"Sometimes things don't go as planned."
Hello everyone!
Sure I do.
Hallmark is just conveniently right there all the time.
To be fair though I could just not watch some, but that hasn't happened yet and I doubt it will, so here we go yet again.
Tonight's movie is actually the first one I was KINDA okay with overall, which is a spectacular bump upwards from the rest of them this 2021 movie year when they've generally disappointed me thus far for some reason.
And yet not even this one was completely acceptable, at least not to me, but maybe I'm becoming too picky or something.
Sweet Carolina, here we go.
Since the movie is a standalone in Hallmark's usual seasonal programing, I won't be including links at the bottom of the page BUT you can happily type 'hallmark channel' into the search engine and it should cough up more than a dozen movie reviews for your perusal.
On with the show.
Marketing executive Josie (Lacey Chabert in her WHOOPING 26th Hallmark movie!) seems to be living THE life in New York at a branding company and she makes monthly visits home to North Carolina where her family lives. These include her parents, her two siblings, Erin and Jeff, and her brother-in-law.
Things all seem to be on the up-and-up actually and she's going to have to skip her usual monthly visit because work is insanely busy when she gets a call from her mother in the middle of prepping for a meeting.
Her sister and her husband were in a car accident. And they're not coming home.
Rushing home instead, Josie comes to support her shocked and distraught family, especially her teenage niece and nephew, Delilah and Ben (I swear I kept thinking his name was Finn for some reason for the first half hour of the movie).
Then comes the biggest shocker.
While everyone believes Erin appointed her parents legal guardians of her children in case anything happened to her, she actually picked her sister, Josie - and cue the disbelief all around as if she's never even seen a teenager or said hello to one.
But, I digress.
We then follow the usual montage that happens in movies like these (most notable example being Raising Helen with Kate Hudson in the titular role) where Josie needs to readjust to living in a smaller town (not that it LOOKS or feels that much smaller, honestly), and most especially how to become a guardian to two heartbroken teenagers who often times want nothing to do with her.
There's the obligatory blow a fuse in the house because the electrical wiring isn't as strong as in New York, messing up breakfast, forgetting to pick up the kids, trying to meddle with the kids' romantic lives because what else do you do, am I right?
But through it all, she does reconnect with her high school flame Cooper (Tyler Hynes), who is now the PE coach at their old high school (at least I think it was PE and not just basketball, but basketball is what they focus on all movie so what do I know?) though he did move to Atlanta for a while before his then-fiancée broke up with him.
And also, for some reason, Josie thinks that him getting an engagement ring means he's going to propose to her out of the blue after not seeing her for 20 or so years, which is definitely one of the more hilarious twists in this one.
Slowly, however, and bit by bit, Josie overcomes every naysayer and finds some common ground with the kids, breaking up with her boyfriend who wasn't really much of a boyfriend to begin with seeing as he was never there, and getting a leave of absence from work so she can focus on what she wants to do, and figure it out.
Then follows the typical misunderstanding that always happens in a Hallmark movie though I'm more miffed with this one than I would normally be because it stems from the father rather than the romantic interest: Josie's dad has been saying all movie long how his daughter can go right back to New York and they'll be fine, literally making it sound as if he's kicking her out so she can stop being a pain in the butt and they can get on with their lives.
Turns out, the old man is holding a grudge because she left home to begin with, and although she's been swearing up and down all movie to anyone who tried to convince her otherwise that she only left because she wanted a specific career she couldn't get in North Carolina, but that doesn't mean she doesn't love her hometown anymore, everyone else keeps trying to convince her she left because she always wanted to leave.
Har.
After a major fight with the kids and what feels like her entire family, during which only Cooper seems to be on her side, telling her not to be so hard on herself, Josie decides she'll return to New York, like everyone seems to want from her ... but not before figuring out her IT genius of a brother is also a master baker and LOVES baking more than anything else.
Oh and Ben going missing. That, too.
Cooper calls her because Ben doesn't show up to school, and Josie remembers him saying how much he loves Cooper's barn, so that's where they go and search for the boy (which also leads to probably my favourite line in the whole movie, by Cooper: Either you're right and he's here, or my horses started a band).
Josie and Ben reconcile, and so do Josie and her dad, which then leads to her moving back home permanently and opening a new branch of the marketing office she works for, as well as giving her the chance to actually be a family woman and suggest her brother takes over the family restaurant.
And to pick up where she left off with Cooper. That, too, when he finally unbends enough to ask her on a date and kisses her in the parking lot.
But as the movie feels like it COULD have continued, I'm kind of hoping this might turn into a bit of a series. We'll see how it goes.
Overall, this wasn't anything new - movies have been done and redone on this topic over and over again, some better and some worse, and this one falls somewhere in the middle if I'm being honest. The conflict of two teenagers hurting like hell after the death of their parents is rather well done and the apologies afterwards heartfelt, and for once the love story seemed like a kind of subplot rather than the main driving force behind the entire movie.
However, let me tell you, the whole JOSIE GO BACK HOME YOU NEVER LIKED IT HERE JUST GO irritated me to death.
Mostly because it came from her dad. Like what? Your other daughter has just died and you're literally kicking this one out? Because it hurts to say goodbye every time she leaves or some ridiculous excuse like that so you're 'ripping off the band-aid'? That was the most half-assed excuse I've ever heard. For the most part, I felt like Josie had no support system as she started to learn the ropes of being the kids' guardian. Everyone was THERE, sure, but everyone was there to tell her how she'd fail, or watch her as she stumbled, and nobody tried to catch her. Well, her mom kinda helped a little bit, but not much.
Her dad was something else, let me tell you. We get it dude, you're mad even though you're trying to couch it in nicer terms, but how unfair is that to your kid?
Also who ever said Josie didn't love her hometown? You can love a place but by necessity move somewhere else for a career, it's not the type of deal where it has to be one or the other.
I don't know, with a sister who's since moved to the capital, I felt personally insulted at this one, because I AM SURE my father wouldn't behave even an iota like this idiot did in the movie if something happened and she came home for a longer period of time. He'd instead actually be grateful for the help, no matter if he doesn't do emotions much.
But aside from all that, which might be my own personal gripe since none of the reviews mention it, Sweet Carolina was an easy movie to watch, heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time, and veteran Lacey sold it to perfection.
So I'd say it's definitely something to watch.
xx
*images and video not mine
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