User reviews

A good Hallmark movie tugs at your emotions and makes you feel good inside. This one tugged at your emotions alright, but it churned you up inside and left you angry and hurling things at your TV.

Amanda Schull and Brennan Elliott are two of my favorites, and they do their best to make this watchable, but in the end both of their characters come across as selfish and insensitive. The mom is an absolute self-absorbed monster, and the forced use of a Merry-Go-Round is head-scratching. At the end, when it would've made sense to use the Merry-Go-Round, they don't.

One of the worst of the year. Won't watch again. Would've been better off as a horror movie.

I really like the actors. The scenery is beautiful. There is an unpredictable twist in the story. The story has my attention notwithstanding my predisposition to want to make fun of Hallmark Romances because of their predictable tropes.

I just never see people express themselves in real life like they do in these movies. This is life, polished. It is refreshing to see people willing to affirm past friendship and to forgive willingly. Real life seldom unfolds this way as far as I know it.

With all that said, Marry Go Round is an engaging and enjoyable Hallmark Movie so long as you enjoy fantasy movies without wizards and dragons. Great eye candy. Enjoy it. Just don't expect it to reflect on real life. But that's why we watch these movies isn't it?

No great highs or lows or big surprises in the plot itself. The getting-married-but-not-divorced premise is not unusual, but it isn't used every week either. The reason for the original split is similar to a lot of teen break-up stories, but slightly different.

Amanda Schull and Brennan Elliot have a quiet chemistry which is appropriate for two leads who are in their 40's. Their time on screen together is good to watch. Zak Santiago does a nice job also. Santiago has a role which doesn't involve the extremes or silliness some of his characters have (or maybe just the one on Sign, Sealed, Delivered).

This story presents an impossible situation. Edward is cheated on, but Abby doesn't really cheat. Figure that out. The previous statement is not so much a technical statement as an emotional one. And the actors all do a good show showing all the feelings involved. That gives the movie slightly more depth than just saying no highs or lows.

The climax is cheesy. I often say I love sappy. There is a difference and to me this was cheesy.

Not sure why this movie is receiving such low ratings. It seems sometimes that those reviewing these movies expect big budget theatrical releases instead of made for TV movies. Most of us know what to expect going in. I really enjoyed this movie and have watched it twice now. It was well acted by the two leads and had a strong supporting cast. Hallmark should use Amanda Schull more than they do. She had a couple emotional scenes that were great. I liked the story and the new twist to the usual plot.

I watch Hallmark movies as a two hour escape from the messed up world we're in and this one fit the bill.

Abby is on the verge of moving to France and marrying her fiancé Edward. In the process of filing her paperwork for the legal marriage in France, she discovers that she is not technically divorced from her high school sweetheart who left her. The only way for her to resolve this in time for the wedding is to appear in court in her hometown before a judge and this means seeing Luke again.

Back home things do not go smoothly in front of the judge and Abby ends up having to stay over the weekend. The mom finally confesses a big secret that makes Abby think differently about her breakup with Luke. Is she making a mistake?

This film started a little awkwardly, but smoothed out with these two veteran Hallmark movie actors, Brennan Elliott and Amanda Schull. My favorite character was actually the step dad Leo! I loved Abby's dress at the dance...it was gorgeous.

Classic hallmark romance that romantics will enjoy. The final scene is beautiful and satisfying.

For a few minutes, I thought Hallmark might have actually made a movie that deviated from the very familiar "high school sweethearts reconnect and realize they still love each other" formula.

Abby, played by the perfectly cast Amanda Schull, has a fiancé who seems really nice. Typically, the audience is given an early clue as to how wrong the current boyfriend/fiancé is. But not here. In fact, not only is Edward great in their first scenes together, he's great and unbelievably understanding during a FaceTime call after he learns his fiancée is still married.

How cool would it be, I thought, if Hallmark turned the trope upside down? What if Abby went back home, met up with her first love, and realized "the past is the past"? And came back with a renewed commitment to Edward?

Nah. This is Hallmark after all.

