Hallmark For All Seasons

“Chasing Waterfalls” was the premiere event as part of Hallmark Channel’s 2021 Spring Fling set of movies. It aired on March 20, 2021 and starred Cindy Busby and Christopher Russell, who reunited after last co-starring in Love in the Forecast. The movie also featured young Cassidy Nugent, who #Hallmarkies and #Hearties alike will recognize from When Calls the Heart.

A trio of writers put this movie together: Jason Bourque, Tamara Junkin and Christie Will Wolf. Christie Will Wolf (Five Star Christmas, A Valentine’s Match) also directed. The movie’s gorgeous scenery can be found all around Squamish, British Columbia, in Canada.

Music: The opening scene featured the bubbly song Make It Come to Life (affiliate link) created by a collaboration of people: Lee Richardson, Jonathan Murrill, Tom Ford, James Cocozza, and Susanna Lopez.  The song that played while Amy photographed Angel Falls is I Won’t Let You Go (affiliate link), another collaborative song by Raphael Lake, Anders Sohn, and Loke Roche.

One other interesting music note is that actor Peter Graham-Gaudreau, who I think might have been responsible for the end scene song I loved in “Forecast,” also wrote and performed three songs for this movie, including what I believe is the song that plays while Amy walks among Redwood Falls AND the song that Christopher Russell’s character sings at the open mic night.

CORRECTION:  I found out from a fellow Hallmarkie named Sheila that the song Over the Moon (affiliate link) that Mark sings at open mic night was actually done by Julian Taylor, a Canadian singer-songwriter.   And I confirmed that the song while Amy walks through the Redwood Falls is indeed Peter Graham-Gaudreau’s song, off his 2001 album.  It’s entitled “It’s All Right Here.”  Thanks again to Sheila, I found out that he posted a live version of it on Instagram last night (the intro and song start at 10:03).  If you like the song, you can buy the CD from his Facebook shop (Peter G-G).

In a nutshell

I’m not sure what I was expecting, but I liked the movie more than I thought I would.  To be clear, it’s a movie about nothing (it’s literally just watching people walk around in the woods), but I didn’t mind it.

Plot of “Chasing Waterfalls”

Photographer Amy travels to a remote lodge to find mythical waterfalls and falls for handsome guide, Mark. They adventure to find the mystic waterfall and discover their true feelings.

Actors & Chemistry

Cindy Busby does a fine job, but her characters tend to be borderline annoying at times.  Thankfully, Amy was only annoying for the first 10-15 minutes and then she settled down and was just fine.  Christopher Russell was good, although knowing from interviews how funny and deadpan he can be I was hoping that we’d see a bit of that here.

I thought Cassidy Nugent was great as Mark’s daughter Kyra.  I especially thought she was a good match with Cindy Busby’s Amy, even if I didn’t necessarily believe that she and Christopher Russell were father/daughter.  Not only that, but I almost think it would have been a better movie with Cindy as the hiking guide with the daughter and Christopher as the photographer.  Then Christopher could have had a touch of humor in his role playing the fish out of water with the camping and bears and such.

Tropes

Adorable older pup sitting with the gentleman Amy photographed in the first scene.  Turns out there’s a promotion on the line with the waterfall photos Amy has to take, but as we find out later, the promotion is not quite what she wants.  She wants freedom and creativity. Overhead drone shot of a lone car on the open road! Cute kid belonging to a single dad.  That’s about it, really.

Did I Hear/See That Right?

The very premise of the movie is a bit absurd.  Mythical waterfalls that have never been photographed?  They wouldn’t by mythical at that point, they’d be undiscovered.  But then we find out they aren’t mythical OR undiscovered – it’s just that the hiking guides don’t want people to visit and destroy the woods with their trash.

Amy arrives at Suzy Falls and takes 3-4 photos and says it’s time to go.  I work for a company that does photography as a piece of their business.  When our folks go out to photograph something, they take literally HUNDREDS of photos of one thing before moving on.  I’m not a photographer, but I would think a magazine photographer would take more than 3-4 photos to make sure they truly got the best shot they could find.

At the halfway point of the movie Amy claims that she’s head over heels in love with Mark.  After a few days? A few hikes? NO NO NO NO NO NO.  I really dislike when movies do that.  Even Hallmark movies.

Did she change into silky PJ pants for her night camping in the woods?

Piano players do not cross their legs when they play.  I say this as someone who has played piano since I was 6 years old.

Feelgoods

The scenery WAS gorgeous, but here is where I admit that I HATE the outdoors.  With all the walking in the woods they did all I could imagine was how many spider webs they’d potentially walk through. *shudder*  As such, I’ll admire it from afar.

Amy’s panicked scream upon seeing the bear was hilarious and would 100% be my own reaction.  As would peeing my pants. *lol*

Rappelling always reminds me of the time in college when some friends of mine and I went to go rappelling off a bridge in the next town over.  As we were walking down the train tracks that led to the bridge, my friend Daniel fell and dislocated his pinky finger.  It looked like a curly fry.  I ended up taking him to the hospital to have it fixed and we sat in the examination room so long I got mad and stole a bunch of tongue depressors and latex gloves out of spite. We missed out on rappelling but I have an awesome picture of Daniel and me back at the bridge, his finger in a splint.

“There’s something about a grandparent that’s hard to replace.”  Yep. 100%.

I legit laughed out loud when the other teen boy gave a thumbs up when Hunter asked Kyra to dance.

Re-watchability

I don’t know if I’d necessarily seek this movie out if it were to come across my path, but I’d probably watch a scene or two if the scenes between Busby and Nugent were on. And that’s not a knock against Russell – I like him.  But the movie was just kind of lackluster, and I’m not sure I need to see people wandering in the woods again claiming to love each other after only 2 days.

The Ranking

“Chasing Waterfalls” is solidly in the middle of the pack.  I haven’t watched “Fit for a Prince” yet (thus no review a couple weeks ago), but I suspect “Waterfalls” would keep its place at #6 thus far even if I had.

1. It Was Always You (air date: Feb 27) – 668 pts – weighted score: 114.2 (80.1%)
2. Taking a Shot at Love (air date: Jan 2) – 641 pts – weighted score: 108.9 (76.4%)
3. A Winter Getaway (air date: Jan 23) – 620 pts – weighted score: 104.4 (73.3%)
4. Mix Up in the Mediterranean (air date: Feb 20) – 590 pts – weighted score: 102.5 (71.9%)
5. Two For The Win (air date: Jan 16) – 603 pts – weighted score: 101.8 (71.4%)
6. Chasing Waterfalls (air date: Mar 20) – 570 pts – weighted score: 100.3 (70.4%)
7. A New Year’s Resolution (air date: Jan 9) – 516 pts – weighted score: 90.5 (63.5%)
8. Playing Cupid (air date: Feb 13) – 466 pts – weighted score: 82.6 (58.0%)
9. Beverly Hills Wedding (air date: Feb 6) – 431 pts – weighted score: 80.6 (56.5%)
10. 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 “Chasing Waterfalls”?  Comment below and let me know!