Romance with a Twist - Hallmark

Romance with a Twist premiered on Hallmark Channel on January 27th and stars Jocelyn Hudon and Olivier Renaud. Directed by Max McGuire. I’m starting to pay more attention to directors, so I’ll be mentioning them as well. I’m honestly just curious to find out if I like some directors more than others. 

This was the fourth new movie release for Hallmark for 2024 and the last of the New Year New Movies series for January. Here at Magical Movie Club I’m always looking for that special Hallmark movie magical feeling and I was really hopeful that this one would be it. How did it fare?  Well let’s get right to it and find out!

This one takes place in a small town called Hazelton and it opens with Luna, played by Jocelyn Hudon, dancing around carefree in her kitchen. She's interrupted by the doorbell when Henry, whom we don't know yet, tells her a client is coming and she needs to go. All we see next is her stepping into a truck carrying a pair of heavy work boots.

They head over to a local gym where some work is being done inside. We soon learn that her family owns a construction business that has been working on renovations at the studio. We also saw in the opening scenes that the town is hosting an Arts Festival and it turns out Luna's family just got the contract to build everything for the festival. 

Next we meet Luna's friend Gabby. Gabby appears to work for the company that's putting on the festival. We also learn that her brother is Bennett, the male lead character played by Olivier Renaud. He’s a former Olympic gymnast who has been touring around the world as an aerial acrobat in a show called Cirque de Revue. We find out he’s agreed to perform in the Arts Festival with his partner, Elise, who happens to live in Hazelton. Gabby shows up with a reporter who looks very much like she never wanted this job covering the festival because, seriously, she’s thoroughly unimpressed with everything about it so far.

Actually, come to think of it, no one seems to have any high expectations about this festival, at all.  Not like they do in Hallmark Christmas movies about their small town Christmas festivals. Do you know that feeling, the energy and excitement they seem to have?

Anyway, next we see Bennett talking to a fan. Actually, he's talking into a fan's phone recording a video message of inspiration and encouragement for what I’m assuming is the fan's son. Obviously, they're showing us he's supposed to be kind and personable and enjoys meeting his fanbase, right?  Um, no. Honestly, I have no idea why they showed us that scene because he was never like that at all for the rest of the movie. As a matter of fact that all changed immediately in the next scene when he walks into the gym and finds Luna having some fun trying to climb the scarves.  Luna thought she was alone but, of course, when she sees Bennett she not-so-graciously flips over and falls to the floor. Bennett was clearly irritated that she was dangerously playing with the scarves and from that moment on, and for most of the movie, he was pretty rude with her. So, again why did they show us the previous scene with the fan? No idea! Well, it turns out Bennett's character isn't the only one with contradictions like this. Keep reading and I'll come back to this topic.

The next scene pretty well sets up the issue that will be the main theme of the movie. Bennett is at his sister Gabby's house and reveals that his partner, Elise, will not be performing with him at the Festival after all. Gabby is distraught by this news because she says she's been publicizing the fact that the Festival this year will be showcasing professional artists teamed with local residents, and Elise was the "local." Bennett says he would prefer to go solo because he does not like training with beginners, but Gabby insists that she's going to find someone local to be his partner.

Well, I will say the auditions were hilarious! This scene reminded me of the cheerleading tryouts in the movie, The Replacements. These ladies had no clue what they were doing and had absolutely no grace!  So, of course Gabby talks Luna into trying out next. Luna used to be a dancer so it didn't take much effort on Gabby’s part to convince her. Not to mention they’ve made it pretty clear now that Luna really misses dancing. Of course that’s not the same as aerial acrobatics, but she still goes.  

So, remember how I said Bennett was rude to her? Well, that continued when Luna walked in the door as the other girls were leaving and Bennett had absolutely no interest in letting her tryout. He turned his back on her and was talking to Gabby about his plans for a solo number right in front of Luna, so when no one was looking she climbed up one of the scarves all the way up to the ceiling. Once he turned around and saw that she was up there, and apparently the only one in town capable of climbing that high, he reluctantly gave her a chance to be in the show.

