Hearts Around the Table: Jenna's First Love

Jenna’s First Love. Do you remember Mindy Cohn who played Natalie from The Facts of Life? Well, now she’s playing a character named Angie, a role that’s perhaps closer to that of Mrs. Garrett in this new Hallmark movie series called Hearts Around The Table. There are 4 movies in all in this series, and the first one is called Jenna’s First Love, with Ashley Newbrough and Steve Lund.

As you may have guessed from the title, these two already know each other. They play former high school sweethearts who went their separate ways in college and are reunited unexpectedly at a business meeting. Old feelings are stirred up and well, we’ll get to those details in a bit. So where does Mindy Cohn’s character fit in all of this? She is a foster mom. She’s been fostering teens for many years and, while most of them are all grown up and out of the house, she still has everyone back for Sunday dinners. At least those who are still in town, which happens to be Washington D.C. Each movie appears to focus on one of her foster children, this first one being Ashley Newbrough’s character, Jenna. So now who is this first love of Jenna’s? How do they feel about each other now? Oh, and to stir things up even more, would you believe there’s a potential love triangle here, too? Yes, there’s a lot to unpack here, so, let’s dive right in and get to it.

Actually, before we even get into the recap, I have to tell you what I found. I keep a spreadsheet with notes about every movie I’ve talked about. I jot down not only the names of the stars but also the director and the writers. This movie was directed by Marco Deufemia, and it was written by Paula Tiberius. Now, being completely honest, I didn’t recognize those names when I looked them up. But then have you ever noticed when you type in a few letters onto a spreadsheet, an auto-fill suggestion might pop up if it finds those same letters in a prior cell? Well, that happened to me when I entered the director’s name. Naturally, I had to go look up what other movie he had made. And you won’t believe how shocked I was to find out it was The Heiress and the Handyman, with Jodie Sweetin. Oh, but it gets better! The writer of this movie was also the same writer of that one! Yes, the very same writer and director duo is getting a do-over. And if you’ve seen my review of The Heiress and the Handyman, you’ll know that a do-over, my opinion, is very much needed. And we’ll leave it at that. 

Now, let’s talk about Jenna’s first love. The movie opens on a Sunday in Washington, D.C. Angie is busy preparing dinner with all of her now-grown foster children except for one, Jenna. She’s on the phone with them explaining why she’s about to go into a business meeting. Yes, she’s working on a Sunday. She’s an event planner and is supposed to be meeting with a billionaire tech guru by the name of Tom Redlands. Only when she arrives she runs into, yes literally, runs into Andrew. Andrew owns a consulting firm who’s been hired by Tom Redlands. He also, apparently, broke Jenna's heart back in high school. Needless to say, they wind up rescheduling their meeting, so she makes it back just in time for Sunday dinner at Angie’s.

There also happens to be one teenager sitting at that table with them as Angie does have one foster child presently living with her. His name is Rory and he hasn’t been there very long. He’s still very uncomfortable and getting used to this whole family dynamic. That’s a side story whose climax will play out later on in the movie. I will say, though, that Angie cares a great deal about him and she’s frustrated because she can see he’s hurting so much inside but he won’t open up or show much of any emotion. 

Okay, the next day Jenna meets Andrew back at the office for their meeting. And while Andrew shows us right off the bat that he still has feelings for Jenna, Jenna appears to be in denial.

Anyway, the purpose of their meeting is Tom Redlands is looking for someone to help plan a foundation fundraiser event he’s hosting called “All For Family ” and Jenna’s there to pitch her ideas as the event planner. Only Andrew’s not having any of it. Jenna’s ideas are more practical where the donors can see examples of how the foundation works, but he thinks Tom will want it to be more elegant and traditional. The kind with champagne and caviar. A more distant approach.

Well, for the next 24 hours or so, before they make their formal pitch to this mysterious Tom Redlands, both Jenna and Andrew wrestle with their old feelings for one another. Andrew even talks about it with his work-out trainer.

Okay, the time for the meeting has come, Andrew and Jenna are still discussing old times and then Tom Redlands arrives and get this… he shows up in a helicopter on the roof! Anyway, Andrew pitches his idea where the event is focused more on the donors rather than the foundation, but that idea failed. So Jenna decides to pitch her original idea and Tom is mesmerized. 

