Hallmark For All Seasons

Another “catch up” post with a write-up of a movie that came out a few weeks ago. “Taking the Reins” aired on September 25, 2021 and starred Nikki Deloach and Scott Porter, along with Corbin Bernsen and Janine Turner.

Alex Wright and Ron Oliver shared writing credits on this one.  Wright has both written AND directed for Hallmark since 2019.  Ron Oliver has been with Hallmark since at least 2012, both writing and directing for them.  For this movie, Clare Niederpruem directed.   She previously directed such movies as Her Pen Pal and As Luck Would Have It.

The movie was filmed in Connecticut, and I have the pleasure of knowing two of the extras that were featured in at least one shot during the movie!  It was fun to see them pop up on my screen during the horse jumping competition near the end of the movie.  Meadowbrook Farm is an actual place that boards and trains horses, in Marlborough, Connecticut.

Music: The music playing as Samantha arrived at her parents’ farm was Bringing It Home (affiliate link) by Scott Jackson & Mo Buckley.  The song that played when Samantha and Luke went for a ride was All That Matters (affiliate link) by Paul Thorne & Michael Tedstone.

In a nutshell

I liked it, but I miss the day of Nikki DeLoach playing more freewheeling characters.

The Plot of “Taking the Reins”

Writer Samantha goes back to the family ranch to write an article about her passion for horses and discovers what ended her marriage to Luke, and why she stopped riding horses. 

Actors & Chemistry

I thought DeLoach and Porter were very well paired.  I 100% believed that those two as a formerly married couple.  Longtime readers of this site will know I ADORE Nikki DeLoach and think she can do no wrong.  She is very intentional in the projects she picks, and she almost never goes wrong.  Add in Scott Porter, of whom I’m also a big fan, and this was a winning combination.  The romantic moments were palpable in this movie!

What a delight to have Corbin Bernsen and Janine Turner on TV again.  Fans will recognize him from so many iconic roles, from Arnie Becker on “L.A. Law” in the 1980s and 1990s to Henry Becker on “Psych” in the 2000s.  Janine Turner, of course, played Maggie on “Northern Exposure” in the 1990s and a season as Katie McCoy on “Friday Night Lights” in the 2000s.  These two titans of TV were perfectly brought together as Samantha’s parents and I LOVED that they had more than just a couple scenes.

Tropes

Samantha leaves the big city to go back to her hometown where her ex lives. The house had a gorgeous porch, although it was a side porch, not on the front of the house.  We didn’t have a baking montage involving flour being thrown, but we did have a water fight in the barn.  Does that count?

We had a mid-movie kiss.  And then we had another one – a big one – a few scenes later!

Did I Hear/See That Right?

Not sure ANY bar in the world would be airing a horse jumping competition on their TV sets.  Much less NYC.  Unless it was a horse-themed bar.  Which that bar most definitely was not.

I lived in the NYC area for a few years and never, not once, did I form a personal relationship with a random bodega owner, bus ticket vendor, or taxi cab drive.  Similarly, there’s no way that Samantha would have a personal “friendship” with a hansom cab driver and his horse in Central Park.

Samantha is clearly a woman in her 30s.  At one point is it okay for the parents to take back the teenaged bedroom and convert it to something more useful like a home gym or a guest room?  Because I’ll tell you this much – the moment my daughter moves out of the room over the garage that thing is turning back into a clean, orderly guest room.

Who names their furniture?  The couch’s name was Winston?  I’m trying to think back through my life and the only household item I ever named was my baby blanket.  I don’t know anyone who ever named a sofa.

I’m not going to talk about the color-correction on the leaves that bordered on horrendously fake in some scenes, but I AM going to talk about the ridiculous up-shots on Nikki DeLoach’s face when she was supposedly running the horse.  Or maybe I don’t need to. I’ll let them speak for themselves.

Feelgoods

Wow did I have so many feels having ‘Jason Street’ back on my TV, and all grown up!  Fans of one of the greatest TV shows of all time, “Friday Night Lights” immediately knew that Scott Porter, playing Luke, is none other than Jason Street from FNL.

“Are you still in love with me?”  “Yes.  Are you in love with me?”  “Yes.”

The conversation that Samantha and her dad had in the house during the competition, when he showed her that he was proud of her and that he missed her – that was a powerful scene, if only because Nikki DeLoach lost her father to Alzheimer’s shortly after filming that scene, and I’m sure those emotions running across her face during her movie dad’s confession were entirely real.

