Learning to Love

This entry from Great American Family channel deals with prayers and how God answers. There is also a romance and a "nanny" story. This is basically the dad-hires-nanny premise even though Steph is hired as their teacher. She lives in the guest house and interacts with the kids past school hours, so tomAto, tomaato.

The usual nanny story gag of the kids trying to chase the nanny away has an interesting twist.

So what about faith. This is not Hallmark, so the values here are much different. I think this movie was intended to give an example of a faith and family based streaming service so they weren't shy about dealing with it.

Harry, the father, is mad at God because God didn't "answer" his prayer to save his wife, at least not how he wanted. There have been other movies dealing with this and I think a much better one in this category was actually on Hallmark, The Gift of Peace, last Christmas. I thought the way this movie dealt with the subject was clumsy. At times they seemed shy about talking about God yet the kids actually pray to Jesus, whose name is almost never heard in movies like this. One thing that was clumsy was that the kids prayed for what they selfishly wanted and it almost seemed like they got it, while their dad's long ago prayer was at least a little unselfish and that outcome didn't happen.

The acting was fair. Not bad, but it didn't always seem natural. I liked Ina Barrón. Her enthusiasm created a good impression as far as acting. There might have been some weak moments like her confrontation with Harry at the restaurant. Philip Boyd was horrible in that confrontation and he was stiff through most of the movie.

The kids, as is often the case, added fun to the movie. I think this aspect will also appeal to younger audiences.