After the meeting, Andrew and Jenna reminisce some more. They do that a lot. And as if things weren’t getting weird enough, Tom Redlands wants to meet with Jenna on Friday night. Yeah, we’re not sure if this is business or a date yet, either.

It’s during their conversation that we learn more about Jenna’s past. She never knew her father, and was raised by her mother, alone, until she passed when Jenna was 13. That’s when she was placed with Angie as her foster mother.

Anyway, as if this evening weren't awkward enough, Andrew calls Tom right in the middle of their dinner, and is quite obviously a bit jealous. Are you sensing a little bit of a love triangle here? Well, maybe not a triangle, per se, but Jenna is definitely feeling conflicted with two guys interested in her at the same time. And Andrew, yeah he’s not happy about it, either. 

And later in this same scene at the gym, I’ve got to ask you, do you think he’s over-acting just a bit here? Hmm. How about the next scene when she asks him for his opinion and he refuses to look at her? And did he seriously start to twitch when she mentioned Tom’s name? 

I don’t know about you, but I don’t know that I find this behavior all that attractive in a grown man. I was starting to have my doubts about this character, not to mention whether I wanted Jenna to end up with him. And yet, after all this emotional pettiness, Jenna still has feelings for him and invites him over for Sunday at Angie's.  It’s all a matter of taste, I suppose.

Oh, speaking of pettiness, wait ‘til we meet Shari! She was not exactly warm and welcoming when she opened the door. Would you have treated him that way after all these years? Well, the whole evening was pretty much the same until Andrew finally spoke up and said he felt pressure back then from his mother to leave Jenna and go to Paris after high school. But he also confessed that Jenna had once been the love of his life. And now he’s going to have to earn her love.

So how’s he going to do that? Well, it’s all tied to Rory. And the way the whole family, including Andrew and Tom, all pitch in to help look for him when he goes missing. When they do find him, Jenna opens up and shares a little bit about her personal experience with Angie and we learn more about what it’s like growing up in Angie’s home. This part was really sweet.

And so was Angie when they all got home. I just love her!

But, let’s not forget Jenna and Andrew and Tom still have some unresolved issues. And I think I’ll let you see how that all plays out. I’m just going to say there was more drama yet to come in the last 15 minutes or so of this movie. We also have to believe Jenna would just walk away and leave her purse behind on the counter. And Andrew, well let's say he’s still being true to himself, meaning his behavior hardly changes much.

Andrew's mother makes an appearance. You know, the one who made him break up with Jenna and go away to Paris? I wasn’t sure what kind of character she was going to turn out to be but she seemed to be one of the more sensible ones now.

So, we know they end up together, because it’s Hallmark, right? But let me ask you, did you feel good about that relationship? Did you feel any emotion? I did, but not the kind you might think. I feel like theirs is a relationship destined for high maintenance. I’m talking about Andrew’s behavior throughout the whole movie. I’m a little concerned Jenna’s in love with the memory of who he was back in high school. Come to think of it, I suppose that’s a good thing because that’s pretty much who he still is! Oh, I’m sorry if that was too harsh. 

The best part about the ending, in my opinion, was Sunday dinner at Angie’s! This movie feels kind of like a pilot for a TV series. It’s not spectacular as a stand-alone movie. And I think that’s because I, personally, didn’t feel much of a connection with the characters other than Angie. You know how sometimes, in a TV series, the pilot episode might be a little rough but as the season goes on and we get to know the characters better we embrace them more? That’s how this movie feels to me.

As for a rating, I’m weighing this one around a 3 out of 5. It has a solid foundation for a story, but I think some of the characters need a bit more polishing. On IMDB right now it’s sitting at a 6.2 and if it were me, I think I’d put it maybe a tick higher at a 6.3. When I look at some of the other movies that are also at a 6.2, like Polar Opposites, for example, I think this one is a little better than that.

Well, I think that wraps up my review of Jenna’s First Love. We’ve got three more to go in this series, so In the next video we’ll be discussing Shari’s Second Act, starring Mishael Morgan and Brendan Morgan. And I have to tell you, as of the date I wrote this, I have intentionally not watched it, yet. I didn’t want to be influenced by it in any way. But now I am going to sit down and watch it so ideally, I should be ready to talk about that one soon, too.

Until then, and as always, thank you so much for being here and being a part of the Magical Movie Club. We'll be back next week to chat more about our favorite magical movies!

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