I only watched this movie because Minka Kelly is beautiful to look at, of course. I will never forget the first movie I saw her in the lame yet funny"horror" movie, The Pumpkin Carver, where she had that real little girly girl voice which only added to her sex appeal. Unfortunately, or fortunately(depending on your preference), much of that little girl voice is gone in this movie. As adorable as Minka is, she is not a good and believable actress in the least.
Not to digress, the overall cast is fairly well-known. Despite her being an actress for a long time and her prominence in the movie industry, I have never found Andie MacDowell interesting, funny or a decent actress -she always seems so disingenuous in anything I have seen her in and this movie is no exception. I thought the overall acting among all the characters in this film not terrible but definitely below par-even for a Hallmark movie.
Surprisingly, I probably found Chad Michael Murray to be the most believable, genuine, likable and down to earth for his character role. And the young pregnant girl who lived with Andie MacDowell was a decent actress and her character was likable as well; unfortunately, she was not in much of the movie.
The movie itself just starts off kind of strange with Minka going to visit her mom, played by Andie, whom she has not seen in about 15 years. In the initial meeting scene, those 2 characters meet and seem to have no real genuine reaction/chemistry for a mother-daughter relationship in the least-it is like watching 2 strangers, meeting for the first time, react with one another on set who have never seen each other or read the script. (They might as well had a staring contest during their first meeting scene instead-would have been more entertaining.) There was no genuine loving chemistry of a mother-daughter dyad. Both characters were pretty wooden which was like watching two cardboard cutouts "acting" and at points where real emotion was required when finding out about Andie MacDowell's condition, for example, her children's reaction was quite abysmal and felt forced with little to no tears. The young pregnant girl was much more believable with emotion concerning Andie MacDowell than her own biological children. And the guy who plays Andie MacDowell's son was a pretty lame and arrogant actor as well- a Bradley Cooper wannabee if you will.
The worst part of this movie was the ending which was totally anticlimactic-in fact they passed right over it(the tear-jerker scenes, probably because the son and daughter could not muster up the tears) where we see Andie MacDowell drop a photo which we can only reckon is indicative of her death. There is no funeral, memorial for her, a tribute to her life, reaction/tears of her children or anything regarding her death; hence, absolutely no tears. They just skip to the one year later bit with everything being back to normal as if nothing ever happened with everyone playing with turtles on the beach. Apparently, there is some kind of analogy with rebirth/life/life after death message with the turtles on the beach and the newborn/new life of the pregnant girl's baby and Andie MacDowell's death and/or life after death. However, the analogy and parallels between these two stories are weak and makes the story no more touching or interesting in the least.
This movie could have been much better if the characters had chemistry and they could actually look like they were really crying or upset when necessary. Or, as much as I dig Minka, if they recast the mother and daughter roles since they were the 2 main characters.
I did not care for this movie and the highlights are basically the beautiful scenery of Tybee Island and if you are into turtles, the turtle scenes.
Not to digress, the overall cast is fairly well-known. Despite her being an actress for a long time and her prominence in the movie industry, I have never found Andie MacDowell interesting, funny or a decent actress -she always seems so disingenuous in anything I have seen her in and this movie is no exception. I thought the overall acting among all the characters in this film not terrible but definitely below par-even for a Hallmark movie.
Surprisingly, I probably found Chad Michael Murray to be the most believable, genuine, likable and down to earth for his character role. And the young pregnant girl who lived with Andie MacDowell was a decent actress and her character was likable as well; unfortunately, she was not in much of the movie.
The movie itself just starts off kind of strange with Minka going to visit her mom, played by Andie, whom she has not seen in about 15 years. In the initial meeting scene, those 2 characters meet and seem to have no real genuine reaction/chemistry for a mother-daughter relationship in the least-it is like watching 2 strangers, meeting for the first time, react with one another on set who have never seen each other or read the script. (They might as well had a staring contest during their first meeting scene instead-would have been more entertaining.) There was no genuine loving chemistry of a mother-daughter dyad. Both characters were pretty wooden which was like watching two cardboard cutouts "acting" and at points where real emotion was required when finding out about Andie MacDowell's condition, for example, her children's reaction was quite abysmal and felt forced with little to no tears. The young pregnant girl was much more believable with emotion concerning Andie MacDowell than her own biological children. And the guy who plays Andie MacDowell's son was a pretty lame and arrogant actor as well- a Bradley Cooper wannabee if you will.
The worst part of this movie was the ending which was totally anticlimactic-in fact they passed right over it(the tear-jerker scenes, probably because the son and daughter could not muster up the tears) where we see Andie MacDowell drop a photo which we can only reckon is indicative of her death. There is no funeral, memorial for her, a tribute to her life, reaction/tears of her children or anything regarding her death; hence, absolutely no tears. They just skip to the one year later bit with everything being back to normal as if nothing ever happened with everyone playing with turtles on the beach. Apparently, there is some kind of analogy with rebirth/life/life after death message with the turtles on the beach and the newborn/new life of the pregnant girl's baby and Andie MacDowell's death and/or life after death. However, the analogy and parallels between these two stories are weak and makes the story no more touching or interesting in the least.
This movie could have been much better if the characters had chemistry and they could actually look like they were really crying or upset when necessary. Or, as much as I dig Minka, if they recast the mother and daughter roles since they were the 2 main characters.
I did not care for this movie and the highlights are basically the beautiful scenery of Tybee Island and if you are into turtles, the turtle scenes.