Absolutely Fantastic

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Natalie Russo (Katharine McPhee) and Nick Smith (Mike Vogel) are unlucky in love. Jessa (Rachel Skarsten) dumped him and his mother Charlotte (JoBeth Williams) keeps setting him up. The latest is eager Lori Beth. Natalie is struggling to make her restaurant work despite her unyielding Italian chef Mario. Waitress Sharla is her best friend. Natalie and Nick toss coins into a magic fountain. They have a week to find each other guided by their joined dreams for the perfect match.This is a perfectly fine Hallmark TV movie including a dream matchmaker. It's nothing special. The dream couple is photogenic and an obvious match. It's really cute that McPhee gets all dolled up to go to bed. It's a romantic dream in movie form and there's nothing wrong with that. This knows its level and hits it spot on.

Cheesy rom-com minus the com. Fantasy premise sets the plot in motion (not necessarily a problem) but derailed by failure of the two star-crossed lovers to do or say the obvious things. I believe TV writers call this the "idiot plot" - The entire movie could be short-circuited by one or the other of them giving the other a phone number or address, or even just by following up on the numerous hints dropped all over the place. But they're morons, so they don't. 'Eh, I'm too cool to bother checking up on anything, instead I'll just mope about and say things like "I'm not wasting time on a fantasy." ' The female lead is gorgeous, but neither one of them has much in the way of charisma, nor chemistry with each other.Skippable.

When they start from a most unpredictable and intriguing premise (a perfect match only in lucid dreams) and end it in an epitome of especially thin rom-com formulas, we must admit that the result deserves a special mention as an achievement in spoiling a theme. Everything in this was painfully predictable and cliché, convenient and mushy. The actors weren't impressive at all, nor particularly likable, the script and directing are boring, and so on. Everything is overplayed, even the lucid dreams thingy, a state which could not occur so mechanically and regularly every night to anyone. There is an excellent novel with a similar twist (a parallel life in a, well, let's say in a lucid dream, not to spoil it for potential readers). Unfortunately I don't remember now its title or author (but I will!), just that the main character is a woman named Joy. That book would be captivating if set on screen, because it's really surprising and well written, unlike this lame trifle of a flick.

This is one of those Hallmark Hall of Fame movies with the great commercials. I've watched quite a few of them over the years and some are better than others. This one, not so much. I did like the premise but ultimately there was just nothing special or outstanding in this star-crossed lovers story. There wasn't anything particularly wrong with it either though, it's cute, light and will pass a couple hours without any bloodshed. The romance follows a restaurant owner and an architect who are both unlucky in love. After they each cast a penny into a magic fountain (known for bringing lovers together) they both begin to dream of the other, falling in love in their dreams without ever meeting. However according to fountain mythology, they only have a seven day window to meet in the real world to turn those dreams into reality.Oh and I was still brought to tears by those card ads (damn you Hallmark) -Filmed in Vancouver. 05.08.14