Hallmark For All Seasons

Summer Nights

Love on Harbor Island

Let’s face it. “Love on Harbor Island,” despite airing in August, was not a summer movie. As evidenced by the heavy coats, visible breath during outdoor scenes, and trees that were various shades of vibrant yellow and red, this was clearly intended to be a Fall Harvest movie, but since Fall Harvest 2019 became a non-starter for some reason, we got to celebrate with another autumnal movie in summer!

As established in my preview last week, this movie was primarily filmed at Rowena’s Inn, which is a beautiful resort in British Columbia, Canada. It was co-written and directed by Lucie Guest, a frequent actor in Hallmark movies (she usually plays the co-worker or best friend).

In a nutshell

I don’t know if it was the extreme disappointment in last week’s movie or what, but I was surprised by how much I enjoyed “Love on Harbor Island.” It was reminiscent of A Summer Romance in that it didn’t rush the story, but let it gently unfold over the course of 90 minutes (2 hours if you sit through the commercials). And that makes sense, since Lucie Guest was IN “A Summer Romance” and probably knows it’s one of the most popular summer movies Hallmark has ever done (this is my assumption, based solely on the movies that bring people to this website).

Plot for “Love on Harbor Island”

Interior designer Lily returns home to help her Aunt Maggie run her marina-side bed and breakfast after her aunt sprains her ankle. There she meets Marcus, a seaplane pilot whose work delivering rescue dogs helps Lily discover that home really is where the heart is.

Actors/Chemistry

I do not watch “When Hope Calls” so I’ve not seen Morgan Kohan before, but I really liked her a lot. She was understated but yet still able to transmit emotion and investment in the unfolding storyline. I also think she and Taylor Cole could play sisters because they have very similar smiles – to the point where whenever Lily smiled in “Harbor” I could only think, “When she smiles she looks like Taylor Cole.”

I also really liked Marcus Rosner (playing a character named Marcus!). He started at Hallmark usually playing the Bad Boyfriend (see: “A Christmas Detour”), but over time he has become the leading man in the last several Hallmark movies he’s done. I thought he was great in “Harbor” and especially liked him being paired with Kohan. They bounced off each other nicely and I liked that the “we like each other” romance part of the movie was not rushed in any way. A great pairing.

I also appreciated the chemistry between Kohan and Emma Cam, who played Lily’s best friend, Christie. Cam is new to Hallmark and I hope she lands more roles. Much like Kohan reminding me of Taylor Cole, Cam reminded me of Maggie Lawson, who has been in a few Hallmark movies, including last year’s Christmas in Evergreen: Tidings of Joy.

Six Degrees of Kris Polaha: Marcus Rosner is only two degrees away from Kristoffer Polaha thanks to a TV show called “UnREAL.” It ran from 2015-2018 and Rosner co-starred with Shiri Appleby. Fans of Polaha know that he and Appleby co-starred in a great show called “Life Unexpected” from 2010-2011.

Tropes in “Love on Harbor Island”

I was so happy to finally have a movie that had a lot of tropes in it! The non-Christmas movies tend to have only a couple, but this movie piled them on, for which I say, “Thank you, Lucie Guest!”

The movie began with the Bad Boyfriend – but not just any Bad Boyfriend. It was the BBF that uses his phone while they are having dinner at a fancy restaurant. We also saw a family business in trouble, with the leading character returning home from the Big City to help. We saw cute dogs galore!

But not only that, we had a couple scenes with empty coffee cups, a real estate development company threatening to raze the resort in order to put in condos, and a scene in which Lily had some schmutz on her face that Marcus had to gently swipe away.

I love tropes. *lol*

Did I Hear/See That Right?

Despite this movie winning on many levels, there were still plenty of headscratchers.

1. Real Estate West? The Bad Boyfriend, Bradford, worked for a real estate company called Real Estate West. Um…what kind of company name is that? Does this mean I can open up a place across town and call it Real Estate East? They couldn’t come up with a better generic developer name?

2. The free compass. Lily visits the town’s antique/thrift/general store and as she’s checking out she notices a lovely brass compass in a fancy wooden box sitting by the register. As she admires it, the shopkeeper tells her to keep it, and that it’s “on the house.” Excuse me, but that brass compass in the fancy wooden box probably should have a price tag ranging from $60-80 at a minimum. But he’s GIVING it to her? How on earth does he stay in business?

3. Marcus doesn’t know Lily’s name. The first 2/3rds of the movie, I’m convinced that Marcus doesn’t remember Lily’s name. This is because the ONLY thing he calls her is “City Girl.” If I’m visiting my family and there’s a dude that only calls me “City Girl” for the first several days I’m home, at some point I’m going to call him out and ask, “You don’t remember my name, do you?”

