It doesn't seem like that long ago Hallmark had Sweet Carolina. From previews and as this movie started, I was thinking total ripoff (not to mention "Life As We Know It"), but this movie started to deviate from those others fairly quickly. There were several close similarities, but some of the dynamics were different. One was the boyfriend who was a total jerk. I'm surprised Margaret didn't go ballistic on him because he deserved it. The other was the family pressure was much lower key in this movie. As a result, this movie was different enough to be enjoyable on it's own.
I wasn't familiar with Danielle C. Ryan. After she did some guitar playing and singing, I was thinking that this is another singer trying to be an actor. Her voice sounded decent especially for a country vibe. So I looked her up and at least on this website, there is no indication of that. In fact, her acting resume is fairly well filled out for being under 30. I thought her performance was stiff for the first half of the movie. By the end, however, I was beginning to like her.. Unfortunately, I didn't see a lot of chemistry with Myko Olivier. I think that's explained by the fact that this movie was about a lot more than a romance between a man and a woman. You might say it was a romance between a woman and the two kids she's caring for. There was chemistry there.
As for Skyler Elyse Philpot and Luke Loveless, they did a nice job. I especially liked Skyler.
Some of the story didn't feel right. Most glaring was that any grief was really shortchanged. There was maybe one scene with "I want mommy" and then everyone moved on until that emotion was needed late in the movie.