Now the next part was confusing to me. On her first day of rehearsal she came right out and told him she was afraid of heights. While I don’t exactly like the way he responded to her, I'm not sure what she was expecting to accomplish here since he made it pretty clear he didn't want to work with her in the first place.  So, do you remember that first scene where he was super nice and personable with that fan? Why do you suppose that scene was even in the movie? To me it added no value to the storyline and even confused me with this character, but I digress.  Despite all this, the two of them bantering in the gym was pretty funny. I had missed that kind of bantering in the first 3 movies of the new year, so this was a little refreshing.

And she did crack his shell just a little bit with this joke!

Bennett: Well, your feelings are not going to be able to lift your entire body weight over your head.

Luna: What if they're strong feelings? 🤣

At this point we were about 20 minutes into the movie and I'm going to be honest. Not a whole lot happened for the next hour and a half that I thought added much. Yes, the rehearsals gradually got better. Then she fell and Bennett totally gave up on her. And I know, it wouldn’t be a Hallmark movie without someone overreacting, right?! But seriously, are you trying to tell me no one ever falls during practice? And if you fall once you're supposed to just give up? Come on! 

I suppose you might be thinking at this point that I'm all Team Luna. Well, no, I didn’t care for the way she practically begged him for praise after just one day of rehearsal.  And again, near the end of the movie when he asks if she’s free later on and she responds with a little too much, I don’t know, exuberance? Okay, it sounded desperate.

And although I didn’t care much for Bennett’s character, I will side with him on one point. I’m betting, as a seasoned professional, that he knows what he likes in a partner. And when he tells Gabby that he doesn't click with Luna, his opinion shouldn't have been completely disregarded. Gabby mocked him for not liking the way Luna kept wanting to talk about her feelings. Right or wrong, I think Gabby should have shown him a little more respect.

Overall I felt pretty disconnected with the characters in this one. I've just seen Hallmark do so much better than this. I even posted live on Twitter (X) during the premiere showing that I figured out I didn't like most of the supporting characters. I thought they took away the magic of this one.  Now I suppose it's possible that the reason I felt so disconnected was because I was live posting and maybe I was distracted by my Twitter feed. But let me give you some examples.

Audrey Jones Taylor is a professional singer who sometimes rents a house in town when she wants to get away from the city. Naturally, she's in town now during the festival but she's not in the show, at least not yet. She has only agreed to be in the show if she can figure out who some mystery singer is that she's heard in town before and partner with her. Sounds innocent enough, right? Well, that was until she heard the voice up on the second floor of an arts building and she suggested Bennett climb up a drain pipe to peek in on her through the window. Can you say, creepy?! I still have no idea how that scene, or Audrey's character in general, added anything to this movie. Fortunately, Luna showed some common sense and suggested they go in the building through the front. That was just awkward and pointless to the movie. By the way, it turns out the singer was Gabby's boss, Katrina. More on Katrina later.

Did I mention I didn't care for Gabby? In the very next scene Gabby informs Bennett and Luna that the reporter is coming to watch them at rehearsal on Wednesday even though Bennett strongly objected and said they weren’t ready. Once again, Gabby dismissed him and forced the reporter on them anyway. And she was acting in that way where she thinks she's being super cute because of course she knows what's best for them, but of course, she's so NOT and no, she doesn't.

And then there's the reporter, Candice. Remember how I didn’t think she even wanted to be there covering the festival in the first place? Well, when she came back to watch them in rehearsal it was apparent to me that the actress, Rebecca Applebaum didn't want to be there. I mean seriously, doesn't this face say it all?

Personally, I would have liked her character better had she played her more like Rita Skeeter, the reporter from Harry Potter?  At least then it would have looked like she was maybe having a little fun playing this unlikeable role.

Earlier I mentioned I felt a disconnect with most of the characters because they seemed to contradict each other all over the place?  Let's look at Katrina. Sweet Katrina who's voice has just been discovered by Audrey. She, too, was a walking contradiction. In one scene she said she supports artists. And then later on, the day before the show, she and Gabby show up unannounced to watch Bennett and Luna's rehearsal. Luna falls and Katrina walks out disgusted. How exactly is that being supportive?