4. Seattle doesn’t have a name, either. Despite the first part of the movie clearly taking place in Seattle, they never mention “the city” by name while Lily is on Harbor Island. They only say, “the city.” As in “I’m heading back to the city.” You are allowed to say the city’s name, Hallmark!

5. One restaurant, two cities. I’m sure I’m not the only one that noticed this, but at the beginning of the movie she and Bradford are at an Italian restaurant having dinner in The City. Later in the movie she’s on the island and goes out to dinner with Bradford, who is visiting. And yet, mysteriously, the restaurant has the exact same layout AND the exact same white leather highback booths as the restaurant in The City.

6. Angus and Mrs. B. Correct me if I’m wrong, but did Angus and Mrs. B hook up? At some point Mrs. B shows up at the animal rescue to look at a pup that Marcus picked out for her, and instead she and Angus, Marcus’s co-worker, head out for lunch. Angus…um…he was at least 20 years younger than Mrs. B, right? And yet, when Lily walks in as they are leaving, Marcus comments that he’s a better matchmaker with humans than he is with dogs. Um….WHAT?

Those were the biggies. I actually have a few more (City Girl apparently doesn’t know how to use a Keurig, no home check for potential dog adopters, Marcus’s whole “not into the internet” thing) but I think six is enough.

Feelgoods

I did have a couple feels. I loved seeing the puddle jumper plane. When I lived in Washington state as a kid we lived on an island in the Puget Sound, and while we never took a puddle jumper to get there, it wasn’t unheard of for folks to travel via puddle jumper versus driving or taking a ferry.

At some point Marcus is scoffing at the notion of the Internet, and how disconnected you are from the real world. Lily tells him, “You can make a personal connection online,” which I appreciated. I met my husband online back in the 1990s, so YES, you CAN make a personal connection online, thankyouverymuch!

There were three songs featured in the movie, but I could only get the name and artist for the one from the opening credits. It is “More than a Memory” by 1985.

Re-watchability

I’d totally watch “Love on Harbor Island” again. The easy breezy storyline, the likeable actors, the feeling of fall (which I appreciate since summer is my least favorite season) – it all makes me want to watch this one again.

The Ranking

This movie would have definitely ranked a bit higher if it did not have so many headscratchers. But it still ranked pretty high! The listing below now includes not only “Harbor” but the other movies that have aired that I did not review, “Midway to Love” and “Romance in the Air.”

Matching Hearts (air date: Feb 8) – 640 pts – weighted score: 109.0 (76.5%)
Winter in Vail (air date: Jan 4) – 623 pts – weighted score: 108.8 (76.4%)
Love in Store (air date: Feb 22) – 637 pts – weighted score: 108.2 (75.9%)
Love on Harbor Island (air date: Aug 8) – 634 pts – weighted score: 106.9 (75.0%)
The Secret Ingredient (air date: Feb 15) – 617 pts – weighted score: 105.2 (73.8%)
You’re Bacon Me Crazy (air date: Apr 4) – 591 pts – weighted score: 104.0 (72.9%)
Fashionably Yours (air date: Apr 11) – 594 pts – weighted score: 102.6 (72.0%)
A Valentine’s Match (air date: Feb 1) – 562 pts – weighted score: 99.8 (70.0%)
Love On Iceland (air date: Jan 18) – 563 pts – weighted score: 99.4 (69.7%)
Hearts of Winter (air date: Jan 25) – 561 pts – weighted score: 98.2 (68.9%)
Just My Type (air date: Mar 28) – 565 pts – weighted score: 95.4% (66.9%)
Bad Date Chronicles (air date: Feb 28) – 520 pts – weighted score: 91.0 (63.9%)
Love in Winterland (air date: Jan 11) – 508 pts – weighted score: 90.7 (63.6%)
Nature of Love (air date: Apr 18) – 520 pts – weighted score: 90.3 (63.3%)
Amazing Winter Romance (air date: Jan 20) – 487 pts – weighted score: 85.6 (60.1%)
Love Under the Olive Tree (air date: June 20) – 473 pts – weighted score: 85.0 (59.6%)
In the Key of Love (air date: Mar 14) – 470 pts – weighted score: 82.5 (57.9%)
Love in the Forecast (air date: Jun 13) – 440 pts – weighted score: 72.5 (50.8%)
Midway to Love (air date: June 26) – 410 pts – weighted score: 69.0 (48.4%)
Romance in the Air (air date: Aug 1) – 367 pts – weighted score: 63.2 (44.3%)
How to Train Your Husband (air date: May 16) – 350 pts – weighted score: 62.5 (43.9%)