“Roadhouse Romance” aired on September 11, 2021 as the opener to this year’s Fall Harvest collection, and starred country music star Lauren Alaina and Tyler Hynes. The movie takes place in Tennessee, but was actually filmed in Vancouver, Canada.
Paul Ziller, helmed this movie. He also directed Good Morning, Christmas and A Godwink Christmas: Meant for Love (among a few others). Sally Robinson, who is back to business after a 6-7 year hiatus (according to her IMDb page), penned the script.
Music: There was a lot of music featured in this movie. The song playing in the truck when Luke and Callie were driving to town was Impossible by Jim Wolfe. I tried to find a version for sale online but had no luck. It appears on an album called “50 Years of Country” covering the years 1961-1986, but the only place I could find the track is on Spotify.
The song Callie sang in the restaurant in the middle of the movie was Run (affiliate link) by Lauren Alaina herself. When she and Joe went on a date, she sang another one of her songs, What Do You Think of? (affiliate link). Finally, the song Callie sang at the Fall Festival, “When You Say Nothing At All,” has been performed by several artists over the years. Notable versions are by Keith Whitley, Alison Krauss, and Ronan Keating (all affiliate links).
In a nutshell
I feel like I could have liked this a lot more than I did. The script was decent, the scenery (that parts that weren’t CGI) was good, the vibe was good. It was just missing a spark that could have easily made it one of my favorites.
The Plot of “Roadhouse Romance”
Country music fan Callie is determined to continue her late grandfather’s legacy. While TV director Luke is in town, he teaches her that sometimes it’s best to look forward instead of back.
Actors & Chemistry
I’m going to preface this part of my synopsis by saying I LOVE LAUREN ALAINA. I truly do. I follow her on Instagram and I think she is charming, funny, outgoing and vivacious. Her personality positively sparkles and pops in her Insta stories. She’s the type of person I’d love to hang out with because I know she’d just make me laugh all night. Because of my love for her, I was very excited to have her show up in a Hallmark movie.
Unfortunately, her lack of acting experience showed, because her performance in this movie did not have any energy at all. It’s almost like the director felt Alaina was a handful of energy, and told her to tone it way, way down. WAY down. The result is that whenever her character had to respond in dialogue, she put a couple beats of silence in there before responding. Every time. It caused the movie to drag because I kept waiting for Alaina to say her lines.
I don’t know if that was just how she approached the character, the level of her skill of acting, or a note she took from the director. Either way, I was hoping this movie would let Alaina’s natural light shine, and instead it almost completely snuffed it out. In fact, her laughter when Hynes fell into the dirt garden was the first moment in the movie when I saw her being herself.
And God bless Tyler Hynes being put in movies with country singers. First LeeAnn Rimes, then Pickler, and now Lauren Alaina. But what I love about Tyler Hynes is that even when he’s put in movies with folks that I consider to be non-actors, he shines and brings his sardonic, droll, best self.
Was there chemistry? I didn’t feel it, but only because of the long pregnant pauses during the character conversations. What could have been snappy, fun, back and forth talks became…sludge. Those delays took away any opportunity they had for true chemistry to shine through. And I truly think that had Alaina been allowed to incorporate HERSELF as part of her character, she and Hynes would most definitely have had chemistry.
Tropes
Overhead shot of car on a scenic road in a movie about a military vet coming home from service. We have a cute pup in this movie! This time we have a big city boy is stuck in a small town (gender flip since it’s normally the leading lady stuck in a small town). Family business was in jeopardy ahead of the big town festival. AND the marble laptop made a comeback!
Did I Hear/See That Right?
The CGI was so bad in this movie. Is it that hard to rig a vehicle up to a flatbed and have it get driven around to simulate actual driving?
Luke’s agent, Dan, and Callie’s aunt had one brief conversation at the beginning of the movie. At the one hour six minute point they had another brief scene together in which he says he really enjoys her company. I thought that was totally out of place because the entire movie there’s been NO establishing shots of those two characters getting to know each other.
At the beginning of the movie, Callie claimed that she was a DPT (Doctor of Physical Therapy) with plans to work at the VA now that she was done with her military service. Now, I’m not a PT, but I did work directly with PTs for 8 years. If I’m assuming that Callie served five years in the military, when exactly did she have time to earn her DPT? Because that’s 3 additional years of school AFTER getting a Bachelor’s degree. How old is Lauren Alaina’s character supposed to be in this movie?
