face) and not very "real"

David Haydn-jones plays a good not overly cutesy cheesy main character. A bit stiff, but I do think there is good realness in the chemistry between the two leads in this, there are moments I see it.

The daughter is pretty good. She actually played Jodie Sweetin before. Nothing spectacular not more natural and not as pretentious as so many kid actors in these types of movies.

As with all Hallmark movies there are things that bother me. First the anniversary party. It was set up as a party- table for gifts and looked like a table where they'd set out food etc, but there was nobody but their family there. The daughters had been planning it (what were the planning other than some balloons and streamers at the park?) When jack and his daughter get there she says "let me introduce you to everyone" and they go back just to her family at the "party". The next scene they are at the hospital and she goes up to him to say thanks for driving them there- one would think you'd say that right away, but then the BIL announces they have a baby girl. From water breaking to delivery complete- that's one quick birth!

The rainbow park for the field trip - oh come on now! First it's just a field. Second that's not how rainbows work. Third the kids saying they've never seen it before- if it's that close to their school kids would have seen it. Then when the daughter gets sad he says he shouldn't have let her do this project- never mind the rain is sheets and blanket and pillow and everywhere else in her room?! Yep, it was just the science fair project. Your daughter cries once about her dead mother and you think you need to pick up and move again? Tulips grow in a matter of weeks and from seeds, none the less?! Haha.

As a huge Cubs fan, I appreciate the baseball dad humor. Lucy's dad refers to his team as him team, can't they just pick a team? Also, jack has 2 Chicago hats, I'd assume are to be cubs hats, one on a hall table and the same one on his nightstand. If he is that big of a fan he'd have something else or something actually cubs and not the same hat awkwardly positioned on 2 tables. The set decor on these movies is all pretty much living room setups from like the room place in some model home. Also he is the only parent that goes inside to pick up his kid? The first day and the day he is late, yes, but not the other days. Also this school has been used in other hallmark movies. They really go overkill on the rainbow and rain metaphors, but points for a mili vanilli joke- too downplayed. The guy that plays the coworker/friend is the side character in a bunch and I like him more in this. I don't want us to move away? They just got there a few weeks ago. Like 3 weeks and then pick up and move again? That's also a short time for kids that age to pick a science fair project and then complete it and hold the fair. Also why I'm every hallmark movie and tv show does everyone wake up so early? Grabbing coffee yes. A morning run. Sure. But meeting with friends, running, coffee and more all before school starts which is before work starts? And everyone is up and out and about? Most people I know wake up, some may work out, most get ready grab a quick coffee and go to the office all quite quickly- no leisurely mornings before the day starts. Also, the first kiss needs a good 2 seconds in between his line and the kiss. And then he says come on I want to take you somewhere and it goes from day to night and she has changed her clothes and hair. Suuuure oh and then it ends just like that.

Despite the previous spewing, the acting isn't as cringeworthy as some of these movies and overall it was pretty cute.

This was a typical sweet Hallmark story about a single woman connecting with a widower and his adorable daughter. The characters in this movie were all quite likable and reasonably well acted. I kind of feel bad criticizing this movie. It wasn't a bad movie. It was just kind of innocuous and forgettable.

The leads had some chemistry, but not a huge amount. The dialog was okay. When the dialog between the leads sounded natural, it was actually a little too authentic and kind of boring, just discussing the mundane details of their lives, mostly. When it didn't sound natural, it was typical "Hallmark-speak", the stilted dialog that's supposed to be witty and amusing, but which is not remotely like what anyone in the real world would say.

Sadly, there was not much conflict in the story. Not much to make it interesting. Jack and Sophie move to a new location and she just clicks right away with her new classmates. I was almost hoping for some bully to make fun of the new kid, just to get some drama going. Ben, the dorky barista and pseudo competing love interest, arrives unannounced at Lucy's house while the Jack and Sophie are there, and you think there will be some conflict. But he is dispatched quickly and never shows his face again, and you wonder why they even included him in the story.

The whole storyline with the rainbows seemed kind of absurd too. So, there's really supposed to be a park where there are always multiple rainbows. Really? And the whole idea that Sophie, who had to be at least 8 or 9, somehow believed that she would find her dead mother at the end of a rainbow, was ludicrous. And having Jack go off the deep end about Sophie's disappointment over this fantasy not coming true, and deciding that this was justification for uprooting his family yet again and taking a job transfer to Miami, was nonsensical. Just a bit too much unbelievability to swallow, I'm afraid.

Behind this whole story was the supposed pain that Ben and Sophie were feeling for his wife's untimely death, but I wish they had made that pain more a part of the story and had him discuss it more with her. Somehow, I didn't really feel it. It might have helped if Ben were being pursued by someone that Sophie didn't like, contrasting with Lucy, who she did like. The whole conflict about a kid being unable to accept a widowed parent moving on with someone else might have been interesting.

It also seemed a bit weird that the story took place in some small, fictitious West Coast U. S. town, when it was pretty obvious that it was shot in the big city of Vancouver, Canada. They could at least have pretended that Vancouver was Portland or Seattle, as in some other Hallmark films.

So, it wasn't a bad film, and its heart was in the right place. It just didn't have enough drama to keep you that interested in the story, and some plot elements were too unbelievable.

First off let me say Jodie makes a good teacher, she actually has said before she'd want to be a teacher if she wasn't acting. That was a realistic part of a teacher helping a student though grief of losing a parent.

What is not believable is the fact a teacher and a student's parent could be romantically involved: Its really not appropriate and the student would certianly suffer bullying from their classmates.

The other part that bugged me is the daughter is around the age of 4th grade, or certianly upper elementary. It's a little unrealistic that she would believe her mom would be at the end of the rainbow when they took the class field trip. Maybe if this were 1st grade, it would be understandable, but the daughter struck me as a mature young lady, someone who would know my mom passed away and isn't coming back.

While David and Jodie had passable chemistry (not the best, not the worst) - the romance plot was just silly. The most embarrassing plot was when David's character Jack and his daughter went over the hedge in the park and got caught by the security guard- cringe!!!

My mom died in 1996 and she used to sing Somewhere Over the Rainbow and play it on the piano. I had tears rolling down my face! I also loved the leads playfulness towards each other and her family's love stories as well! A keeper!!