Date: January 1, 2022
Movie: Where Your Heart Belongs
Network: Hallmark
Starring: Jen Lilley, Christopher Russell, Jill Morrison, Nelson Wong
Synopsis: Mackenzie Sullivan, a struggling marketing executive in New York City returns home to her maple farm to help her best friend plan her wedding. She learns the hard way that love and support from family and friends means more than she'd ever imagined.
Rating: ⭐⭐3/4
⚠🛑 Disclaimer: This review may contain movie spoilers
Review:
Happy New Year everyone! With the ringing in of 2022 Hallmark is gifting us with weekly "New Year, New Movies" on their channel. January 1 gave us a new Jen Lilley and Christopher Russell movie - Where Your Heart Belongs. So I was really looking forward to this new movie as I am a huge fan of both Christopher Russell and Jen Lilley. I enjoyed them in their other movie Love Unleashed and was excited to see what they had in store for us this time. Well...it really didn't do as much as I was hoping for. It was just a mediocre movie. It was worth the watch but I definitely wouldn't watch it again.
Mack (Lilley) is a marketing executive who is struggling to keep clients as she isn't up-to-date with marketing in the digital world. Her best friend Olivia (Morrison) announces that she and her fiance have decided to get married in 2 weeks in their hometown and asks Mack to help. Mack agrees and heads home to her father, her old stomping ground and to her family's struggling maple syrup farm. Olivia hasn't been home since her mom died 10 years ago and finds out that an old friend Dylan (Russell) is now helping her dad and the farm. Dylan just happens to be best friends with the groom and Mack and Dylan find themselves thrown together to do some wedding planning. What follows is your typical Hallmark story line. City girl goes home and stumbles across an old beau. They don't like each other, grow to like each other, city girl blows an "issue" way out of proportion, reconciles with old flame and decides to leave city life for her new beau.
So first let me start off by saying that there were three things in this movie that kept me watching. The first two were Jill Morrison and Christopher Russell. Jill Morrison played Olivia, the bride and was wonderful. I enjoyed every minute she was on screen. She was lovable, funny, and I just wanted her as my best friend. I really liked her in this role. Her scenes when trying on the couture wedding dresses was brilliant. And Christopher Russell...well he could pull weeds and I would watch him. He was charming, good looking, devoted and a solid lead. Yes he was a bit of a dud at times but I overlooked that as he was just fun to watch.
The third appeal of the movie was the chemistry between Lilley and Russell was good. They had some really sweet moments that were cute, quick, and lovable. I thought they were really cute during the towel flicking sequence and the dance number at the end was quite nice. Lilley and Russell work well together and they achieved that again with this movie albeit the story line and writing of the movie was a lot weaker then their other movie. They still had chemistry and were enjoyable to watch.
Let's move on to the one thing that I didn't like in this movie....Jen Lilley's character and at time even her! I hate saying this as I am usually a Jen Lilley fan but not in this movie. From the beginning of this movie Mack was so involved in her business and herself, she came across as one of the most selfish people who wouldn't make a great friend. Not sure why Olivia even gave her the time of day. I mean Olivia had to text her when she was sitting at the same table as her to gain any sort of attention and she still asked her to help with the wedding. Seriously? And the way Mack just steamrolled Olivia's wedding plans. The girl wanted simple and charming like she was. Instead Mack just comes in and gives over the top and awful. Honestly if my maid of honour would have rolled in those dresses and said I looked amazing in something I clearly didn't, she wouldn't be my maid of honour for long. The funny thing is though, then she would be the best maid of honour and throw her a very thoughtful bridal shower. She was all over the place and her friend was way to understanding and lenient. Not to mention Mack's hot and cold with Dylan. What was that about? When she went to the bank and blew everything way out of proportion instead of just asking him to explain, you just wanted Dylan to run the other way. Don't think I would have been so forgiving like he was at the wedding after she treated him like garbage. Jen Lilley was endearing at times and then other times seemed apathetic. Kind of like she didn't know what she was doing or where she was.
Anyway a lukewarm start to Hallmark 2022 movies. Hopefully things will look up from here.