Still, it was refreshing not to have the current boyfriend be unlikeable. And it was easy to empathize with Abby's legitimate frustration with Luke ("stop talking in riddles!").

Luke was played by Brennan Elliot, a solid Hallmark vet who pretty much always gets the girl. So, any seasoned Hallmark movie watching vet knew exactly how this movie would end. The only question was: would we buy into that ending as one that made sense? I had my doubts.

But the movie surprised me. The ending was earned.

And I was very impressed with how Abby was so well written by Robert Tate Miller and so well played by Amanda Schull. I also really liked a little scene that seemed like a clever homage and wink to the attorney roles that Schull has played in the past (Suits, Murder in the First).

Random observations:

I liked Leo, played by Bill Marchant ("anger fades quickly, but love is forever").

Why wasn't the amusement park open more often? And how could they just wander through it when it was closed? No gates? No security?

Why didn't successful Senior Vice President Abby hire a lawyer?

I'm a lawyer in California, but it seems unlikely in the extreme that an Oregon judge would prepare, fill out, and give Abby and Luke the documents that they needed to get divorced. That's something they or their attorneys are supposed to do. Plus, you can't just show up in court a day or two after realizing you're still married and get divorced. That's just not how it works, and it reminded me of a nearly identical plot, with an even more ridiculous approach to the "law" (Autumn Dreams).

I liked the actor who played the Judge (Everick Golding). And, FYI, judges can void their own judgments if requested to do so by both parties.

But even the best Hallmark movies have a few flaws.

Another Hallmark romance based on a ridiculous misunderstanding, a deception, or an out-and-out lie (you pick). I found the three main characters (Abby, Luke and Abby's mother) completely unlikable. Basically an interfering and/or dishonest mother; a female lead who is supposedly a successful and intelligent executive, but can't make the simplest decision or read people; and a whiney and needy male lead who is supposed to be lovable I guess, but just irritated me start to finish. Kudos to the supporting actors...a lovable and sweet sister/sister-in-law and niece combo, a kindly and calm father, and a likeable (finally) boyfriend/fiancee.

No obvious spoilers in this review...just an opinion...I did not like this movie.

This Hallmark romance is a riff on the usual plots about old loves and returns to hometown, USA. But it has a clever twist that actually makes a story of redemption plausible and understandable.

Credit writer Robert Tate Miller for the plot twist. And credit the beautiful and always effective actress Amanda Schull for translating Miller's main character, Abby Foster, onscreen and strongly occupying the center of this film. She is matched with Brennan Elliott (as Luke Walker), who is good at keeping things light.

There are moments of drama, but this is mostly a film of comedy. And it is very enjoyable but not too saccharine.

Did someone cut Hallmark's lighting budget? Why is half this movie filmed in the dark? It's the oddest thing I've ever seen where half the movie takes place at night in the dark. Important scenes where you can barely read facial reactions. It's like they were given two weeks to film so they shot late in the night after cutting the lights and thought "just roll with it".

All that aside, this is still a hard pass. The mom is truly awful from start to finish. Her character is manipulative and clueless. It's actually the main reason this movie is just bad. The rest is typical Hallmark formula. You know what you're going to get so no surprises there.

I really like Brennan Elliott. This movie was a waste of his talent. I am not familiar with Amanda Schull. I would like to see her in some other movies so I could offer more insight to her abilities.

From her first scene in Marry Go Round, I found her character annoying and seriously self-absorbed. I was not impressed with Brennan Elliott's sarcastic attitude either. Of course, the rest of the movie was standard Hallmark fare. There were a few mild twists. However, none were outstanding.

Enter the mother of the bride. She was seriously irritating, and remained so through the rest of the movie. She was one of the most awful examples of the irksome, interfering mother's of the bride to be I have seen in a Hallmark romances. What a disgusting, deceiving witch.

There were some subtle twists to the story. However, there were no big reveals. All in all, it was not a memorable movie.

