Hallmark For All Seasons

“Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” is the latest movie to air as part of Hallmark Channel’s 2021 Spring Fling set of movies. It starred Italia Ricci and Ryan Paevey. as part of the Love Ever After movies. Popular screenwriter Nina Weinman Swift (The Last Bridesmaid, Never Kiss a Man in a Christmas Sweater) penned this movie (which was originally called “Breakup Boot Camp”), while Terry Ingram (Deliver by Christmas) directed.

Music: The final song in the movie was Wonder by Shawn Mendes.

In a nutshell

I liked this movie a lot.  At first I was worried it was going to become one pithy motivational quote after another, but it moved past that and became a movie I could sit back and enjoy.

Plot of “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart”

Miranda runs a boot camp for the recently broken hearted. She begins to form a connection with new client Ben who is also a reporter, investigating whether her boot camp is a fad or a phenomenon.

Actors & Chemistry

I really, really, really, really like Italia Ricci.  She’s probably Top 5 Hallmark leading ladies for me at this point.  I liked her character from beginning to end and liked that she experienced growth.  And I’ll finally admit it – I like Ryan Paevey.  I know I’ve been slow to come around on him (and I still hate the Darcy movies), but he was good in this and I’ve come to look forward to his movies.  Hopefully the #PaeveyPack will leave me alone now and not sic the dogs on me. *lol*

This movie was different from normal Hallmark fare in that BOTH Ben and Miranda could be considered the lead characters.  It could be a movie about how Miranda finally addresses her past pain, but it could also be a movie about how Ben realizes he can open up and be vulnerable again while still focusing on his career.

Ricci and Paevey were well suited to each other and while I didn’t get a feel of smoking chemistry, I DID get a sense of genuine friendship between Miranda and Ben as they continued to get to know each other, with a sprinkle of romance in the 2nd half of the movie, which is as it should be.

Tropes

I appreciated that the marble laptop cover has made a reappearance.  I’ve missed it. Ben’s sister wore the circle necklace this time around. Later on Ben wiped ketchup or mustard from her lip when they were eating hot dogs together. I didn’t track any other tropes except for the GIANT “noom” product placement poster in the rock climbing scene.

Did I Hear/See That Right?

Did the dance instructor actually teach them a dance? Because no one was doing anything the same.

I didn’t find too much to nitpick other than a few of the early pithy motivational speeches that Miranda gave.  None of it was pure nonsense, though, it just was very heavy-handed at the outset while the movie was setting its premise

Feelgoods

Hallmark movies in general are always positive movies, right?  But I liked that Miranda refused to let the broken heart recovery turn negative, but instead asked her students to consider positive, constructive methods for recovery.  I had a friend that had a HORRIBLE breakup, and when she discovered her partner’s infidelities while he was out of town, she trashed their entire apartment and moved out.  And while it probably felt like a good (if extremely destructive) release at the time, she wasn’t able to heal and when she saw him many months later on the street, all that unresolved pain came back and she verbally attacked him – this despite the fact she was dating someone else at the time.  So, I do think Miranda’s positivity-focused methods were the best way to get over a bad breakup.

It’s not often with a Hallmark movie that a camera shot is so neat to watch that it takes me out of the movie and brings me to focus on moviemaking.  However, in this movie there was a scene where Miranda meets Ben at his office, and he takes her to lunch at the hot dog stand.  There was a tracking shot where the camera was far away from them as they walked away from the hot dog cart to the bridge.  As they walked, the camera came closer to them until it was finally doing an over-the-shoulder close-up of Italia Ricci.  I loved that shot.

I liked how even though he was on the rebound, Ben totally began flirting with Miranda the more he recovered from his breakup.  And Miranda wasn’t having it.  But he wasn’t accepting her rejection either.  And she wasn’t really rejecting him.

 Re-watchability

I would definitely watch this one again.  Italia Ricci was great, I liked the middle section of the movie where their friendship blossomed, and I’ve even come around to the Paevey way.

The Ranking

“Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” was a winner and has landed in the Top 3 so far in 2021.

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. Don’t Go Breaking My Heart (air date: Mar 27) – 636 pts – weighted score: 108.5 (76.1%)
4. A Winter Getaway (air date: Jan 23) – 620 pts – weighted score: 104.4 (73.3%)
5. Mix Up in the Mediterranean (air date: Feb 20) – 590 pts – weighted score: 102.5 (71.9%)
6. Two For The Win (air date: Jan 16) – 603 pts – weighted score: 101.8 (71.4%)
7. Chasing Waterfalls (air date: Mar 20) – 570 pts – weighted score: 100.3 (70.4%)
8. Fit for a Prince (air date: Mar 6) – 546 pts – weighted score: 94.6 (66.4%)
9. A New Year’s Resolution (air date: Jan 9) – 516 pts – weighted score: 90.5 (63.5%)
10. Playing Cupid (air date: Feb 13) – 466 pts – weighted score: 82.6 (58.0%)
11. Beverly Hills Wedding (air date: Feb 6) – 431 pts – weighted score: 80.6 (56.5%)
12. 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 “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart”?  Comment below and let me know!