"Don't focus on thinking; focus on feeling."
Hello everyone!
I've seen some previews and I already wanted to bawl and so I KNOW I'm going to be crying my eyes out like some sort of rom-com addict, and it's not even rom-com. UGH. This last season, people, this last season is going to slay us.
Ahem.
Moving on from the land of perpetual tears and angelic runes, I have another Hallmark movie review for you tonight because I've found that their Spring Fever is actually SUPER good this year.
Or maybe I've somehow gotten used to the pattern? But I don't think so, because I'm such a logical, reasonable person that I tend to snarl like a dragon in a pinch if I feel like it's all just ridiculous. And nothing has been ridiculous so far.
Whether or not this lasts remains to be seen, but for now, let's get our paint and easels for A Brush With Love.
Considering the fact that I'm suddenly accumulating these movies, I'm going to link the previous ones down below, so Love to the Rescue can be found there, and as we go along there may be others! Who knows!
To the story.
Jamie (Arielle Kebbel) runs a painting school for the "young at heart" as she calls it, although she used to want to be a painter in earnest, but life kind of happened and derailed those dreams. Her best friend, however, says that anything can happen with a little pixie dust with a vision board, so Jamie does what Jamie does best - after being alomst coerced into this vision board - she paints her vision.
At the same time, she's thinking of expanding her painting school and her father is more than happy to help get the new spot they'd bought into shape, though all of a sudden, things in her life start REALLY happening.
With her best friend now helping to organise the Cherry Blossom Art Festival (cherry blossoms have a huge part in this movie, I think it was filmed during prime time for them to bloom and it is GORGEOUS), she wants Jamie to submit a piece of art for the newcomers showcase, not that Jamie's on board with that. She feels like her main dream is sort of on the side now, and her side dream, the school, is her main one.
Enter one Max (Nick Bateman).
Max is the brother of Jamie's best friend, and also the guy who gets on Jamie's nerves the most, because as they were growing up, he kept teasing her and humiliating her, one of the more notable instances being when he wrote her letters as a "secret admirer" for a full year only to then reveal it was actually him.
Max & every viewer out there: JAMIE THAT WAS REAL YOU GOON
Jamie: oh ha ha ha laugh at little ole me, but that's fine, we were kids, I don't hate you for it
Max & every viewer out there: can you hear hearts breaking?
Anyway.
Max is Jamie's new neighbour, which, really, the girl could do without, and he's also a ground's keeper at the botanical gardens (hint: where this year's showcase will be happening later on) despite having a master's in landscaping, but that's a whole lot of responsibility he isn't sure he's ready for. See, Max is a bit of a drifter; he can never stay with anything, or anyone, for too long, which is something Jamie keeps rubbing in for the whole movie.
That's the one really non-flattering trait of hers, actually. She keeps looking down on Max like it's impossible that he might have changed in fifteen years.
Ouch girl. Snide much?
So yeah, Max is now in town, and, like his sister, tries to convince Jamie to focus on her painting, not just do it on the side, and that she really SHOULD enter the showcase.
Which she eventually does when her best friend throws her into the ocean to swim: see, Jamie doesn't want to show the vision board she'd painted, of a dark stranger offering her a rose in a romantic, fairy light twinkling location, but BFF is having none of it, and it wins Jamie the spot.
Right afterwards, she also meets this guy, Michael, who is later revealed to be the guy behind the arts foundation that's a big deal in this town, but for the time being he's just someone who likes Jamie and wants to take painting lessons with her.
Well, actually he just wants to be with her, but painting's a good enough excuse.
He does take her on a few dates, but as time goes along, and things are eerily enough right out of Jamie's vision board (which she now can't submit, thank you very much), Jamie also realizes that the spark just isn't there with him. So she politely and kindly breaks it off, saying that they both deserve someone that makes them happy and complete, especially Michael, who's honestly a great guy.
Just not the right guy
Unlike Max, who puts paint on Jamie's nose and takes her to the gardens and cooks her dinners, all the while trying to show her that he's a different guy to the boy she knew.
He even goes so far as expressing his feelings to her during a romantic, candle-lit dinner, where he explains that the letters she keeps thinking were fake were actually real (and she liked them enough to keep them all - the look on Bateman's face when his character hears that is PRECIOUS) and that he's been in love with her for almost fifteen years.
THAT effectively shuts her up - only she's not sure she can trust him not to take off again.
Max swears he's changed. But then sister comes to meddle, telling him that Jamie broke things off with Michael and that he better be serious about her, which in his male brain and logic he takes and runs with, going to tell Jamie she'd be better off with Michael after all, because Max himself is as unreliable as she thinks he is.
Gee, thanks BFF.
Jamie destroys the other entry for her showcase, which was a portrait of Max with cherry blossoms (he'd offered her some earlier), and then paints a THIRD painting which she rushes in. It can't be displayed as part of the whole thing, but it CAN stand on its own because it's just so great!
A little before that, Jamie also complains to BFF about what happened, and BFF admits that might have been her fault: she came down on Max hard, and spooked him away. UGH. FRIENDS SOMETIMES. Jamie then decides she needs to hurry up and catch up to the guy before he ditches again, and also tells her parents (who've been dealing with her second studio all movie) that she wants to pain, not teach, which is a bummer because so much money went into this project.
Yeah, says dad, but we knew what you really wanted. S'all good.
Parents. They just KNOW, you know?
Jamie hammers out a deal that she'll be a consulting artist while her dad runs the place since he loves it so much, and it's after all this that she hands in her painting, and runs to find Max, who's interviewing for the position of landscaper (which she interrupts, naturally).
He says he wants to do everything he can to prove to her that he's worthy, and she says oh he's already worthy, and come see her painting, dummy.
It's another portrait, this time a self-portrait, and Jamie's going to collaborate and do a group exhibition, and also, she's super in love with Max. They don't make sense on a logical plane, but she just lights up around him and he makes her laugh, and inspires her.
So I mean, her vision board didn't show her what she wanted - it taught her what she NEEDED.
Which is even better, in the end.
Highly, highly recommended for a light, fluffy, enjoyable hour and a half with a cast that really shines (and a lot of paint being thrown around!), not to mention THOSE GARDENS. It really brings the feel of spring into your home, and Bateman is charming while Kebbel brings the sparkle to add to the magic.
And all that without a hint of pixie dust!
xx
*images and video not mine
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