source: Fishing for Love

Same plot. Girl runs into guy. Doesn't like guy. Goes home to save father's legacy history with his boat. All along working to design a restaurant. All she does is about 5 minutes worth of work. She begins to like the guy and they get close and wants to help persuade her father to sell boat to the guy. Somehow something will go wrong and she will blame him, or he will blame her. Eventually, they will make up and everyone is friends again and girl and guy kiss. The End. Same old, same old. Hallmark still can't get a new scenario to up "the game." The only thing that seems to be working for Hallmark are the murder mystery movies. The worse movies are the ones with a Princess/Prince with a phony "British" accent and needs to have an adventure. For the most part, these movies are good to "pass the time."

Who creates these trailers? I wanted to watch a trailer not a short of the whole story. Trailers are supposed to entice you to watch the movie not give the whole story and ending away. Okay yes, duh, it's an atypical sappy girl goes back to home town has a chance encounter...blah blah but at least let me see how it comes out. So yes it' might be unfair that I am only giving it a 4 star without watching but I've already seen enough in the trailer and don't need to watch the whole movie. Bad job on the marketing.

I was completely on my way to give this an 8. I thought the lead female was completely enjoyable in the scenes all the way through, as was her dad. Her brother came across like he needs more acting experience I hate to say. Everything from him was over the top. But that wasn't the problem for me. I was thrilled to actually see Kendall and Zach hit it off right from the start instead of typically what happens in these movies, where they argue with each other most of the time and in the last 16th of the movie decide to spend their lives together. But then when Kendall and her dad are taking a walk past their boat, they see Zack and overhear him talking to the man who wants to chop the boat up and sell it for parts. This was the beginning of a number of things that went wrong for me. First of all it was so poorly written I had to rewind it to see why the father just took this so lightly knowing how strongly his daughter felt and what she went through to help Zack. He was so extremely blasé about it. At the end when Kendall finds out that Zack not only helped her brother and in the process hurt his own recipe, it didn't even occur to her to see all the good things he has done for other people and for her making that anchor which was so important to her becoming unstuck with her new client. So although I understand her not wanting to say goodbye to him, I can't imagine that she wouldn't of at least written a note about her anger but also recognizing how he helped the town. The worst however which really dragged my score down to a 6 was when she goes to say goodbye to her father and sees Zack with him. Her dad explains that it was a misunderstanding and Zack was actually trying to fix the boat. She cared deeply about this man from the start. Where was her apology??? I blame the editing and the writing, but couldn't go beyond a 6 even though much of it was enjoyable. It sped up and took too much of a detour throughout most of the end.

The story starts out like many others. Busy design exec goes back to hometown for inspiration. She has a big project to complete in a short time. So much of the movie is about community pulling together. There is a widower and his daughter recovering from mom's death. Everything is pointing toward a festival and a contest. Then there is the big misunderstanding based on a partially overheard conversation. There is a lot of "smoke and mirrors" in the story. So much didn't make sense or seemed stretched. Kendall's quick redesign of the festival (twice) without even knowing what she had to work with is one example. The preoccupation with selling the boat to the "right" person was overworked. Kendall facilitating Zack's entry into the community also seemed forced. I often scoff at overuse of musical montages. There are at least 4. Even if they are short. The first two include Brooks with what seems to be forced laughter. I scoff because overuse of these seems to me to be cheap writing. Another reviewer, in a properly marked spoiler, pointed out a character inconsistency or two in the last part of the movie and I agree. Andrea Brooks has presence. She is always upbeat and energetic. She went so many years in supporting roles and this year already, I've seen her in 3 which is a lot even for established Hallmark type stars. Her performances were decent in all of them. In this movie, she and Spencer Lord had chemistry and managed a fair amount of screen time together. I doubt there is a movie with Brooks in a prominent role that I would turn down, but even so somehow her performance got lost in all the other static.

And just because I did didn't mean that I liked it to the end. I have a great fondness for romantic movies but this was just basic. There was no nothing that made me want to watch it again. I'm not sure if it was the writing or the acting that made me feel this way and I wasn't expecting a blockbuster presented in a tv movie. It had all the generic tropes in these types of movies. Dancing in the kitchen while making something that is supposed to be spectacular. It had way too many almost kisses. Jumping to conclusions based off of limited information and then the revelation that what they really wanted was at home all of the time. BLECH!!!

This was such a cute movie! Although the storyline was predictable in many ways, it had a fresh feel to it. The acting was great; Andrea Brooks was so vibrant in this movie. I loved seeing the bond between her and Dad. I would definitely recommend this movie and would see it a second time.

Sadly, Fishing for Love is a movie that had some wonderful scenery, a great story, and, yet, missed using the right bait to convey all of the above. There were enough plot possibilities to make this a really captivating film. The big city successful architect comes back home to her very charming and colorful seaside town. Her father is contemplating retirement. Her family boat, which has great historical and sentimental value for her is being sold so that her father can begin the next part of his life. There is great conflict for the daughter about losing all these ties to her childhood, particularly ties to her mother who has passed away. The visual aspects of this film are truly charming and well-photographed. And Andrea Brooks does an incredible job of acting . She shows all the appropriate emotions, her face is alive with feeling, her eyes sparkle as she speaks. However, she is coupled with one of the most unemotional leading men! Spencer Lord has a very appealing role as a widowed father of a charming young daughter. He has every opportunity to show a whole range of emotions, but is sorely limited in his ability to convey almost anything but a stoic, serious face. One very comical aspect of this film, for seasoned viewers of this genre of movies, is that while all movies of this genre have the formulaic. Interrupted first kiss, this film has three of them before the final successful kiss. For an avid romantic comedy movie fan, this was quite a departure from the predictable pattern of these movies. And really quite amusing. All in all, a good story, great location and scenery, wonderful leading lady, and a missed opportunity in the choice of leading man. Worth watching, though, for the lovely story and the beautiful seaside locale.

Trailer—Fishing for Love