And even Luna was not without contradiction.  Remember the audition? In that scene she climbed up the scarf to the ceiling without giving it a second thought. But later on when Bennett says she's ready to start rehearsing at higher levels she hyperventilates because she’s afraid of heights. There were so many moments like this in the movie that left me scratching my head.

And not just contradictions, some just seemed forced. I've mentioned before in previous reviews that I don't care for scenes that look forced. Unfortunately, the treehouse scene was one of these. I didn't mind seeing how she reminisced about her childhood and the pain she felt when her dad drifted out of her life. But back up a moment to where they embraced each other to climb the treehouse to conquer her fear of heights. It was one flight of stairs. I'm sorry, that was a little overdone in my opinion. Maybe I'm being insensitive, but walking up one flight of stairs wasn't exactly the major accomplishment they made it out to be.

And then what was going on with Bennett's depressing mood the next morning after he and Luna had just spent a wonderful evening together? That’s another example where the movie seemed disconnected to me. I mentioned that Katrina walked out on one of their rehearsals when Luna fell. Well, she fell when she noticed Bennett was in this funk and she got distracted. And guess what, Bennett followed suit and walked out right behind Katrina. Are you telling me no one ever falls during rehearsals? Wow.

Another moment that left me scratching my head was when Bennett told Luna he prefers to keep his professional life and his personal life separate. Okay, I can understand that and I expected that to be a critical point later on in the movie when they would develop feelings for one another….<insert crickets> I don’t recall it ever coming up again but let me know if I just missed it.

You know, after watching it the first time I wasn't sure if I felt so disconnected because maybe I allowed myself to become distracted with live posting (tweeting) on X. I even commented that night that I would have to sleep on it and watch it again. Well, after a more focused attempt at watching this movie I can safely say, for all the reasons I just talked about, it was definitely the characters that had me all disconnected, not my twitter feed!

Okay, with ten minutes left in the movie the show night of the festival finally arrived. I even live-posted, "Okay, this is the part I've been waiting for! It's time for some Hallmark movie magic!" I don't know what I was expecting, but I was ready to sit back and enjoy a good finale.  Well, the final show was good. I don’t want to take away anything from the wonderful choreography and aerial performance. But it wasn't as captivating as I had hoped, not for me anyway. Not like the ending of Great American Family's A Paris Christmas Waltz. Perhaps someday I'll make a video review of that one. That had a spectacular ending that gave me goosebumps. I'm just saying. With this one, the show was over and all I could say was, "Interesting." I think I got distracted by the camera panning back over to the audience way too much. I wanted to see an amazing show, not so much of the audience reaction all the time.

Well, I think I've said enough about this one now. It's time for me to decide what kind of rating to give. Was it magical? Perhaps there were parts that were. Would I ever have it playing in the background if it was on live TV? Maybe. So with that I'll give it 3 stars. Actually, my husband suggested with the movie reel in my logo I should give it 3 reels. So here it is! 

So what did you think? I took a peek at some of the ratings on the Hallmark movie app and I know plenty of people loved this movie. I’d love to hear why! As always, please share your thoughts and opinions on this movie in the comments below. I'm interested to find out how many of you agree with me and how many think I’m being too critical here and enjoyed this one. Either way I’d love hearing what you think, too!

I have to say I have high hopes for the February lineup. I mean how can you go wrong with Jane Austen? Actually, the only story of hers I know, which is one of my absolute favorites by the way, is Pride and Prejudice, so I have no preconceived ideas about any of these new movies coming up. 

As always, thank you so much for joining me for this week's Magical Movie Club review of Romance with a Twist. We'll be back next week and I look forward to more discussions about our favorite Magical Movies!  

Hallmark's Original Preview: Romance With a Twist - Preview

Hallmark's Sneak Peak: Romance With a Twist - Sneak Peek

Hallmark Channel Movie site: Hallmark Channel - Romance With a Twist

Filming of the Movie: Filming Romance With a Twist