Hallmark

Review: Hallmark’s “Love and Sunshine”

by Jaynee

“Love and Sunshine” aired August 3, 2019 on the Hallmark Channel.  The movie starred a couple of Hallstars in what I believe is their first pairing together: Danica McKellar and Mark Deklin.  It was filmed primarily in Vancouver, Canada, with side visits to Victoria as well as an area called Beaver Lake.

In a nutshell

You guys, I just didn’t like this one.  You’d think with two amazing Hallmark actors like McKellar and Deklin, and a super-cute puppy, that this movie would be a home run.  But it just wasn’t.  It was a bunt with a tag out at home plate.

Plot

Florist Ally (McKellar) fosters a retired military dog, Sunshine, while she recovers from a recent broken engagement. When Sunshine’s military partner, Jake (Deklin) returns back to the states after a lengthy tour of duty, a friendship forms, and sparks fly, when he meets with Ally to claim his dog.

Actors

If ever there were a pair of Hallstars, Danica McKellar and Mark Deklin would surely be nominated for Most Valuable.  They are both stellar in this particular milieu, and pairing them together seems long overdue (this despite the fact this was only Deklin’s third Hallmark movie (“Switched for Christmas” and “Christmas in Evergreen: Letters for Santa” being the other two)).  McKellar at this point is one of the Princesses of Hallmark (the queen being Candace Cameron Bure, and the other princess being Lacey Chabert).

As for the six degrees of Kris Polaha, I opted to go with the movie’s 80s/90s TV star: Bess Armstrong.  Here she plays Jake’s mom, but back in the day she was the mom on “My So-Called Life” opposite Claire Danes.  GREAT show if you haven’t seen it.  Armstrong was LOVELY in “Love and Sunshine” as the mom to a military man.  She was kind, encouraging, and yet completely aware that her son’s experiences in the military may affect his outlook on relationships.  Bess Armstrong is only two degrees away from Kris Polaha.  She starred in a tv-movie called “Mixed Blessings” in 1995 with Bruce Greenwood, who went on to co-star with Polaha in 2013’s “Devil’s Knot.”

Chemistry

I thought this film showed a nice balance of two people meeting, sharing something in common (Sunshine the dog), realizing that they needed friendship and then over the course of time discovering it could develop into something more.  It wasn’t rushed, it wasn’t forced.  It was just a nice buildup of their connection over the course of the first hour-plus of the movie.  As for true romantic chemistry – well, we’ll talk about that in a bit.

Feelgoods

I’m always a sucker for a cute dog, and Sunshine the Golden Retriever fit that bill!  Such a sweet pup.  Add in the military homecoming aspect, and I’m all in.

Tropes

As a non-Christmas movie, there were only a couple.  First, I’m beginning to resent those empty coffee cups.  Especially when they appear more than once in a movie.  This weekend I rewatched “Memories of Christmas” from the 2018 Christmas Hallmark movies and practically CHEERED when they showed her actually pouring hot cocoa into a mug before taking a sip!  The other trope was having a 1980s/1990s TV star show up – Bess Armstrong in this case.  So great to have her back on my TV screen!

Did I Hear/See That Right?

Yep there were a few moments that made no sense.

At one point Jake comes to visit Ally at her house.  I recall it was an unexpected visit, so it’s not like she was planning to be out.  When she answered the door, she was wearing wedges.  Now, I don’t know about your house, but in my house we are shoe-free until we’re getting ready to go out.  And the moment we come home we take off our shoes and leave them by the door.  So to have her open the door and not only be in a cute sundress, but also wearing the equivalent of heels?  Nope.  Not gonna happen.  I don’t care how fancy you are.

But not only did she wear those wedge heels in one scene, it was pointed out to me by someone I know that she wore them in EVERY scene other than the ones where she’s out jogging with the dog.  Could Hallmark not get her another pair of shoes to wear during the shoot?  I’m not a big shoe collector, so I’m not one to talk, but I definitely have more than two pairs.  I have one black, one brown, one navy, flip flops and running shoes.  Ally apparently only has running shoes and wedges.

