Hallmark

Review: Hallmark’s “Over the Moon in Love”

by Jaynee

FINALLY we had a new movie on a Saturday night!  I’m sad they decided to shorten the Fall Harvest movies this year.  It is my understanding they moved a couple of the movies over to their Hallmark app in order to entice viewers to sign up in order to watch them.  In any event, “Over the Moon in Love” aired October 5, 2019 on the Hallmark Channel.  I’m not sure how this movie related to the autumnal months, but I guess they had to stick it somewhere.  This movie starred Jessica Lowndes and Wes Brown, two Hallmark regulars with large fan followings.  I believe this film takes place in San Francisco (I recall a shot of Coit Tower at some point) but was primarily filmed in Lowndes’ hometown of Vancouver, Canada (naturally) as well as other parts of British Columbia.

In a nutshell

This movie was clearly an homage to Cyrano de Bergerac, and I’ll admit I had my doubts when I saw who wrote the screenplay (Lowndes herself) AND the fact that she also wrote songs for the movies.  However, my fears were allayed because I ended up really liking the movie in the end.

Plot

Brooklyn (Lowndes) has fulfilled her dream to open a matchmaking service called “Over the Moon in Love.” She is focused on landing the cover of a lifestyle magazine when Stephanie, the magazine’s writer,” see Devin, Brooklyn’s best friend from high school and asks Brooklyn to set up her with him.  Against her better judgment, Brooklyn matches Stephanie with Devin, but they have nothing in common. Determined to continue with her 100% success rate, Brooklyn begins feeding lines to Stephanie that are guaranteed to capture Devin’s heart.  However, Brooklyn realizes too late that she has feelings for him.

Actors

I’ve said before that I’m not a huge Jessica Lowndes fan.  But Hallmark must love her since they not only let her star in their movies, but this time around she wrote the screenplay and songs in addition to starring in it.  Okay, Hallmark.  Wes Brown is a staple at this point.  He pretty much should be considered a Hallstar at this point because he’s been in so many Hallmark movies.

As for the six degrees of Kris Polaha, Jessica Lowndes is three degrees away.  She starred in “The Haunting of Molly Hartley” in 2008 with Josh Stewart who had previously co-starred with Joaquim de Almeida in 2007’s “The Death and Life of Bobby Z.”  de Almeida went on to share the screen with Polaha in 2014’s “Atlas Shrugged Part III.”

Chemistry

Did these two have chemistry together?  I think they did.  While it wasn’t super amazing chemistry, they clicked on screen and I totally believed that they were friends from high school.  And here’s where I make the note that I think Jessica Lowndes occasionally does herself a disservice with her makeup.  While I think a lot of the makeup in Hallmark movies is over the top, I think Lowndes too often wears so much that she almost looks like a drag queen instead of a beautiful, BEAUTIFUL woman.  She’s drop dead gorgeous.  What I appreciated in “Over the Moon” was the scene at the beginning of the movie when she was in high school.  She wore very minimal makeup, and it was very natural and she looked fabulous.  By the end of the movie, though, at the wedding, she was back to having really heavy eye makeup to the point where all you saw was two generally dark areas on her face instead of being able to see her eyes.  Tone down the makeup, Hallmark! Stop making your gorgeous leading ladies look horrifically overdone!  This is not “Dynasty” in the 1980s!

Feelgoods

I have to admit I did not take notes during this movie.  My notebook was in the other room and when I turned on the movie at midnight last night I was too lazy to go grab it to take notes.  Did I have feelgoods?  I don’t recall having any in particular.

Tropes

This is another category for which I should have had my notebook.  I don’t recall any over the top tropes.  Comment below and let me know what I missed!

Did I Hear/See That Right?

This is the first movie in a long time that I didn’t nitpick as I watched it.  I just enjoyed it for what it was: a fluffy Hallmark movie.  Were there things I could nitpick?  Oh absolutely.  A matchmaking service with a 100% success rate based on seeing stars in people’s eyes?  Sure.  Okay.  A good looking, well adjusted guy still holding a torch for his high school crush from 12 years prior?  Mm hmm.  Sure.  The whole Cyrano de Bergerac thing?  *lol*  Not bloody likely.  But the thing is – since I didn’t go into the movie with a pen and paper in hand to take notes, even though the general plot of the movie is absolutely absurd, I still liked it.

Re-watchability

Yes, I’ll be watching this one again.  In fact, when I finished watching it last night I didn’t delete off my Tivo just in case I decide to re-watch it later this week.

The Ranking

So where does it fit in the rankings? It almost cracked the top 10 for the year!