When Callie and Dan were decorating for the Fall Festival, they were unloading decorations from the back of a truck. I’m not sure if the baskets of apples were supposed to be real, or meant to be fake from the beginning, but they were CLEARLY not real apples given the way Alaina was flinging those baskets around while delivering her lines.
Feelgoods
LOVED when Callie and Luke were driving into town. He asked “Can I get some privacy?” and Callie’s response was to open the door to let him out of the truck. And then when he took too long, she drove off. *lol*
As a fellow movie fan, I was totally on board with Luke’s frustration that Callie had not seen any of the movies that were considered very popular hits. Terminator? Blade Runner? The Godfather? Of COURSE he’s right to assume most people have seen those movies! It always amazes me when I meet people who haven’t seen what I consider to be must sees.
Re-watchability
Sadly, because of the wonky pacing, I’m not sure I’d watch this one again. I think Lauren Alaina has great potential as an actress, and this movie can be used to give her experience and learn not to take every director’s note she receives.
The Ranking
“Roadhouse Romance” did not score well. However, because of my hiatus for the past month, it’s possible that it’s not really this low in the rankings. We’ll see what the other movies have in store for where it sits. But at the moment, it’s near the lower third of all the movies I’ve seen thus far.
- Crashing Through The Snow (air date: July 10) – 705 pts – weighted score: 118.1 (82.8%)
- It Was Always You (air date: Feb 27) – 668 pts – weighted score: 114.2 (80.1%)
- You Had Me At Aloha (air date: June 5) – 675 pts – weighted score: 111.4 (78.1%)
- Sweet Carolina (air date: May 15) – 648 pts – weighted score: 110.1 (77.2%)
- Taking a Shot at Love (air date: Jan 2) – 641 pts – weighted score: 108.9 (76.4%)
- Don’t Go Breaking My Heart (air date: Mar 27) – 636 pts – weighted score: 108.5 (76.1%)
- Right in Front of Me (air date: Apr 18) – 637 pts – weighted score: 108.0 (75.8%)
- As Luck Would Have It (air date: Apr 10) – 638 pts – weighted score: 107.7 (75.5%)
- Her Pen Pal (air date: June 19) – 636 pts – weighted score: 107.1 (75.1%)
- The Baker’s Son (air date: June 13) – 637 pts – weighted score: 106.3 (74.6%)*
- A Winter Getaway (air date: Jan 23) – 620 pts – weighted score: 104.4 (73.3%)
- Love, For Real (air date: July 31) – 607 pts – weighted score: 103.6 (72.7%)
- Mix Up in the Mediterranean (air date: Feb 20) – 590 pts – weighted score: 102.5 (71.9%)
- Two For The Win (air date: Jan 16) – 603 pts – weighted score: 101.8 (71.4%)
- Chasing Waterfalls (air date: Mar 20) – 570 pts – weighted score: 100.3 (70.4%)
- Roadhouse Romance (air date: Sept 11) – 571 pts – weighted score: 100.2 (70.3%)
- Sand Dollar Cove (air date: June 26) – 557 pts – weighted score: 96.8 (67.9%)
- Hearts Down Under (air date: Apr 24) – 547 pts – weighted score: 95.2 (66.8%)
- Fit for a Prince (air date: Mar 6) – 546 pts – weighted score: 94.6 (66.4%)
- A New Year’s Resolution (air date: Jan 9) – 516 pts – weighted score: 90.5 (63.5%)
- Baby, It’s Cold Inside (air date: May 8) – 495 pts – weighted score: 85.6 (60.0%)
- Playing Cupid (air date: Feb 13) – 466 pts – weighted score: 82.6 (58.0%)
- Beverly Hills Wedding (air date: Feb 6) – 431 pts – weighted score: 80.6 (56.5%)
- 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 “Roadhouse Romance”? Comment below and let me know!
I agree with every single word you said. I absolutely adore Tyler, but this fell short in every way. I’ll focus on his next movie.
Why is the American Flag hanging backwards? I would think in your movies that you would make sure such items are correct. The stars always hang on the top left.
Well, the movie was made by (only a guess) 99% Canadians, so maybe they don’t know the rules. I did not notice the flag hanging anywhere at all in the movie (which scene was it?) so I can’t speak to how they hung it up.
LOVED THIS MOVIE