Hallmark For All Seasons

“The Baker’s Son” is the second of 2021’s Summer Nights event and aired on June 13, 2021.  The movie, which was filmed in Vancouver, Canada, stars Brant Daugherty and Eloise Mumford. Mark Jean directed, having helmed Hallmark movies since at least 2013, while the script was written by Steve Peterman and Gary Dontzig.  If my research is correct, they have worked together many times in the past on many different TV shows, but this is their first foray into Hallmark territory.

Music: The opening credits featured La Mer (affiliate link) sung by Charles Trenet. The classical music for the ballet was Bizet’s opera “Carmen,” for which a ballet was created in the late 1960s Cuban choreographer Alberto Alonso.

In a nutshell

I was hoping this movie would be a return to Hallmark’s more whimsical fantasy movies that they made 8-10 years ago.  For the most part, it was not.  Nonetheless, I still liked it very much.

The Plot of “The Baker’s Son”

Matt’s passion transforms his bread from bland to brilliant. But when his bread loses its magic, the island locals panic and turn to Annie –- Matt’s childhood friend and unrealized true love –- for help.

Given how prominent “town trying to get Matt to fall in love” is to the plot description outlined on the Hallmark website, I just wish they had gotten to the main plot a littler earlier (town trying to get him to be in love again).  That didn’t come into play until the 3/4ths of the way through.  As such, a movie that easily could have been delightfully quirky the entire way through didn’t become that way until 90 minutes of regular movie action has passed.

Actors & Chemistry

I am a fan of Brant Daugherty mainly because of how brilliantly he spoofed Hallmark movies in 2019’s “A Christmas Movie Christmas.” Fortunately, “Baker’s Son” tapped into that humor a little bit, but not nearly enough.  Hallmark fans will recognize Eloise Mumford from “A Veteran’s Christmas,” from a few years ago (although she was blonde then).  Together, these two played long time best friends really well and it was entirely believable that they should realize they love each other as adults.

The secondary cast was great and full of Hallmark character actors, which I appreciated. I enjoyed all the interactions between them, including the Mayor as comic relief.  The first couple of scenes he was in I was very worried, but he ended up being a great character that made me laugh several times.

Six Degrees of Polaha:  Eloise Mumford is only two degrees away from Polaha.  She had a role in 2014’s “Warriors” which also featured Morena Baccarin.  Baccarin and Polaha shared the screen in another 2014 film, “Back in the Day.”

Tropes

The movie started out strong with an empty coffee cup in the first scene between the two main characters. But then it went on a very long stretch with no tropes at all, so I just stopped looking out for them.  It’s possible when I watch it for a second time (which WILL happen at some point), I’ll see more.

Did I Hear/See That Right?

For a movie with an outlandish plot that could have easily gone awry, the script was pretty good with no major plotholes.  Sure, a realist might say the whole “bread tastes good when you are in love” is a major problem, but since that part of the movie is clearly the “magical” part of the plot, it’s not an issue.  Fans of Like Water For Chocolate (affiliate link) will know the inspiration for “food tastes good when made with love” is not new in literature or film.

Because I felt the introduction of the town wanting to “fix” Matt was so late in the movie, I feel a real opportunity was missed for some comedy in the town bringing women to Matt hoping he’d fall in love again.  While I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, I think it would have been more fun to establish that the bread was good because he was infatuated, but have the bread go bad about 20 minutes in.  This then throws the town into a tizzy because tourism STARTS to go down (versus it already being in a downward trend).  Then spend the next 45 minutes of the movie with Matt being set up by townsfolk – all with miserable results – and him lamenting to Annie about the awful dates.  And all the while she stoically listens and advises (and goes on miserable dates of her own) despite being in love with him. THEN finish the movie with him arguing with Annie, realizing he’s in love, making good bread again (and PASTRIES!) and then going to find her to declare his love.  Instead, we had 2-3 minutes of the town trying to set him up with random women (and just HOW did they lure these women to agree to come meet Matt and lie about the real reason they are meeting?).

Feelgoods

The setting for the movie was gorgeous.  I know it was filmed in the Vancouver area, but it really reminded me of the islands off Washington’s coastline.

The comedy in the movie made me very happy.  The bird poop, the guy falling asleep at the ballet, the mayor – it all worked for me in a big way.  I don’t know whether to credit the writers or Brant Daugherty for it.  I’ll just split the difference and commend both.

Random Thoughts

This was a rare Hallmark movie where the lead character was a man instead of a woman.  I think it averages out to one a year, although this year we also had Mix Up in the Mediterranean which I feel was a male-led movie as well.

Re-watchability

I’d totally watch this one again.  While it didn’t lean into the magical realism as it could have with the notion of love bread, I still thought it was completely enjoyable.

The Ranking

“The Baker’s Son” cracked the top 10 for the year thus far!  It would have scored higher had there been more tropes in the movie.  In fact, I think it could have made it into the Top 3 if it had more tropes.  I’ll make a plan to watch the movie again when it re-airs and adjust the tropes score if I see more than just the coffee cups.  In the meantime, I’ll put an asterisk on “The Baker’s Son” to mark its score as provisional.

1. It Was Always You (air date: Feb 27) – 668 pts – weighted score: 114.2 (80.1%)
2. You Had Me At Aloha (air date: June 5) – 675 pts – weighted score: 111.4 (78.1%)
3. Sweet Carolina (air date: May 15) – 648 pts – weighted score: 110.1 (77.2%)
4. Taking a Shot at Love (air date: Jan 2) – 641 pts – weighted score: 108.9 (76.4%)
5. Don’t Go Breaking My Heart (air date: Mar 27) – 636 pts – weighted score: 108.5 (76.1%)
6. Right in Front of Me (air date: Apr 18) – 637 pts – weighted score: 108.0 (75.8%)
7. As Luck Would Have It (air date: Apr 10) – 638 pts – weighted score: 107.7 (75.5%)
8. The Baker’s Son (air date: June 13) – 637 pts – weighted score: 106.3 (74.6%)*
9. A Winter Getaway (air date: Jan 23) – 620 pts – weighted score: 104.4 (73.3%)
10. Mix Up in the Mediterranean (air date: Feb 20) – 590 pts – weighted score: 102.5 (71.9%)
11. Two For The Win (air date: Jan 16) – 603 pts – weighted score: 101.8 (71.4%)
12. Chasing Waterfalls (air date: Mar 20) – 570 pts – weighted score: 100.3 (70.4%)
13. Hearts Down Under (air date: Apr 24) – 547 pts – weighted score: 95.2 (66.8%)
14. Fit for a Prince (air date: Mar 6) – 546 pts – weighted score: 94.6 (66.4%)
15. A New Year’s Resolution (air date: Jan 9) – 516 pts – weighted score: 90.5 (63.5%)
16. Baby, It’s Cold Inside (air date: May 8) – 495 pts – weighted score: 85.6 (60.0%)
17. Playing Cupid (air date: Feb 13) – 466 pts – weighted score: 82.6 (58.0%)
18. Beverly Hills Wedding (air date: Feb 6) – 431 pts – weighted score: 80.6 (56.5%)
19. 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 “The Baker’s Son”?  Comment below and let me know!