Accidentally in Love

Charming movie with more than capable leads (Jennie Garth and Ethan Erickson), as well as secondary characters (Marilu Henner and Fred Willard, plus the little boy on the Mulligan TV show and his stage mother and especially the hero's red-headed, no-talent roommate), but a few things that worked against it.

The very first scene features the heroine's young daughter wearing expensive-looking sunglasses, and the mother asks where they came from. The child is about 6; it's not like she went out and bought them herself. Not believable. Also, this same woman is a struggling single mother (her husband died without life insurance) who works as a waitress at a rather tacky restaurant and drives what looks like a 35-year-old AMC compact station wagon, but can nonetheless afford to live in a lovely house with an in-ground pool in the backyard in expensive Los Angeles (I felt the only purpose of this was to have a fight scene where two characters fall in).

This movie is too well written to rely upon contrived situations. Still, it's one of my favorites.

I've noticed that the Hallmark movies that came out in their early rom-com years, 2010-2017 or so, have a greater variety of storylines, better scripting and casted actors who were not just confined to Hallmark contracts.

While this movie has some useless cheesy scenes, the storyline is original and it has a nice blend of heart-warmth, some decent comedy and a romance that you can see naturally building throughout.

Ethan Erickson and Jenny Garth make for credibly-matched and eye-appealing leads. Willard and Henner added well in their scripted supporting roles. The plastics doc and the red-headed actor were unfortunately the unnecessary over-the-top cheese.

This is a very pleasant romantic comedy from the Hallmark Channel, with all the trappings of a real comedy: good acting -- not only are the leads exceedingly handsome, but they are capable, and there's Marilu Henner and Fred Willard in support -- a story in which people change and some actual comedy as people fall into a pool. As Preston Sturges noted, if there is a pool, people must fall into it. Nor is it just a gag. Even the jokes serve to advance the plot.

Most of the credit must go to a fine script by Peter Facinelli and Charles T. Daniels, who manage to combine some soap-opera-like plot points into the mix. However, kudos to everyone for a superior production.

Another reviewer says that the leads start out as annoying, but stick with it. Oh boy, the annoying part is very true. It's not just the leads. Almost everyone is obnoxious and it's obviously intended to be funny. Not just obnoxious, but mean obnoxious. I didn't find any of that funny. Not to say that there weren't a few funny moments. Unfortunately the obnoxious lasts for nearly half the movie.

Then suddenly, the leads, at least, get nice. Then it turns into a love story which quickly develops a conflict.

There's also a family crisis angle which revolves around cute little Taylor and a predictable climax. I'd say it's a toss up whether it was worth sticking.

This is mostly a family movie with appeal to children. There are some interesting camera angles though.

Great line: "It's like a Superman, Clark Kent thing.... Except you're a bunny."

The leads were NOT being good role models in the beginning. But the movie got better, so I give it a decent rating overall. My complaints are not the actors' fault. I feel that they did a good job overall,- especially the male lead. There was also one scene later where the male leads character was ill behaved which was disappointing (again, not the actor's fault). I don't understand why anyone would write a scene like that into the movie. I don't think anyone enjoyed that scene. I guess it was just to add drama into the plot, but that's like a vulgar joke, it's not a good way to do it. I did like the movie though, it gave me warm feelings overall.