Betty's Bad Luck in Love

7.7 stars. The film begins on two middle schooler best friends named Betty and Mya eating lunch. Betty has a crush on an athletic boy and in her own shy way asks him out. Miraculously, he agrees (with a little help from her offering him cookies). Another girl who has a crush on the same boy places a hex on her swearing that disaster will befall her and every future boyfriend. We jump forward 20 years, Betty has a successful career as a "number cruncher", or an actuarial analyst for a corporation. She calculates extremely important data for her CEO to make informed decisions on major acquisitions. Her best friend Mya is engaged. Betty and Mya still do everything together. Betty is still under the curse, so every relationship she's had, she feels has been doomed. She has ended them abruptly for fear of disaster happening to each guy. She finally meets the right man, his name is Alex. He has recently moved into her apartment building. She wishes for this relationship to succeed above all others, because he could be the one. How can she make this work under the shadow of the curse? There is a total dork at her office who has been hitting on her for a while. He's very similar to her in that he loves to solve equations and talk about probability and statistics and all that, but he's not her type. To the audience, he certainly is a full dweeb. He's short, wears a tie that's 6 inches too short and is out of style, he's very thin, and has a creepy mustache. Their interactions are somewhat humorous. Her mother calls often attempting to set up Betty on dates with men. She is concerned about Betty's continuing anxiety about this curse. Betty has grown tired of her mom's meddling, but they still have a good relationship. She tells her mom about Alex and so mom's interference ceases for the time being. Betty continues to fear that the curse will cause Alex's demise. It doesn't help that his job entails some dangerous situations, not to mention he enjoys rugby and camping. She is always citing him statistics about all the risky activities he enjoys, and after while her overprotectiveness becomes a problem. She becomes a bit too overprotective and this only serves to push him away. I enjoyed the film for its many entertaining qualities, whether it's because the dialogue is humorous and witty, or because I also like to analyze stuff and crunch numbers (probably the latter is more indicative). I do fathom why many people dislike the movie. She does seem neurotic, but it's fascinating nonetheless, and she's adorable, so I wear rose colored glasses for 'Betty's Bad Luck in Love'.

I really appreciate how Hallmark tries to come up with new and different variations of their successful romance formula. But this story (about a bad luck childhood curse) was just annoying. It reminded me of "Just My Luck" with Lindsay Lohan, and that's not a good thing. Laci J Mailey (from "Chesapeake Shores") and Marco Grazzini (from "Virgin River") are good looking and engaging leads. Grazzini had the easy aasignment of being smooth and charming and then understandably befuddled by Mailey's character. But Mailey was given the thankless task of being completely neurotic and unhinged throughout much of the movie "... because all the men in her life will have horrible things happen to them if they get too close." I just didn't like the premise. I kept hoping she'd realize the curse was nonsense. But, instead, poor Mailey is constantly forced to act like her character is having a series of panic attacks (in an elevator, at a rugby match, on a camping trip, at a fire, etc.). And they're played for laughs that weren't funny. I also wasn't amused by the MANY scenes involving Felix, the well meaning but socially inept and frankly intrusive office nerd. Fortunately, Mailey's character wasn't unkind, but the moviemakers clearly intended viewers to see him as an object of derision. I was also appalled at the multiple loud talking scenes during yoga classes. It was extremely disrespectful behavior that did not reflect well on the characters. Perhaps the biggest problem with this "love story" is the lack of focus on the love story itself. The lovers were kept apart from each other throughout because of Betty's fear that harm would come to Alex if they were together. Instead of watching these two spend time together and fall in love, we are constantly bombarded with Betty saying she can't be with him. Ugh. I'd like to see the two leads in a different and better movie.

I really appreciate how Hallmark tries to come up with new and different variations of their successful romance formula. But this story (about a bad luck childhood curse) was just annoying. It reminded me of "Just My Luck" with Lindsay Lohan, and that's not a good thing. Laci J Mailey (from "Chesapeake Shores") and Marco Grazzini (from "Virgin River") are good looking and engaging leads. Grazzini had the easy aasignment of being smooth and charming and then understandably befuddled by Mailey's character. But Mailey was given the thankless task of being completely neurotic and unhinged throughout much of the movie "... because all the men in her life will have horrible things happen to them if they get too close." I just didn't like the premise. I kept hoping she'd realize the curse was nonsense. But, instead, poor Mailey is constantly forced to act like her character is having a series of panic attacks (in an elevator, at a rugby match, on a camping trip, at a fire, etc.). And they're played for laughs that weren't funny. I also wasn't amused by the MANY scenes involving Felix, the well meaning but socially inept office nerd. Fortunately, Mailey's character wasn't unkind, but the moviemakers clearly intended viewers to see him as an object of derision. I was also appalled at the multiple loud talking scenes during yoga classes. It was extremely disrespectful behavior that did not reflect well on the characters. Perhaps the biggest problem with this "love story" is the lack of focus on the love story itself. The lovers were kept apart from each other throughout because of Betty's fear that harm would come to Alex if they were together. Instead of watching these two spend time together and fall in love, we are constantly. Bombarded with Betty saying she can't be with him. Ugh.

This was a cute romantic comedy mainly because of the two romantic leads and their great chemistry. Both Laci J Mailey and Marco Grazzini are young and attractive and even though the script wasn't perfect they made it work and I enjoyed seeing these two together. The story starts when Betty is in high school. Spurred by her friend Mya she gets up the courage to talk to her crush...only to have a curse put on her by another girl who liked him...fastforward to today when Betty actually crunches statistics for a living doing risk management. Every time she has gotten close to a boyfriend something has happened to him or she has called it off before it can. She has a new neighbor move in, a high risk taking traveling photographer...who doesn't seem daunted by what could happen to him. He even plays rugby! I loved the banter between our two leads and I have to say that the character of Alex was almost too perfect and I loved his apartment's aesthetic! I think most guys would have run from Betty, good thing she is beautiful.