Hallmark For All Seasons

It’s not often that Hallmark makes or acquires a movie that is so poorly put together that I hesitate to review it.  In fact, most times when the movie is really bad, I opt NOT to review it.  I watched “Follow Me to Daisy Hills” fully intending to like it – in fact, I watched it twice just in case I was missing something.  And in the end, I had no choice but to admit that this movie was an abject failure, despite having Hallmark favorite Cindy Busby as the lead.

In a nutshell

As such, I will not be doing a traditional review for this movie, mostly because most of the review will be a lament regarding the glaring issues that we all experienced when watching it.

Plot for “Follow Me to Daisy Hills”

When Jo realizes that her family’s general store in Daisy Hills is losing money, her father Duke calls in a favor to help. Duke’s help is Jo’s ex-boyfriend, Blake, former Daisy Hills native.

Actors/Chemistry

Cindy Busby was fine – it was a standard performance from her.  Marshall Williams allowed the style team to slick back his hair (maybe to make him appear like a Big City Boy?) and only succeeded in making him appear more than 10 years younger than his co-star.  Which, hey, that’s great for Marshall Williams to look that young at 31 years old, but not so great for 37-year-old Busby who was already contending with a six-year gap.

Did I Hear/See That Right?

This movie had so many issues, both big and small, that I don’t even know where to start.  I’ve already mentioned the age gap, which wouldn’t have been a big deal if they styled Williams differently AND used more flattering camera angles on Busby.  She’s a pretty woman, and they managed to make her appear dowdy in her closeups.

1. What’s up with the music?  Lots of people complained about the music, and I’ll add my name to the list of complainers as well.  Whoever did sound editing on this movie must have been sleeping on the job.  I even futzed around with my sound system to see if the problem was MINE, but once I saw people on Twitter talking about how distracting the music was, I knew it wasn’t me.  And it wasn’t just the volume of it taking over the dialogue (I turned on my captions at some point).  There were also many scenes where the music would be slow and contemplative during a serious conversation only to switch to bouncy and light as the serious scene was ending and switching to a “happier” scene BEFORE it made the jump to the next scene.  It was jarring and off-putting.

2. What’s up with the color saturation? Yes, the filmed the movie in Winnipeg in the fall (as evidenced by the yellow leaves seen on the trees around town), but you can’t make a non-Fall Harvest movie into a Fall Harvest movie by turning up the color saturation in editing to make EVERY SCENE have a decidedly orangey-yellow hue. The interior shots in the Daisy Hills store were the worst offender.

3. The store.  Oh, the store.  What can I say about the store?   Well, it appears the only thing they sell are weird Canadian potato chips, purses, nuts, and candy.  She wants to keep all the windows fearing their ruin the history of the building.  There is so much open unused space in that store it’s a wonder it didn’t go out of business WAY before Jo’s dad called Blake for help.  Blake tries to provide feedback on changes Jo could make to allow the store to succeed, and she shuts them all down but admits she doesn’t like the sign.  That’s it.  The rest of the family’s entire business model, though, is clearly…working?

And THEN Jo gets Bob the food truck guy to take up a spot in her store, and yet he’s still going to use the truck to cook the ribs?  What? I still think you need a food license to be allowed to sell hot fresh food even if it’s cooked on the truck parked outside (someone correct me if I’m wrong). And the florist lady sets up a booth but flowers generally need a cool spot to stay fresh, so good luck keeping those flowers from wilting before noon. The only addition that made sense was getting Henry to bring in his woodwork to sell in the store for a portion of the profit.

4. Henry’s whittling.  Jo knows farmer Henry pretty well, but has no idea he makes all those HUGE FANCY wooden sculptures?  And then when she asks about it, he calls it a hobby?  And then when Blake asks him if he’s ever heard of the Internet (meaning “you can sell these online, man!”), Henry merely responds, “I’m a multitasker.”  Wait, what???

5. WHICH college does she want to attend?  Jo’s younger sister wants to go to Iowa University, which is great, except that school doesn’t exist.  There’s University of Iowa, and Iowa State University.  So which is it?  That seems like such an unavoidable mistake, and yet there it is. A five-second search on the Internet could have helped all involved with this movie fix that error.

