“A Feeling of Home†aired on May 11, 2019 on the Hallmark Channel. It starred Jonna Walsh and Nathan Parsons. “A Feeling of Home” was not filmed in Texas at all, despite a major plot point being about her Texas heritage. Instead, it was filmed entirely in Vancouver and Fort Langley in Canada.
In a nutshell
I’m sad to report that about an hour in I contemplated not even finishing this movie. The past few Saturday night movies have been so good, and I had high hopes going into this one, but I was very disappointed by it. I don’t blame the actors at all – I blame a poorly written script.
Plot
Abby (Walsh) is the host of a web series set in New England, and hopes to launch her own line of home products with an interested investor who values her New England roots. But Abby actually hails from Texas, and is unexpectedly called home to help out her her dad on the family ranch. While reconnecting with her high school boyfriend Ryan (who is now the ranch manager) (Parsons), Abby must decide if she is meant to be in New England, or if Texas – and Ryan – are calling her home.
Actors
The actors were fine. It was fun seeing 80’s star Robby Benson on TV again, and Jonna Walsh and Nathan Parsons were just fine. But that’s the problem – they were FINE, but nothing stood out to me. My main takeaway was that Parsons could easily play Kris Polaha’s younger brother in a Christmas movie (I hope Hallmark feels the same way).
Chemistry
No chemistry at all, but that’s not the fault of the actors at all. It was the writing. In fact, at the one hour mark (around the time I debated turning off the movie entirely), I wrote in my notes, “when will the spark come into this movie?” That spark never happened, in my opinion.
Jonna Walsh is three degrees of separation from Kris Polaha. She was in “Couples Retreat” with Vince Vaughn, who co-starred with Reese Witherspoon in “Four Christmases.” Witherspoon was then in “Devil’s Knot” with Polaha.
Feelgoods
My feelgood category remained empty with this movie. There was not a single “awwww…” moment in this movie for me.
Tropes
There were a few tropes. First, with Robby Benson portraying Abby’s dad, he represents “80s star” on our trope board game. Next up, we have a big city girl returning to her home town and running into her old boyfriend. There was a promotion on the line with Abby hoping to snag an investor to get her web series expansion.
Did I Hear/See That Right?
So many issues with this movie. First up – we’ve replaced bad green screen with bad Photoshop this time around. The picture of Abby and Ryan in the scrapbook? Awful.
The New England girl suddenly cannot identify what is a bagel and what is not, and eats chicken feed? Seriously?
I got annoyed with Abby constantly telling her dad “I can do it!” when something needed doing on the ranch, only to have her turn to Ryan and say, “I don’t know how to do it,” once her father walked away. It happened multiple times during the first hour of the movie.
Lastly, when she was approved for the Texas show and they arrived to “film the pilot” I guess they did it as Facebook or YouTube Live because Ryan was able to watch it in real-time and then drive over to the ranch? If I was an investor though, I’d prefer NOT to announce a complete left-turn in programming without serious forethought and planning.
I noticed that three men wrote the screenplay for this movie, and it shows. Too many cooks in the kitchen, and not enough female input.
Re-watchability
I will not be watching this movie again when it re-airs, and I’m not that surprised that this is my lowest ranked movie of 2019. And by the way, can we talk about the Hallmark Channel art for this movie? Below is a picture from their website. That dude doesn’t look ANYWHERE CLOSE to the dude that was in the movie. It’s not even the same guy, I don’t think.
The Ranking
So where does it fit in the rankings? Sadly, last place for now (but interestingly, not last place in my all time rankings)!
- Winter Love Story (air date: January 19) – 685 pts – weighted score: 115.8 (81.2%)
- Love to the Rescue (air date: March 23) – 679 points – weighted score: 115.4 (80.9%)
- Mystery 101 (air date: January 27 (HMM)) – 454 pts – weighted score: 94.2 (80.5%)
- Love on the Menu (air date: February 23) – 642 pts – weighted score: 113.8 (79.9%)
- Bottled With Love (air date: April 13) – 649 pts – weighted score: 112.2 (78.7%)
- Love Takes Flight (air date: April 27) – 670 points – weighted score: 111.0 (77.9%)
- Love, Romance & Chocolate (air date: February 16) – 627 pts – weighted score: 110.2 (77.3%)
- Paris, Wine & Romance (air date: May 4) – 638 points – weighted score: 108.3 (76.0%)
- Flip That Romance (air date: March 16) – 597 points – weighted score: 105.8 (74.2%)
- True Love Blooms (air date: April 6) – 598 points – weighted score: 103.1 (72.3%)
- The Story of Us (air date: February 9) – 605 pts – weighted score: 101.3 (71.1%)
- A Brush with Love (air date: March 30) – 563 points – weighted score: 97.7 (68.6%)
- Ruby Herring: Silent Witness (air date: January 20 (HMM)) – 357 pts – weighted score: 79.5 (67.9%)
- Love Under the Rainbow (air date: March 9) – 581 pts – weighted score: 96.0 (67.4%)
- One Winter Proposal (air date: January 12) – 535 pts – weighted score: 95.8 (67.2%)
- Just Add Romance (air date: March 2) – 548 points – weighted score: 95.6 (67.1%)
- Valentine in the Vineyard (air date: February 2) – 503 pts – weighted score: 89.5 (62.8%)
- Snowcoming (air date: January 26) – 485 pts – weighted score: 87.3 (61.2%)
- The Winter Castle (air date: January 5) – 475 pts – weighted score: 85.9 (60.2%)
- A Winter Princess (air date: January 18) – 380 pts – weighted score: 70.5 (49.5%)
- A Feeling of Home (air date: May 11) – 386 points – weighted score: 69.7% (48.9%)
To see where this movie lands in my entire ranking of Hallmark movies, visit my Hallmark Movie Rankings page!
What did you think of “A Feeling of Home”?
