Romancing the Birthday Girl

If you look at my profile, I have rated over 2000 shows and movies and reviewed over 1100. Many of them are Hallmark type movies, many Christmas and many like this. At least half between the two, probably far more. I've watched a lot of the same old same old and I do get tired of them sometimes.

This movie was not the same old same old. Sure, scavenger hunt type challenge has been done, but it's not the most common. Sure, the widower and the daughter is a common premise. Sure, many of the heroines are neurotic and/or extreme list makers.

I prefer to think of Taylor as Quirky. I love quirky. Emilee Ullerup does a great job with this character even though there might have been other ways she could have done it. I felt Taylor's vulnerability. I felt her fear. I felt her embarrassment. And I loved her courage.

I can't say there were any LOL moments, but I find it difficult not to find humor in this whole thing. And I was never sure what was going to happen next. The ending was predictable in broad strokes, but I thought getting there was interesting. The ending might have pushed my Sappy meter a tad too much, but it fits the rest of the movie.

Ullerup and Clayton James had definite chemistry. Daphne Hoskins as Chloe was a factor, but not as much as in some widower and daughter movies.

Oh, and at least one green screen moment stood out like a really sore thumb, but some of that might have been the unusual colors.

Side note: I kept thinking that the situation with Sara was very much like another Ullerup movie, Winter Castle written by the same person.

This movie rises above the usual Hallmark Saturday night, not to mention the clones. And it's clean.