Movie: The Engagement Plot
Starring: Rachel Boston, Trevor Donovan
Network: UPtv, SC Heart & Home
Synopsis: After getting her heart broken on The Price of Love, a wildly popular dating reality show that matches contestants with a young, financially successful bachelor, teacher Hanna Knight has returned to her small-town Colorado life and moved on to better things.
⚠🛑 Disclaimer: This review may contain movie spoilers
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐1/2
Review:
So the day after her Hallmark premiere of "Dating the Delaneys", Rachel Boston starred in the UPtv premiere "The Engagement Plot." In this movie Rachel plays a contestant on a reality TV show who falls in love but gets dumped by the bachelor on national TV. Hanna (Boston) then returns to her life in Colorado as a school teacher to try and get over her heartbreak. Little does she know but her love interest Will, played by Donovan, gets dumped by the other contestant and also has come into some financial hardships with his company because of his treatment of Hannah. You see Hannah has a social media following...Hannah's Angels...and they are dragging his business down. The board decides it's best for Will to "reconcile" with Hannah and try and save the company. So Will proposes the engagement plot. A fake engagement to boost his company presence. Hannah goes along with it to try and save her father's business. Little do they know that feelings will surface again between the two.
So this sounds a bit chaotic but you know what? I kind of liked it. It was silly for sure but it was unique and offered something different. Yes the acting was over the top at the beginning but it actually worked as I felt like I was watching a true reality show. The movie plot kind of reminded me of a season on the Bachelor where the guy chose another woman, proposed to her and then realized he made a mistake and went back and proposed and married the other girl that he should have proposed to in the first place. I'm not sure why I know this as I don't even watch the Bachelor, but when I was still working I may as well have watched as people talked about it every week so I know what went on.
The acting and chemistry of Trevor Donovan and Rachel Boston was particularly good. I've made it clear in the past that I'm not a huge Trevor Donovan fan but I didn't mind him in this role. Perhaps because this role suited him a little more. In general I find him to be a little stiff on screen and that worked for this character. Boston was her usual bubbly, giggly self but that also worked. I enjoyed the chemistry between the two. There was an attraction right from the beginning with their characters and they grew to know each other more throughout the show. You could see that Will wanted to choose her and ultimately didn't as he was misled by a producer. I think this is why I didn't mind him coming back to her albeit I would have liked him to be up front with her and tell her that he made a mistake instead of coming up with the engagement plot scheme and making it seem like he didn't care as much for her as he so obviously did while on the show.
The supporting cast was good. I really enjoyed Hanna's best friend Carly played by Jacklyn Collier. I don't think I've seen Collier in any other movies but in this one she was quirky and just alot of fun. You couldn't help by smile when she was on camera.
You couldn't help but feel for Hannah when she was in the jewelry store and found her perfect ring. A ring that reminded her of her mother's. A ring that Will was going to buy only to have the dream shattered as the producer didn't like that ring and already had one planned. The disappointment and tension could be felt. It was sad but I also hoped that the ring would come back into play later in the movie. Sure enough Will went back and got her the ring when he came back for her in the end. The private proposal at the end was just lovely. After spending most of the "relationship" in front of cameras, they finally had a chance to just be themselves and share a special moment just the two of them. This was one of my favourite scenes in the movie just because it was something between just them.
Overall I enjoyed this movie as it was different from the regular cookie cutter mold of Hallmark, GAC, and/or UPtv movies. It had good chemistry between the leads and held my attention. I would watch this again.
#UPtv #SCHeartAndHome #RachelBoston #TrevorDonovan #romancemoviefanatic #romancemoviefanaticreview #TheEngagementPlot