The More Love Grows - Hallmark

This week’s Hallmark movie is called “The More Love Grows” but is it really even a love story? Well, let’s sift through it together and we’ll decide along the way.  As you can imagine I have a lot to say about this one so let’s dive right in and talk about it!

The More Love Grows, starring Rachel Boston and Warren Christie, premiered on Hallmark Channel on March 16th. If you are familiar with Hallmark movies, you probably already know Rachel Boston. She’s particularly memorable to me because she starred in the very first Hallmark Christmas movie I ever saw, Check Inn to Christmas. A Christmas Cookie Catastrophe was another fun one. And there’s also Christmas in Angel Falls. As you can see she’s made quite a few. And then when I saw Warren Christie I knew I recognized his face but I couldn’t place him. So I looked him up and saw that he was in Holiday Road last year. That was definitely not your typical Hallmark Christmas movie. And then I saw another one which I’m actually interested in seeing sometime this year, If I Only Had Christmas.

So, the premise of this movie, as you may have seen from the previews, is Helen, played by Rachel Boston, is taken by surprise only a couple of weeks away from her 20th wedding anniversary, when her husband announces he wants a legal separation. So there was the hook right away!  

Actually, before that even happens, the movie opens up with Helen and her husband at breakfast time with their daughter, Allie, on the day she goes off to college. Helen’s mother also pops in from time-to-time throughout the movie and sometimes she’s helpful, sometimes she meddles a little too much. And I’m always impressed by how Helen just keeps smiling. I actually like the actress who played her mother, Gabrielle Rose. She played a wonderful character in The Christmas Club. 

Helen and her husband help Allie settle into her dorm. She’s in pre-med and has always done well in school but right away, I mean literally, right after her parents leave, she’s swayed by her new roommate to spend more time socializing than studying. 

It was a few days later, after Helen and her husband were back home, that he broke the news to her that he was offered a promotion and it’s based in Denver. Rather than talk it out with her, he tells her he wants a legal separation, stating they’ve grown apart.  So, interestingly, this movie actually had two hooks! How was her daughter’s first semester of college going to go and then how was Helen going to handle her new single life in an empty house? Clearly, there’s a lot going on here, so what does happen next?

Well, her new story begins with the arrival of a really cute dog that keeps showing up at her house. She eventually takes him for the night but has no idea how to take care of a dog so she calls Ben, played by Warren Christie. He’s someone she just met earlier in the day who happens to be in his 4th year of veterinary school. It turns out the dog has no tags and no chip so she agrees to keep him while they search for the owner. Ben goes shopping with her to help her get some pet supplies and they become friends.

Another friend she meets through this new-found-dog of hers is Cindy. Cindy is divorced herself and even said that divorce was the best thing that ever happened to her because that’s when she found music again. And even though Cindy and I are, well, polar opposites, I did like the way she helped her with the new dog and gave her some confidence to try new things. You know, something positive to focus on. No matter where you are in life, that's not necessarily a bad thing! The fact that she was open to taking in a dog was a big one. She changed her own oil in the car, and yeah, of course she dumped it all over herself. She even bought throw pillows! I know, that was a minor thing. But hey, sometimes even little changes like that can be hard. Actually, she eventually attempts rock-climbing, too. 

I mentioned Ben was in veterinary school. He’s also divorced with two boys, one who just went off to college, too. Even he made a choice to start over after 18 years as a sales manager of a software company.  I suppose I can relate just in the sense that I’ve started this new Magical Movie Club this year. It took me a few years to get the courage to do this, too. But that’s enough about me, back to the movie!

Now in the end, actually this is interesting where my mind is taking me, her daughter Allie learned that not all change is good. Doing well in college was necessary to keep her pre-med scholarship.  And in the very beginning she let someone influence her the wrong way and her grades fell dramatically. Her professor gave her a little bit of a dose of reality in telling her she needed to decide to either work really, really hard to get her grades back up or choose an easier course of study.  After giving it some thought she decided that doing well in school was what she wanted after all. And I was happy to see that a young man was right there to support her in that choice, too. She seemed much happier studying with him than partying with her roommate.

I’m not quite sure how I feel about Ben and Helen, only because, I think, they moved things too quickly. For example Ben bought her a nice set of colored pencils. And I know I’m probably making too much out of this, but that looked like an expensive set in that nice case and all, and she had only been separated a few weeks. At least that’s what it seemed to me.  And that’s not the same as buying the dog some socks to chew on. And then, I’m guessing this was maybe a few days later, but next he told her he wanted to be more than just friends. I don’t know, after being married and raising a daughter together with her husband for nearly 20 years, that seemed too fast to me. Fortunately, I was happy that she recognized that, too.  I mean, she and her husband hadn’t even had their mediation yet.

Now I’m not going to give away what happens in the mediation, but near the end of the movie, as you can see from the movie poster, she changes her mind about being just friends with Ben. I think I just would have liked to have seen more time pass before they got to that point. And, ultimately, I want to feel something more than just that she just changed her mind. Where’s the magic in that?

Overall, it was okay. When I read some of the reviews on the Hallmark app I noticed many of them indicated they loved it because it was realistic. I don’t know about that, everybody’s experiences are different. But I can say it certainly wasn’t a love story. And you know what, that was the problem for me. I turn to Hallmark when I want to see a romantic love story. That’s why I call this the Magical Movie Club - maybe I’m naive but I think real love is a magical feeling and that’s what I look for in a good Hallmark movie. I want to feel some emotion at the end. Okay, I guess sometimes it may not even be about the love story that makes me emotional, like Guiding Emily, for example. I got goosebumps at the end of that movie and it had nothing to do with the love story.  Unfortunately, that just didn’t happen in this movie.

You know what, now that I think about it, this is totally backwards from another movie I saw recently where I loved the story idea, I just couldn’t stand the characters or the direction. That review will be out in about a month. But here I actually liked most of the characters and the execution was fine.  There were even some things I liked about her new friend Cindy, even though as I said earlier I think we’re polar opposites in most ways.  This time I just didn’t care for the story or the way things played out. 

As of right now I don’t think I would be interested in watching it again.  But because I like the characters and the actors who played them, I’ll give this one a rating of 2, maybe 2½ out of 5. I can also tell you yes, I’ve had the song Tubthumping in my head all day now! You’re welcome!

Well, I think that wraps up my thoughts on Hallmark's Come Fly With Me. As always, thank you so much for being here and being a part of the Magical Movie Club. Next week Hallmark Channel will be back to showing brand new movies again, starting with Shifting Gears. And we'll be right here sharing our thoughts about them all!  

Hallmark Channel's Original Preview:  The More Love Grows - Preview

Hallmark Channel Movie Site: The More Love Grows