Hallmark For All Seasons

“From Friend to Fiance” aired on May 25, 2019 on the Hallmark Channel and starred the delightful Jocelyn Hudon and Ryan Paevey.  “From Friend to Fiance” was filmed entirely in Toronto, Canada.

In a nutshell

I liked this one, although not as much as I hoped.  The commercials made it look so, so good, and while it was definitely enjoyable (and I’ll watch it when it repeats), I felt a bit disappointed when the closing credits started up, because I felt something was missing.  However, it was still enjoyable though due to a VERY VERY likeable leading lady in Jocelyn Hudon and a much more natural Ryan Paevey, who is starting to grow on me.

Plot

This one seems straight out an old school Harlequin romance novel: When her childhood and lifelong best friend Ted (Ryan Paevey) gets engaged to the “Regina George” mean girl from high school, Jess (Jocelyn Hudon) begrudgingly begins to plan their wedding.  But things get complicated when she realizes that she has loved Ted all along.

Actors

Did I mention how much I liked Jocelyn Hudon?  Let me say it again: I adored her.  She absolutely won the movie for me.  She reminded me a lot of Rachel Bilson in some of her mannerisms and delivery, and she just ended up being so completely charming on screen.  I look forward to her next Hallmark movie, “Eat Drink and Be Married” which should be released later in 2019.

Secondly, I will admit I have not been a major fan of Ryan Paevey in recent years – as an Austen purist, his Mr. Darcy movies on Hallmark make me cringe.  I know his character is supposed to be stiff and formal, but that type of formality just doesn’t sit well on Paevey.  But his portrayal of Big Ted in this movie?  So, so much more enjoyable as a viewer! He definitely seemed more comfortable in this more casual character as well.  I really liked how relaxed and natural he was compared to his Darcy movies.  Hope he picks more characters to play like this going forward! If he does, he just might rise in the ranks of my favorite male Hallstars.

Jocelyn Hudon may have our furthest degree of separation from Kris Polaha at this point – a whopping four steps to connect them!  She had a small role in 2016’s “Below Her Mouth” with Mayko Nguyen, who costarred with Crystal Lowe in 2004’s “Going the Distance.”  Lowe then had a role in 2010’s “Hot Tub Time Machine,” which also featured Collette Wolfe, who shared the screen with Polaha in “Devil’s Knot” in 2013.

Chemistry

It may be mean for me to say this, but I give all props to Jocelyn Hudon for the chemistry on this one.  I mean, look at her face in the picture up there.  She completely sells Jess’s evolving crush on Ted (and the early scene pictured above is when he tells her he’s engaged in the first place). It helps that Paevey is extremely easy on the eyes. *lol*

Feelgoods

My main feelgood was Jess’s friendships with the old bitties she helped at her job.  Long-time readers of my regular blog know my grandmother was one of my favorite people in the world and as a teenager I loved hanging out with her and her old bitty friends during my summer vacations.  So seeing Jess so clearly enjoy her time with the oldsters reminded me of the good times I had with my grandmother before her passing at age 99.

Tropes

To be honest, I did not take many notes during this movie, so I don’t remember if there were any significant tropes in this movie.  There was no job on the line, no returning to small towns, no fake drinks.  They did have cups of water in the beginning, but this time out it looked like they actually had water in the cups this time around.

Did I Hear/See That Right?

So, let’s talk about that childhood treehouse.  Ted at some point says, “I haven’t been up here in years.” And yet, the decorations all looked like they had been made yesterday, and despite being exposed to sun, rain and possibly snow all those “years,” the treehouse (which had big open holes for windows, not actual glass windows to protect the interior (see below)) looked almost brand new.  That’s my biggest issue with the movie.  It was so glaringly NOT a childhood treehouse that it annoyed me tremendously.

There’s also some weird unresolved issues.  Kate (Ted’s fiance) keeps getting harassing phone calls from her ex-boyfriend, and yet we don’t know what the reason for that and it never gets resolved.  Also, Kate’s high school friends were awful people and I think if she had truly changed she’d have identified that they were the worst and NOT remained friends with them.

Also, I don’t know many retirement homes that allow their residents to go off campus completely unsupervised, much less ride scooters around town.

Re-watchability

Thanks to the winsome Jocelyn Hudon and much less Darcy-wooden Ryan Paevey, yes I’ll be watching this one again.

The Ranking

So where does it fit in the rankings?  It’s in the lower half, and as I said at the beginning I think there was great potential with this story.

1. Winter Love Story (air date: January 19) – 685 pts – weighted score: 115.8 (81.2%)
2. Love to the Rescue (air date: March 23) – 679 points – weighted score: 115.4 (80.9%)
3. Mystery 101 (air date: January 27 (HMM)) – 454 pts – weighted score: 94.2 (80.5%)
4. Love on the Menu (air date: February 23) – 642 pts – weighted score: 113.8 (79.9%)
5. Bottled With Love (air date: April 13) – 649 pts – weighted score: 112.2 (78.7%)
6. Love Takes Flight (air date: April 27) – 670 points – weighted score: 111.0 (77.9%)
7. Love, Romance & Chocolate (air date: February 16) – 627 pts – weighted score: 110.2 (77.3%)
8. Paris, Wine & Romance (air date: May 4) – 638 points – weighted score: 108.3 (76.0%)
9. Flip That Romance (air date: March 16) – 597 points – weighted score: 105.8 (74.2%)
10. True Love Blooms (air date: April 6) – 598 points – weighted score: 103.1 (72.3%)
11. The Story of Us (air date: February 9) – 605 pts – weighted score: 101.3 (71.1%)
12. A Brush with Love (air date: March 30) – 563 points – weighted score: 97.7 (68.6%)
13. Ruby Herring: Silent Witness (air date: January 20 (HMM)) – 357 pts – weighted score: 79.5 (67.9%)
14. Love Under the Rainbow (air date: March 9) – 581 pts – weighted score: 96.0 (67.4%)
15. One Winter Proposal (air date: January 12) – 535 pts – weighted score: 95.8 (67.2%)
16. Just Add Romance (air date: March 2) – 548 points – weighted score: 95.6 (67.1%)
17. From Friend to Fiance (air date: May 25) – 555 points – weighted score: 94.8% (66.5%)
18. Crossword Mysteries: A Puzzle to Die For (air date: March 10 (HMM) – 354 pts – weighted score: 74.1 (63.3%)
19. Valentine in the Vineyard (air date: February 2) – 503 pts – weighted score: 89.5 (62.8%)
20. Snowcoming (air date: January 26) – 485 pts – weighted score: 87.3 (61.2%)
21. The Winter Castle (air date: January 5) – 475 pts – weighted score: 85.9 (60.2%)
22. Sailing Into Love (air date: May 18) – 455 points – weighted score: 78.0 (54.7%)
23. A Winter Princess (air date: January 18) – 380 pts – weighted score: 70.5 (49.5%)
24. A Feeling of Home (air date: May 11) – 386 points – weighted score: 69.7% (48.9%)

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

What did you think of “From Friend to Fiance”?