This movie makes a divorce after 20 years of marriage seem like a minor inconvenience. It also suffers from a common problem in some of the weaker Hallmark entries- too much is packed into too short a time frame. One day, Helen and Paul are dropping off their daughter at college (after which Paul wants to talk to Helen about their next "adventure"). The next day Paul drops the "adventure" talk and announces he's moving to Denver and ending their marriage. Then Helen gets a dog (for the first time) and, in what seems like the same couple of days, and without any grieving period following the end of her 20 year marriage, Helen meets a handsome vet played by Warren Christie, goes on a series of dates, and falls for him. And it's all tied up neatly and quickly with no yelling or crying.
As someone who lived through the end of a 25 year marriage, I was bothered by how the movie glossed over the hard and often brutal realities of divorce. And the economic consequences of divorce were completely ignored (how will Helen pay for that beautiful house by herself?). Given how some reviewers still found the movie depressing, I suppose there was a conscious decision to hire the usually smiling Rachel Boston to help take the edge off a story that starts off with a couple getting divorced. That is, admittedly, a very depressing subject. But this is one of the rosiest movies about divorce you'll ever see.
Rachel Boston highlighted the sunny kumbaya approach of the writer and director to divorce. Other reviewers noted her tendency to giggle during any lapse in dialogue and how it often seemed inappropriate to the moment in the script. That's fair. One such moment came during a highly unlikely scene of Helen changing her car's oil by herself ("look at me- I'm suddenly a strong independent woman who can change her own oil"). Setting aside the fact that most people have their oil changed at places like Jiffy Lube for $50, laughing is not the reaction one would expect after getting covered in oil just as the ex walks up. Still, I've liked Rachel Boston in other movies and her laughing and giggling is on the director and writer, not her.
There's a valid point to be made about friends being defined by whether they are supportive during a divorce. But the scene in this movie where Helen's "friends" acknowledge they knew about the divorce but failed to reach out takes place, loudly, in the middle of a yoga class. That simply wouldn't happen and, the next time we see Helen's "besties", there's a sunny kumbaya unrealistic resolution of that conflict too.
Helen does find a new friend in Cindy played by a talented 57 year old actress named Linda Boyd. Unfortunately, Cindy is written as a bit of a caricature. She's a "punk rocker" who wears garish eye makeup and dresses and acts like her onstage persona even when she's offstage. It feels forced and unnatural. But some of my favorite exchanges came between Helen and Cindy.
Cindy: "My ex burned my life to the ground and I rose from the ashes rocking. How are you going to take your power back?"
Helen: "I could get new throw pillows. Paul always hated them."
Cindy: " You need to call a lawyer."
Helen: "I'm not ready for that."
Cindy: " Ready or not, you can either stand up for yourself or get run over."
Great words of advice. But then the movie suggests that their only legal dilemma is how to split up the "things" inside the house. There's not a word about who pays the mortgage, how Paul will pay for wherever he lives in Denver, whether the house will need to be sold, whether there's alimony, who pays for their daughter's college, etc. In other word The Big Divorce Questions are ignored.
Roan Curtis played Aly, the daughter who just started college. She's a beautiful actress and Aly seemed really sweet but stressed. I thought that subplot, of Aly navigating her way through her first semester at college, was quite realistic and I would have preferred a movie that focused more on her.
Helen's mother was an interesting character. She represented the traditional view on marriage- and essentially urged her daughter to save her marriage at any cost which, for her, meant inviting Paul over for a home cooked meal. She also seemed to be clueless about boundaries. But she seemed like the only person advocating for the couple to make an effort to save their marriage. Helen and Paul hopped on the express train to divorce and never even bothered to go to couples' counseling or therapy. That was a pretty disposable marriage. At one point, Helen tells her mother a line by Cindy about how "marriage is an outdated social construct and Paul is holding me back from living my best life." That may be true, but I suspect most Hallmark viewers would disagree and would have liked the characters to have made some effort to save the marriage.
Note to screenwriters, flashing the words "One Year Later" (still not enough time to truly recover from the end of a 20 year marriage) is a perfectly acceptable transition.
And, on a final positive note,, "Tubthumping" may be the perfect song for people going through a divorce.
