This movie didn't leave much of an impact the first time I saw it, but somehow, it's grown on me more and more each time it comes on TV, to the point I'd get all excited when I saw it in the listing and realized I needed to buy it.
I like how Erin Krakow's character, Sam, is a dreamer who wants to find her one true love. So often in these movies, even on Hallmark, I feel like they make the woman too focused on her career to even think about love, and it's become a bit of a cliche. What's wrong with wanting love, as long as you still care about your other dreams and career (which Sam does with her aspirations to be a chef)?
I also really liked Patricia Richardson in the "wise older mentor" role. I don't think I've ever seen her in anything besides Home Improvement, but she really seems to bring a down-to-earth warmth and realism to her roles.
Krakow, of course, is great to watch as well. Again, I've never seen her in anything but When Calls the Heart, but it doesn't surprise me that she, of all Hallmark actresses, went to Juilliard. She comes across really natural and relatable in her roles, and manages to deliver what could be really cringeworthy lines without them sounding as cheesy as they actually are.
The two leads have great romantic chemistry, and I like how he ends up falling for her even though at first she's kind of desperate and embarrasses herself with him. These movies so often make the guy chase after the girl to the point of being a stalker, so the fact that it was a little more reversed (even though she wasn't a stalker, it was all just a misunderstanding because of his son) was also refreshing.
The ending, at face value, is really cheesy, but it actually calls back to a conversation the two leads had earlier in the movie, and I think it's supposed to be a little bit intentionally corny because of that. That conversation, among others from this film, was surprisingly poignant and well-written for a Hallmark movie.
I also like the soundtrack. Not sure if it's the same band that sings the opening song and one that comes up later in the movie, but they both set different moods well.
I didn't notice any missing scenes, but I'm pretty unobservant...I hope I didn't get that version of the DVD. Can anyone say specifically what lines were cut? I saw one reviewer mention a conversation between Richardson and Krakow and some of the stuff Sam emailed. Both of those scenes show up for me, but I don't know if they're abridged.
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