  1. Winter Love Story (air date: January 19) – 685 pts – weighted score: 115.8 (81.2%)
  2. Love to the Rescue (air date: March 23) – 679 pts – weighted score: 115.4 (80.9%)
  3. Mystery 101 (air date: January 27 (HMM)) – 454 pts – weighted score: 94.2 (80.5%)
  4. Love on the Menu (air date: February 23) – 642 pts – weighted score: 113.8 (79.9%)
  5. Bottled With Love (air date: April 13) – 649 pts – weighted score: 112.2 (78.7%)
  6. Love Takes Flight (air date: April 27) – 670 pts – weighted score: 111.0 (77.9%)
  7. Love, Romance & Chocolate (air date: February 16) – 627 pts – weighted score: 110.2 (77.3%)
  8. The Last Bridesmaid (air date: June 22) – 643 pts – weighted score: 109.2 (76.6%)
  9. Paris, Wine & Romance (air date: May 4) – 638 pts – weighted score: 108.3 (76.0%)
  10. My Boyfriend’s Back: Wedding March 5 (air date: June 8) – 635 pts – weighted score: 108.0 (75.8%)
  11. Over the Moon in Love (air date: Oct 5) – 613 pts – weighted score: 106.3 (74.6%)
  12. Flip That Romance (air date: March 16) – 597 pts – weighted score: 105.8 (74.2%)
  13. My One and Only (air date: Aug 31) – 597 pts – weighted score: 105.6 (74.1%)
  14. Mystery 101: Playing Dead (air date: June 23 (HMM)) – 425 pts – weighted score: 86.5 (73.9%)
  15. A Summer Romance (air date: Aug 17) – 577 pts – weighted score: 103.7 (72.7%)
  16. True Love Blooms (air date: April 6) – 598 pts – weighted score: 103.1 (72.3%)
  17. Forever in My Heart (air date: Sept 14) – 560 pts – weighted score: 102.4 (71.8%)
  18. The Story of Us (air date: February 9) – 605 pts – weighted score: 101.3 (71.1%)
  19. A Brush with Love (air date: March 30) – 563 pts – weighted score: 97.7 (68.6%)
  20. Ruby Herring: Silent Witness (air date: January 20 (HMM)) – 357 pts – weighted score: 79.5 (67.9%)
  21. Love, Unleashed (air date: July 6, 2019) – 559 pts – weighted score: 96.2 (67.5%)
  22. Love Under the Rainbow (air date: March 9) – 581 pts – weighted score: 96.0 (67.4%)
  23. One Winter Proposal (air date: January 12) – 535 pts – weighted score: 95.8 (67.2%)
  24. Just Add Romance (air date: March 2) – 548 pts – weighted score: 95.6 (67.1%)
  25. From Friend to Fiance (air date: May 25) – 555 pts – weighted score: 94.8% (66.5%)
  26. Christmas Camp (air date: July 11) – 530 pts – weighted score: 93.9 (65.9%)
  27. Love and Sunshine (air date: Aug 3) – 504 pts – weighted score: 91.7 (64.3%)
  28. Crossword Mysteries: A Puzzle to Die For (air date: March 10 (HMM) – 354 pts – weighted score: 74.1 (63.3%)
  29. Sister of the Bride (air date: June 29) – 516 pts – weighted score: 89.8 (63.0%)
  30. Valentine in the Vineyard (air date: February 2) – 503 pts – weighted score: 89.5 (62.8%)
  31. Love, Take Two (air date: June 15) – 507 pts – weighted score: 87.8 (61.6%)
  32. All Summer Long (air date: Aug 24) – 512 pts – weighted score: 87.7 (61.5%)
  33. Snowcoming (air date: January 26) – 485 pts – weighted score: 87.3 (61.2%)
  34. The Winter Castle (air date: January 5) – 475 pts – weighted score: 85.9 (60.2%)
  35. Sailing Into Love (air date: May 18) – 455 pts – weighted score: 78.0 (54.7%)
  36. Rome in Love (air date: July 27) – 436 pts – weighted score: 76.7 (53.8%)
  37. A Taste of Summer (air date: Aug 10) – 403 pts – weighted score: 70.9 (49.7%)
  38. A Winter Princess (air date: January 18) – 380 pts – weighted score: 70.5 (49.5%)
  39. A Feeling of Home (air date: May 11) – 386 pts – weighted score: 69.7% (48.9%)
  40. Love in the Sun (air date: June 1) – 361 pts – weighted score: 62.5 (43.8%)

To see where this movie lands in my overall rankings of Hallmark movies, visit my Hallmark Movie Rankings page!

What did you think of “Over the Moon in Love”?  Comment below and let me know!

Gotta Have Some Hodge Podge!

Impromptu Car Shopping