Hallmark continues to do well with its Love Ever After series this month, thanks to another strong movie this past weekend, this time starring Taylor Cole and Ryan Paevey. Hallmark’s “Matching Hearts,” originally aired on February 8, 2020, and despite being set in Portland, Oregon was filmed in and around Vancouver, Canada.
In a nutshell
I really enjoyed watching this movie. The entire cast was fantastic and despite being light on the tropes we know and love, it was a great movie heading into Valentine’s Week!
Plot
As Valentine’s Day nears, matchmaker Julia (Taylor Cole) is tasked by her mentor to find a match for an entrepreneur (Ryan Paevey) who believes staying single is the key to success.
Actors/Chemistry
Do we all agree that Taylor Cole and Ryan Paevey need to be in more movies together? This was an outstanding pairing on all fronts and I hope Hallmark pairs them up again in the future! I love her pairing with Michael Rady in “Christmas at Homestead” but I’m now fully onboard with a permanent Rady/Nikki DeLoach pairing, so I’m quite content with having Cole/Paevey be a regular thing, too.
And I really liked the entire cast, from Julia’s co-workers to her parents to Daniel’s friend (and Julia’s client). Every single secondary role was cast to perfection and I really appreciated the diverse cast as well. Not only that, but this movie represented a return of my beloved Hallmark Lobby, although THIS time we also got to see the front doors, which have never been shown in a previous movie, to my knowledge. This lobby is featured in MANY Hallmark and Lifetime movies, and it’s always a treat to see it pop up every now and again. They also use the 2nd floor of this building, which I’ve also captured in photos in the past. Cheers to the Hallmark Lobby!
Six Degrees of Kris Polaha: Taylor Cole was in a thriller called “The Violent Kind” back in 2010, which also featured Joe Egender. Egender went on to much larger role in 2015’s “I Remember You.” This movie also featured Stefanie Butler. Butler previously portrayed Ruth Bell Graham in 2008’s “Billy: The Early Years,” which also starred Polaha.
Tropes in “Matching Hearts”
As I said earlier, this movie did not feature a lot of tropes. It did start with the drone shots of the big city, and it also featured a few big scarves. But for the most part, other than cute puppies and a family-owned business, there wasn’t much.
Did I Hear/See That Right?
There were a few things to nitpick, despite being a really enjoyable movie. First, when Julia goes to visit her parents’ flower shop to see the arrangements for her friend’s engagement party, the mom put what appeared to be blue and purple hyacinths in a vase. Julia declared the arrangement to be beautiful. Um…no it wasn’t not in the least. But sure enough, in a later scene at the party, there were those awful flower arrangements on the table.
At the star-gazer date, the astronomer mispronounced Cassopeia not once, but twice. She did say it correctly one time, but the first and third times she said “Cassi-OH-pee-uh.” Cringe. Could they not do a quick ADR session to fix that?
Gwen, played by Donna Benedicto, was initially introduced as being the matchmaking company’s IT person. In my world (and much of the rest of the world), IT means dealing with computer networks, help desk issues, and generally dealing with all things behind the scenes to ensure the company’s computer system runs smoothly. And yet in this movie apparently it also means attending meetings in which people are matched, and doing actual computer programming (which I suppose COULD be considered IT, although that is NOT typical when someone says they are in IT).
Lastly, Julie says she wants to invite all the company’s clients to attend the Valentine’s Day party, not just the matched couples. I paused the movie and counted a total of 40 people attending that party, and that INCLUDES the 4-5 employees that we met during the movie. So…how is this company successful again?
Feelgoods
Plenty of things about this movie made me happy. I loved all the puppies, of course. I’m not a monster. I also laughed when the dad gave his advice “It all works out…until it doesn’t.” I also liked when Julia’s boss’s husband admitted to Julia that the reason the theme of the Valentine’s party has never changed in several years is that all the things they use – the venue, the caterer, the flowers – are from when he and his wife met and fell in love. VERY sweet.
Re-watchability
Well of course I’d watch this one again. It features a couple with great chemistry, some cute dogs, a better-than-normal script, and a fabulous cast.
The Ranking
“Matching Hearts” is currently sitting in the top spot after our first seven movies of the year have aired!
- 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%)
- 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%)
- Love in Winterland (air date: Jan 11) – 508 pts – weighted score: 90.7 (63.6%)
- Amazing Winter Romance (air date: Jan 20) – 487 pts – weighted score: 85.6 (60.1%)
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 “Matching Hearts”? Comment below and let me know!
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I loved this one!!! The chemistry between the 2 was fantastic!!
This was great and the two did convey their attraction to each other very convincingly. Will watch again!