Another "Fall in Love" movie that doesn't take place in the fall (even the B roll has all green trees so why bother calling it a fall movie?) Lackluster, plodding, boring, dragging and predictable, again because the plot is a ripoff of a popular movie. Some scenes feel less story related than they are time filler because there just is no heart and no charm. Even the acting feels like it's only half-hearted. Not all Hallmark movies are. Some have actual decent writing and unexpected twists, but this is a just a lazy rewrite of something we've already seen. I would rather Hallmark sacrifice quantity over quality if this is the caliber they have to lower themselves to simply to fill a timeslot.

8.1 stars.

I have so many positive comments and equally as many negative ones. I will start with the positive: this is a gripping romance based on a wonderful love that perished due to an extremely misguided opinion and a heartbreaking decision. The emotions are raw with Abby and Luke, but especially her mother Emily. "Marry Go Round" contains some of the most engrossing moments I've seen in a Hallmark film. For these aspects I must give very high praise.

Abby and Luke were engaged about 20 years in the past. Now Abby is engaged to Edward and they are ready to move to Paris to start their new lives together. Unfortunately their courtship takes a major detour due to unfinished business from her past with Luke.

Now for the negative: For the first half (I repeat: only for the first half) scenes fly by without explanations for specific occurrences, strange cuts, omitted essential portions of dialogue, strange lighting, jumps from one place to another without explanation and are they the same day, or did they skip to the next day? Why are they standing in an amusement park in the dark, then the next scene is like midday, same place, different day? The fiancé is obviously out of his element, he's not dressed like a Hallmark oriented sophisticated man, doesn't look the part, and she obviously has little passion for him, we can see that by the way they interact, and yet he's such an "understanding" fiancé, but good guys always comes in last. It is about as surreal as her still being married because the attorney forgot to file the annulment papers, and then the lead male decides he can't sign the papers? They were divorced 20 years ago, don't tell me there is a secret revelation behind his ghosting of her without a word...The first half of this movie is as implausible as flying pigs.

But then it all comes together somehow, and even though there are so many unexplainable oddities, the final hour is abundantly incomparable to the first, almost as if it's a different story. As a whole, I was intensely mesmerized by the performances and the writing of "Marry Go Round". So much potential was lost, I am perplexed.

One last critique: who came up with this ill-suited title?

The setting was a small town in Oregon and we are told this because it flashes across the screen when we first meet Luke. The courthouse is Benton County which would be Corvallis. BUT the judge has a WA flag behind him not Oregon! This is a detail that should have been caught!

It's a good story between the hero and heroine but the mother daughter relationship is too much! She would be furious with her mother and it would take more then one whispered forgive line from her mother's husband which just seems kinda creepy.

The small town setting is charming and so is the end of summer fair. The sister could have her own story.

If the roles were reversed & this was a man doing this to his current fiancee, I doubt it would be given such a good rating & the woman would definitely not be understanding & supportive. When a woman is torn between 2 men it's an epic love story, but when a man is torn between 2 women he's a horrible scumbag.

For this reason alone, I didn't like the main female lead along with the wimpy male who got bullied 20 yrs prior & the vindictive mom who only cares about her daughter's career. You have to like the characters for the movie to work IMO.

Bridal shower was amusing, Hallmark just can't help themselves.

I feel bad for the Edward who was just amazing to Abby. And this guy Luke, who knew that the woman was getting married just has no self respect as a man stealing the girl. Luke has 20 years to make up for lost time but no, he steals the woman just when she is about to get married. Edward was just cheated on and yet Abby has the nerve to go to Luke.

The movie is simply based on lies, misunderstanding and deception.

Awful movie and horrible message that this movie is portraying.

Think about if the roles were reversed. I doubt it would be given such a good rating & the woman would definitely not be understanding & supportive. The movie would be bashed.

HORRIBLE.

This is coming from a hallmark movie serial watcher, and I usually really like most of them and have realistic expectations going into it. That being said, it's totally fine to skip this one. Nothing interesting happens in this whole movie, the acting isn't good, and it's just boring. No chemistry between any of the actors. Everything just feels lazy and it really lacks the feel-good vibes people are looking for when watching a hallmark movie. I won't go into "storyline isn't believable" territory, because I usually don't really mind that. But with this one, the story did feel forced and I didn't find myself rooting for anyone or anything at any point.