General Thoughts

I appreciate that Nikki DeLoach is sharing stories of women who are widowed, divorced, separated.  For too long Hallmark has focused on young ingenues with no real life experience.  However, I wish Nikki would make one or two more movies each year where the lead female was in a good place and just happened to fall in love.

I’m not sure Samantha and Luke resolved the reasons for their eventual divorce.  They danced around the “whys” of it all, but a couple conversations and a couple nostalgic kisses over a two week period do not equal reconciliation.  I imagine it’ll take a lot more work than that.

Re-watchability

Because I tend to rewatch the movies that are very lighthearted and whimsical (with a few exceptions), I don’t know if I’d watch this one again, but that is not to say it wasn’t worth watching in the first place.

The Ranking

“Taking the Reins” is almost dead center of the pack.  If you haven’t watched it, I do recommend it simply because Nikki DeLoach always offers a master class in how to connect emotionally with a character in any project you are in.

1. Crashing Through The Snow (air date: July 10) – 705 pts – weighted score: 118.1 (82.8%)
2. It Was Always You (air date: Feb 27) – 668 pts – weighted score: 114.2 (80.1%)
3. You Had Me At Aloha (air date: June 5) – 675 pts – weighted score: 111.4 (78.1%)
4. Sweet Carolina (air date: May 15) – 648 pts – weighted score: 110.1 (77.2%)
5. Taking a Shot at Love (air date: Jan 2) – 641 pts – weighted score: 108.9 (76.4%)
6. Don’t Go Breaking My Heart (air date: Mar 27) – 636 pts – weighted score: 108.5 (76.1%)
7. Right in Front of Me (air date: Apr 18) – 637 pts – weighted score: 108.0 (75.8%)
8. As Luck Would Have It (air date: Apr 10) – 638 pts – weighted score: 107.7 (75.5%)
9. Her Pen Pal (air date: June 19) – 636 pts – weighted score: 107.1 (75.1%)
10. The Baker’s Son (air date: June 13) – 637 pts – weighted score: 106.3 (74.6%)
11. Love Strikes Twice (air date: Oct 2) – 608 pts – weighted score: 105.2 (73.8%)
12. A Winter Getaway (air date: Jan 23) – 620 pts – weighted score: 104.4 (73.3%)
13. Love, For Real (air date: July 31) – 607 pts – weighted score: 103.6 (72.7%)
14. Mix Up in the Mediterranean (air date: Feb 20) – 590 pts – weighted score: 102.5 (71.9%)
15. Two For The Win (air date: Jan 16) – 603 pts – weighted score: 101.8 (71.4%)
16. Taking the Reins (air date: Sept 28) – 574 pts – weighted score: 101.2 (71.0%)
17. Chasing Waterfalls (air date: Mar 20) – 570 pts – weighted score: 100.3 (70.4%)
18. Roadhouse Romance (air date: Sept 11) – 571 pts – weighted score: 100.2 (70.3%)
19. Sweet Pecan Summer (air date: ) – 576 pts – weighted score: 97.3 (68.3%)
20. Sand Dollar Cove (air date: June 26) – 557 pts – weighted score: 96.8 (67.9%)
21. Hearts Down Under (air date: Apr 24) – 547 pts – weighted score: 95.2 (66.8%)
22. Fit for a Prince (air date: Mar 6) – 546 pts – weighted score: 94.6 (66.4%)
23. A New Year’s Resolution (air date: Jan 9) – 516 pts – weighted score: 90.5 (63.5%)
24. A Little Daytime Drama (air date: Aug 21) – 511 pts – weighted score: 87.7 (61.5%)
25. Baby, It’s Cold Inside (air date: May 8) – 495 pts – weighted score: 85.6 (60.0%)
26. Playing Cupid (air date: Feb 13) – 466 pts – weighted score: 82.6 (58.0%)
27. Beverly Hills Wedding (air date: Feb 6) – 431 pts – weighted score: 80.6 (56.5%)
28. Journey of my Heart (air date: ) – 450 pts – weighted score: 76.0 (53.3%)
29. Snowkissed (air date: Jan 31) – 402 pts – weighted score: 76.0 (53.3%)

To see where this movie lands in my overall rankings of Hallmark movies, visit my Hallmark Movie Rankings page!

What did you think of “Taking the Reins”?  Comment below and let me know!