Jan 19, 2024 3:33:06 PM

A Scottish Love Scheme - Hallmark

A Scottish Love Scheme premiered on Hallmark Channel on January 13th and stars Erica Durance and Jordan Young. I was very much looking forward to this one because I absolutely love Erica Durance. I'm already a big fan of hers from Smallville so I'm really happy to see her working with Hallmark now. Jordan Young is a new name for me, but I read his bio on the Hallmark app and I can see he has been very popular in Scotland, which is apropos for this movie.

This was the second new movie release for Hallmark for 2024 and, like last week's premier, this one also takes place internationally! I'm not going to lie - I've watched it a couple of times now and the first time through I turned on the closed captioning. I need just a little help understanding some of the dialog. Don't get me wrong, I love that they got Scottish actors to play these roles, but sometimes my ear couldn't quite understand what they were saying through the thick accents. But I didn't let that ruin anything for me!

So let's dive in with a little background on these two main characters. Lily is recently divorced, amicably so. No children. And, up until now, she's been heavily involved in her husband's family business - the DePaul brewery. She's been the head of marketing for them and, while she says she loved being there, it no longer made sense for her to stay after the divorce. So now she finds herself at a point in her life where she's starting over and has signed up for a 6-month photography course in Spain.

So you might be thinking, wait, isn't this movie called A Scottish Love Scheme? And yes, it is, but before she gets to Spain, she and her mother, Cait, go on a trip back home to Scotland. We find out it's been seven years since her last trip to where her mother grew up. Ove the years they've had many trips together visiting and staying with some very close family friends. What Lily doesn't know is her mother has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. Cait chose to keep it a secret from her because she was really hoping to enjoy this one last mother-daughter trip together without everyone fussing and worrying about her health.

Before I continue, I have to tell you I absolutely loved the shots of the incredible Scottish countryside. I found a story online about the real house where they stayed. I've linked to the article below so check that out if you'd like to learn more! I've got to say I'm loving some of these new locations where Hallmark's been filming this year!

Okay, let's talk about Logan - he's a widower with a 10-year-old son. And he, along with his two brothers, are also heavily involved in their family's business - Campbell's, a Scottish distillery. He took things over about 5 years ago after his mom retired and unfortunately, the bills are mounting and Logan has feeling a lot of pressure and working very hard to save the business. One of the projects he's been working on is a new line of whiskey they're about to launch, called Frost. As he describes it, it's whiskey that's been aged in ice-wine barrels which gives it a sweeter taste than traditional whiskey, hoping this will appeal to a younger demographic and. But apparently, so has their number 1 competitor, Bonnie Auld. We find out at the dinner table that Bonnie Auld has shared a sneak-preview of the label for their new launch and it looks too much like the new Frost label design.

Now, Mairi and Cait - the two mothers have been life-long best friends and part of this trip to Scotland is, just as the title of the movie suggests, also a matchmaking scheme of theirs to bring together the now-single Lily and Logan. So when Logan broke the news of needing to redesign their new Frost label, Mairi conveniently points out that Lily was very successful at marketing for De Paul Beer. And she practically volunteers Lily for the task of redesigning the label and that way she and Logan will be working closely together on this trip.

I have to say I thought Mairi and Cait were really cute. There was one morning they coordinated things so that Mairi sent Logan out to mail a letter and at the same Cait intentionally gave bad directions to Lily to find a local coffee shop. So, surprise, surprise, they ran into each other and that gave them some time to chat and get reacquainted.

That same day Logan invite her to meet for dinner at a local pub so they could begin discussing plans for the new label design. I also thought it was really cute that Lily changed her outfit three times. Why?! Been there. Done that.

Lily also bonded a bit with Logan's son Finn and, for a little action and comic-relief in the movie, everyone all went out to support and cheer on Finn for his rugby tryouts. I don't know that this scene necessarily added much to the overall story, but it was fun to see some cultural differences between rugby and American football, not to mention - and this where the comic-relief played in - how spectators behave in Scotland as opposed to here in America. Apparently this is an American thing!

I have mixed feelings about Finn. Not about the actor who played him. Bradley Connel did a great job. But sometimes I wonder if these script-writers tend to forget how to let children speak like children, and this was one of those times. For the most part I liked Finn's character. But occasionally he'd say a line that made me think really? I don't know many 10-year-olds who talk like that. I don't know, maybe it's a Scottish cultural thing, or as my husband reminded me, maybe he's parroting what his dad has said to him before…. I'm just saying I think they could do a little better here with the script-writing for kids.

We were just about half-way through the movie at this point and it was time to start showing how activities like this affected Cait's health. She was pretty exhausted by the end of the day. And while this movie is primarily a love story, the secondary story of Cait's health is still significant.

Shortly afterward they showed us how Logan and Lily were developing a connection, and even spent an afternoon whiskey-tasting, when the story suddenly turned due to Cait's health. Mairi called Lily to tell her that her mother had fainted and an ambulance was on its way. Logan casually mentioned something to her about Cait's illness, because he had NO idea Lily had been kept in the dark all this time. Naturally, she took it as "how could you have known all this time that she was ill and not say anything?" It caused a little bit of a rift between the two of them. Yes, Lily over-reacted, but I'm going to say it's understandable considering the shocking news she had just heard. And you know the little rift between Logan and Lily? It didn't last long. She realized Logan never intentionally kept anything from her. He genuinely thought she was just keeping a brave face through it all.

The last half-hour of the movie is when I truly felt the magic happening. Once everyone knew about Cait's illness, Logan's son Finn wanted to do something extra special for her. He mentioned he was going to ask his grandmother Mairi for help. I had no idea what he could possibly have planned and what he did was AMAZING. He and Mairi put together a sightseeing itinerary for Cait and Lily to spend the day together visiting all of her favorite places from her childhood. And get this - in some of the places Finn and/or his dad and uncles, would run ahead of them and get the next location ready for their arrival. There was afternoon tea in the high gardens, and flying kites on the beach! These scenes were absolutely precious and I definitely got choked up. That's when I knew this movie was magical for me!

And, of course, as with all good Hallmark movies, we had our happy ending!

So, how many stars do I give this one? I don't know, I'm reserving my 5-star ratings for the very best of the best. But this was so good I don't know if 4 stars does it justice. So, I'm going to give it 4.5 stars. A Scottish Love Scheme really was a great movie in my opinion. I absolutely felt the magic - although maybe not so much until the end - but I will definitely watch it again!

So what did you think? Do you agree with me? Maybe not so much? I do hope you'll share your thoughts in comments section below. I enjoy talking about these movies and love meeting others who have just as much fun watching these as I do!

Below are some links worth checking out, including a preview and a sneak peak of the movie. Thank you so much for being here and I hope to see you next week to chat more about our favorite Magical Movies!

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