Kieran McCabe
If you're paying attention, it won't take you very long to spot that this movie is a TV remake of Shop Around The Corner by way of You've Got Mail. What they've essentially done is taken the story beats of the earlier versions of the story and inserted them into their boilerplate Hallmark template. In fact, you might wonder if the "big city outsider sets out to close smaller business but instead finds love" formula, used by do many Hallmark movies, was itself lifted from You've Got Mail.Still, I enjoyed it. Lacey Chabert is as squeakily adorable as ever. Worth a watch.
phd_travel
The formula is slightly familiar but the dialog is above average with some spontaneous sounding banter and humor. A restaurant manager returns to her family winery when her father considers selling the business. The man who is sent to seal the deal is the romantic interest. Lacey Chabert is better here than in previous movies. She sometimes speaks too fast but here she seems to have varied her speech patterns a bit. Andrew Walker is the deal maker who ends up of course falling in love with her.This one is better than the other winery based romances with Rachel Leigh Cook.
Jack Vasen
I'm sure it can't be plagiarism, or whatever the cinematic equivalent is, but the last line at least is stolen in spirit if not verbatim. You can watch to the end to see what that is. And the whole plot line was so close in structure to another famous movie.So many things were forced. The whole exchanging notes thing had holes in it. Why would someone paying rent do repairs for someone he'd never met her. Maybe a couple minor ones the first day since he was bored. And neither of them could figure out who the other might be. Why did the both assume what the other's gender was? Chloe's seeking advice about "a jerk" should have set off bells for Seth. On the other side, surely Chloe had to consider the thought spoken by either her or Leanne that it might be Seth. Chloe went to the cabin at different times of day and yet somehow never ran in to him?Dad, are you really going to talk selling the winery without telling your daughter first? And then do it without asking her opinion? You never considered how she might fit? Do you not know each other at all? Do you not talk? Apparently not, but that doesn't sound too smart.Seth really did act like Chloe expected. So how would she ever trust him? She warned herself against a charmer. Is she really going to give in to him? And how could he deny it, especially to himself? Clearly it really was his job to do exactly what she didn't want to happen. And was Dad so naïve after she warned him?Was there chemistry between Chabert and Walker? To me, there could have been, but it wasn't there yet. Unfortunately that is the problem with this type of movie - true love happens so fast. I'm a fan of Chabert and Hallmark. She does have a charming and romantic side. If you watched the premiere on Hallmark, there was a very nice interview of Chabert telling a story about her husband proposing. That story and how she tells it, so fits her Hallmark image, and this character. So I enjoyed watching her in this movie. But Walker was too much of a frat boy corporate raider. He didn't shed that until too late. The scenes where he did nice things, like the repairs, were almost like it was a different person.This is a pretty typical Hallmark Valentine movie. Many people won't have a hard time laying aside reality and will enjoy this. For me, there were too many holes, especially Seth's character.
