Welcome to Valentine

I'll gladly write a positive review amoung the sea of negative ratings. I enjoyed "Welcome to Valentine"! The leads (Katherine and Markian) were refreshingly natural in their performances. In Hallmark films, the actors/actresses can be noticably stiff in their body language, but I didn't sense that with Katherine and Markian. Also, the little boy who played Mickie accurately resembled the nature of a real child in all their energy and humour. His scenes were extremely sweet and funny. Overall, the whole cast had a natural chemistry with each other. When Olivia enters her sister's home by surprise, the way she embraces Mickie and Vanessa seemed genuine and unfiltered, rather than scripted and cookie cutter. On the other hand, the storyline could have been more focused. I would loved to have SEEN the actual roadtrip. The travel to Valentine could have been used to develop Olivia and George's relationship, since roadtrips confine people to a single space which forces them to interact (for good or for bad). The plot point that bothered me the most was the repair mistake made by Vanessa's husband. I found this to be unbelievable. Why would a well seasoned mechanic mix up the cables? The writers could have made the car break down any other way. All in all, despite it's imperfections,"Welcome to Valentine" is a cheery and sweet Hallmark film that I enjoyed watching.

6.0 stars. He calls the little boy a "they"? I think I heard that correctly. So I realized at that moment that whatever else they want you to hear, or think, the agenda is for us all to slowly ease our way into woke. Ok, so I guess I'll talk about the film now. I always rate a film primarily on entertainment value, quality of lead actors, chemistry, dialogue, story, cinematography, the usual. "Welcome to Valentine" has zero chemistry between the leads. I'm sorry, the 15 seconds of a "moment", or the last 30 seconds of the film are insufficient to meet the definition. This story is so overdone and boring. The dramatic part about their careers is so understated, it's practically non-existent. Will he measure up to the man his father wants him to be to run the company? Frankly, I don't care. Will she someday attain her dream of being the true artist that everyone knows she can? Actually, no she won't. Her art is pedestrian and amateurish. I've seen teenagers with a flare for that sort of art doing similar paintings with more skill. Waste of time this movie.

I'm halfway through the movie, but the leads are still bickering with each other. I really want Hallmark movie writers to stop making the leads behave in such an antagonistic way. It doesn't add any drama to the plot since we know how these movies all end. It just makes it hard to buy into the couple and makes several scenes unenjoyable to watch. It was also tough to cheer for Olivia since she was lazy producing any art, incompetent enough at her other job to get fired, mooching off her friend by sleeping on her couch for months, moving into her sister's place for free, and volunteering to work on a parade instead of actually getting (and keeping) a job to pay her own way through life. What a catch!

In the commercials, Welcome to Valentine looks like a road trip movie, which morphs into a "let's put on a show" movie. And that's all true. But this movie seems to want to be a lot of different things. The hero is poised to take over the family business, while the heroine wants her artistic career to begin with the help of an influential gallery owner. Within the first ten minutes, the hero causes the heroine to spill food on that gallery owner. She loses her cater-waiter job and her apartment. (Calgon, take me away!) Oh, if only she had a way to get back to Nebraska. The hero has a car, and we're off. With all these well-worn tropes, a lot of the plot (and the dialogue) is going to be predictable. Follow your heart. The show must go on. I liked it. The leads were attractive and they had good chemistry together. Is this the best movie ever? Of course not. But it's cute and sweet and exactly what I expected. I don't think that's a bad thing.