Starring: Katie Findlay, Wyatt Nash, and Marshall Williams
Released: 2021 (Fall Harvest)
Summary: Maggie is a workaholic who is having marital issues. She makes a wish for a do-over and time travels to 15 years in the past. She must choose between staying with her husband or her old boyfriend.
Image: Crown Media
You Can't Judge a Movie by Its Cover
My expectations for this movie were low, solely based on the movie poster and previews. Katie Findlay, the 31-year-old actress playing the lead, did not seem like Hallmark material. She struck me as a cross between a vintage Cupid print and Betty Boop.
This antique Victorian Cupid print is from 1912.
Before she played "Aunt Bethany" in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, Mae Questel was Betty Boop.
Katie Findlay. Image: Crown Media
I was wrong, and I admit it. In fact, no other actress on Hallmark's bank roll could have done the part better.
Straightening Findlay's hair, arranging it in a smart bob, and clothing her in business attire gives her the mature look she needs to be a ruthless 37-year-old attorney clawing her way to the top. Yet, simply crimping her hair and changing her wardrobe easily knocks 15 years off her appearance.
One aspect I love the most is how the 22-year-old Maggie doesn't lose her 37-year-old legal expertise and maturity. It's amusing when adults marvel at her advanced vocabulary and legal prowess how she tries to dumb herself down by "like, using, like" more youthful terminology.
Maggie is confident, assertive, resourceful, and smart. You might even call her devious for the stunt she and Josh pull at the golf club, copying the incriminating papers from the briefcase. She isn't afraid to stand up for what is right, even when it lands her in jail for "incitement to civil disorder." Sure, let's ignore real violent crime and arrest citizens who are trying to preserve a library--a beacon of free thought. Hmmm....sounds like how the FBI is targeting parents at school board meetings these days.
Maggie's family can't stop teasing her about being a jail bird. Image: Crown Media
Another fun aspect of this movie is the lively banter Maggie has with her brother, Ash. They genuinely sound like typical siblings who are always picking at each other. Their wisecracks are funny, yet it's sweet that Ash is the only one she can turn to about her time traveling predicament, and he believes her.
Maggie and Ash sport the same hair-do. Image: Crown Media
Maggie goes head-to-head with her boss in court--a boss who has always taught her that nothing is more dangerous than an opponent you don't know. The irony is that she knows him, but he doesn't know her, and this gives her an advantage for the win.
Findlay brings a refreshing wit and command to her character that makes this movie stand out in the 2021 Fall Harvest line-up.
Great Mom Advice
Estelle and George Hartman are Maggie's parents, and for some odd reason, they are always dancing.
Still, Estelle gives her daughter really sound advice on the subject of love. Many people look for "The One" like you would some elusive and mythical unicorn. Estelle points out there isn't just one right match for each person. If you wind up alone, it's not because you couldn't find the only match heaven made for you. There are multiple people who would make for a loving and suitable spouse.
Were you rooting for Josh or Jack? Image: Crown Media
Estelle wisely explains that love is a choice, and it must be made on a continual basis. Anyone who has been married any length of time can attest to this. Love changes through the years. How you feel at the infatuation and honeymoon stage isn't the way you feel at your 40th anniversary. You migrate from "exciting" to "comfortable," but both forms are in happy spaces. All of us give our spouses reasons NOT to love us from time-to-time, so aren't we glad they can choose to love us anyway?
Would You Wish for a Do-Over?
Maggie is upset she and Josh are drifting further and further apart. He thinks she married him out of sympathy, and she's too focused on becoming junior partner at her firm to shift her energies to preserving her marriage.
When she unwittingly time travels 15 years into the past, she faces a moral dilemma. Knowing what happens in the future with her and Josh, should she avoid marrying him and pick Jack instead? After all, Maggie and Jack are both driven by ambition and would make the ultimate power couple.
Jack cares more about success than principles. Image: Crown Media
Viewing her youthful situation through mature eyes, Maggie eventually realizes a person's heart and character are more valuable than their career aspirations.
Has there ever been the stereotypical "one that got away" in your life? What would you do in Maggie's shoes if you had a chance to stay with your spouse or choose someone else you once dated? You can share your thoughts anonymously in the poll below. Just don't try anything crazy like whacking yourself unconscious on a water fountain, hoping to wake up in another time period.
Woke Warning
I enjoyed this movie and loved how Maggie was determined to leave life better than she found it. She took advantage of time travel to protect her father from injuring himself on the ladder and her brother from being destroyed by a bad relationship. Plus, she tipped off Ash about the success of apps. She saved not only the library, but her marriage, too.
Saving the library changed the whole trajectory of Josh's life. Image: Crown Media
As usual, Hallmark couldn't leave well enough alone and had to include two "woke" elements to placate a minority of loud dissidents and annoy the crap out of the majority of us who keep hoping Hallmark will go back to "normal."
If Hallmark isn't going to lay of drinking so much Woka-Cola when they are penning scripts, we will continue calling them out on this nonsense.
Just as in Taking the Reins, Hallmark conveniently tacks on their ideological stand at the very end, indicating they are aware of the turn-off this is to viewers who might otherwise have switched channels had this occurred at the movie's outset.
First, Ash ends up in a bi-racial marriage because it's apparently taboo not to include at least one mixed-race couple in each movie. Never mind only 10% of Americans find such unions relatable--the other 90% of viewers don't matter.
Second, instead of working for her original law firm, Maggie ends up with her own law practice in the old library. In case you missed it, the name of her practice is "Social Justice Law Center." 🤮 Social Justice Law--the perfect woke umbrella to cover manufactured "issues" of discrimination, racism, immigration, sexual orientation, blah, blah, blah. If you Google "fields of law," Social Justice Law does not pop up in the listings or in the areas of study advertised by colleges of law. Traditionally, these issues have fallen under Civil Law or Human Rights Law, but since "social justice" is the current buzzword among cultural Marxists, Hallmark acts accordingly, thanks to Crown Media CEO, "Woke Wonya."
Not one to throw the baby out with the bathwater though, the movie is highly enjoyable and worth the watch--at least up until the last few minutes when the stupid social justice sign appears.
Image: Crown Media
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