So let’s talk about the romantic moment that should have been.  It’s fourth of July.  Ally and Jake are clearly digging on each other.  The fireworks start, and he turns to look at her.  Y’all.  The look on his face was not that of a man in the heat of a romantic moment wanting to kiss his girl.  The look on his face was one of a stalker honing in on his prey with creepy gleeful abandon.  I don’t blame Deklin so much as I blame the director for being content to do this scene in one take and move on without really looking at the footage.  Because that look he had on his face was SUPERCREEPY.

At some point Ally and her sister are sitting on the back patio blowing bubbles.  Why?

Lastly, I just feel the need to say this.  I’ve seen many, many Danica McKellar movies over the years.  And I don’t know if it’s her personal choice in her career, or Hallmark’s choice from a wholesome movie perspective, but she has yet to convince me that she can kiss ANYbody.   I don’t know if she’s playing the ingenue to such a point that her characters have never been kissed before, and therefore don’t know how, but my word, I cringe whenever she has to kiss her leading man.  Because I feel like I’m watching a 12 year old experience her first kiss.  Every single time, every leading man.  It’s frustrating because she has worked with some pretty remarkable men in her Hallmark movies.  Paul Greene. Rupert Penry-Jones. Mark Deklin. Brennan Elliott. Andrew Walker. Cameron Mathison. David Hayden-Jones. And that’s not even all of them.  Not a single good kiss in any of them.

Re-watchability

I have no plans to watch this one again, which is disappointing because while it had some really nice moments, they were not enough to sustain my interest enough to consider watching this more than once.

The Ranking

So where does it fit in the rankings?  Solidly in the lower half of the list.

  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. Flip That Romance (air date: March 16) – 597 pts – weighted score: 105.8 (74.2%)
  12. Mystery 101: Playing Dead (air date: June 23 (HMM)) – 425 pts – weighted score: 86.5 (73.9%)
  13. True Love Blooms (air date: April 6) – 598 pts – weighted score: 103.1 (72.3%)
  14. The Story of Us (air date: February 9) – 605 pts – weighted score: 101.3 (71.1%)
  15. A Brush with Love (air date: March 30) – 563 pts – weighted score: 97.7 (68.6%)
  16. Ruby Herring: Silent Witness (air date: January 20 (HMM)) – 357 pts – weighted score: 79.5 (67.9%)
  17. Love, Unleashed (air date: July 6, 2019) – 559 pts – weighted score: 96.2 (67.5%)
  18. Love Under the Rainbow (air date: March 9) – 581 pts – weighted score: 96.0 (67.4%)
  19. One Winter Proposal (air date: January 12) – 535 pts – weighted score: 95.8 (67.2%)
  20. Just Add Romance (air date: March 2) – 548 pts – weighted score: 95.6 (67.1%)
  21. From Friend to Fiance (air date: May 25) – 555 pts – weighted score: 94.8% (66.5%)
  22. Christmas Camp (air date: July 11) – 530 pts – weighted score: 93.9 (65.9%)
  23. Love and Sunshine (air date: Aug 3) – 504 pts – weighted score: 91.7 (64.3%)
  24. Crossword Mysteries: A Puzzle to Die For (air date: March 10 (HMM) – 354 pts – weighted score: 74.1 (63.3%)
  25. Sister of the Bride (air date: June 29) – 516 pts – weighted score: 89.8 (63.0%)
  26. Valentine in the Vineyard (air date: February 2) – 503 pts – weighted score: 89.5 (62.8%)
  27. Love, Take Two (air date: June 15) – 507 pts – weighted score: 87.8 (61.6%)
  28. Snowcoming (air date: January 26) – 485 pts – weighted score: 87.3 (61.2%)
  29. The Winter Castle (air date: January 5) – 475 pts – weighted score: 85.9 (60.2%)
  30. Sailing Into Love (air date: May 18) – 455 pts – weighted score: 78.0 (54.7%)
  31. Rome in Love (air date: July 27) – 436 pts – weighted score: 76.7 (53.8%)
  32. A Winter Princess (air date: January 18) – 380 pts – weighted score: 70.5 (49.5%)
  33. A Feeling of Home (air date: May 11) – 386 pts – weighted score: 69.7% (48.9%)
  34. 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 “Love and Sunshine”?  Comment below and let me know!

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