6. Mailbox flag – up or down?  I know this film was made in Canada.  But it’s set in Minnesota, which is part of the US.  In the US, when homeowners put outgoing mail in their mailbox, the flag goes up to alert the mailperson that there’s mail for them to take.  Yet another example of a simple detail that could be easily fact-checked to make sure you do what’s geographically appropriate and NOT call attention to the fact the movie was filmed in Canada, not the US.

7. Computer snooping and drunk dialing.  Jo’s sister Sophie falls asleep on the sofa while working on her college admissions essay.  Jo moves said laptop to the dining room table and proceeds to not only read the essay with permission BUT also drinks an entire bottle of red wine (apparently in 2-3 minutes – however long it takes to read a college entrance essay) and then drunk dials the college admissions office to demand they accept her sister?  Really?  And not only that, but Sophie doesn’t wake up during the phone call which is only taking place 12 feet away in the other room?  The GOOD news is they at least finally called the college by the right now – Sophie referred to it as the University of Iowa when she was rightly yelling at Jo for invading her privacy.

Feelgoods

None.  Zero.

Re-watchability

I don’t plan on ever watching this movie again.

The Ranking

This movie is not in last place for the year, but “Follow Me to Daisy Hills” VERY close to that lowest spot.  It should be noted that THREE Busby movies are in my bottom five right now.  Some may think that it’s because I don’t like Cindy Busby, but that is NOT the case.  I just think Hallmark keeps giving her subpar material to work with.  And they aren’t miscasting her either – she’s a perfect fit for the characters she plays.  It’s the stories and how they are told that have a great need for improvement.

1. Matching Hearts (air date: Feb 8) – 640 pts – weighted score: 109.0 (76.5%)
2. Winter in Vail (air date: Jan 4) – 623 pts – weighted score: 108.8 (76.4%)
3. Wedding Every Weekend (air date: Aug 15) – 639 pts – weighted score: 108.3 (76.0%)
4. Love in Store (air date: Feb 22) – 637 pts – weighted score: 108.2 (75.9%)
5. Love on Harbor Island (air date: Aug 8) – 634 pts – weighted score: 106.9 (75.0%)
6. The Secret Ingredient (air date: Feb 15) – 617 pts – weighted score: 105.2 (73.8%)
7. You’re Bacon Me Crazy (air date: Apr 4) – 591 pts – weighted score: 104.0 (72.9%)
8. Fashionably Yours (air date: Apr 11) – 594 pts – weighted score: 102.6 (72.0%)
9. A Valentine’s Match (air date: Feb 1) – 562 pts – weighted score: 99.8 (70.0%)
10. Love On Iceland (air date: Jan 18) – 563 pts – weighted score: 99.4 (69.7%)
11. Hearts of Winter (air date: Jan 25) – 561 pts – weighted score: 98.2 (68.9%)
12. Just My Type (air date: Mar 28) – 565 pts – weighted score: 95.4% (66.9%)
13. Bad Date Chronicles (air date: Feb 28) – 520 pts – weighted score: 91.0 (63.9%)
14. Love in Winterland (air date: Jan 11) – 508 pts – weighted score: 90.7 (63.6%)
15. Nature of Love (air date: Apr 18) – 520 pts – weighted score: 90.3 (63.3%)
16. Amazing Winter Romance (air date: Jan 20) – 487 pts – weighted score: 85.6 (60.1%)
17. Love Under the Olive Tree (air date: June 20) – 473 pts – weighted score: 85.0 (59.6%)
18. In the Key of Love (air date: Mar 14) – 470 pts – weighted score: 82.5 (57.9%)
19. Love in the Forecast (air date: Jun 13) – 440 pts – weighted score: 72.5 (50.8%)
20. Midway to Love (air date: June 26) – 410 pts – weighted score: 69.0 (48.4%)
21. Romance in the Air (air date: Aug 1) – 367 pts – weighted score: 63.2 (44.3%)
22. Follow Me to Daisy Hills (air date: Sept 19) – 337 pts – weighted score: 62.8 (44.1%)
23. How to Train Your Husband (air date: May 16) – 350 pts – weighted score: 62.5 (43.9%)

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

What did you think of Hallmark’s “Follow Me to Daisy Hills”?  Comment below and let me know!

Follow Me to Daisy Hills Share on X