Love Struck Cafe (2017) Movie Review

Love Struck Cafe (2017)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Andrew W. Walker and Sarah Jane Morris in Love Struck Cafe (2017)

Love Apples in Cedarvale

Megan Quinn (Sarah Jane Morris - Willed to Kill) always aspired to be an architect but as it stands she finds herself working in client relations for an architect firm who are trying to buy some land in Sapphire Lake to build a shopping mall on. Megan knows Sapphire Lake having grown up in the nearby Cedarvale, which is why she is being sent there, to use her familiarity with the area to try and negotiate with the land owner, a former mentor. It also coincides with Megan getting a call from home as her father, Matt (Garry Chalk - 'Tis the Season for Love), has fractured his foot and can't manage the family restaurant. But on heading home she not only sees that the apple festival is coming up in Cedarvale but also runs into Joe (Andrew W. Walker - A Dream of Christmas) her high school sweetheart who is now a widowed father and who broke her heart when he broke it off with her when after high school she went off to Duke.

There was once a time when I would watch a Hallmark Channel movie and wonder what easy going fun I would get. That feels like it was a very long time ago and since then I have grown to realise that these made for TV movies not only tend to recycle storylines but these movies often have seasons. As such let me say straight away that "Love Struck Cafe" is simply Hallmark Channel doing what they often do which is to rework a familiar storyline with a few new ideas. As such we have the city girl, with a city boyfriend returning to where she grew up and running in to her high school sweetheart who is now a widowed father. "Love Struck Cafe" is nothing more than text book Hallmark right down to Megan helping out in the family business which means you know where this is going.

But what "Love Struck Cafe" delivers is the friendly characters, the seasonal warmth and the look. Yes "Love Struck Cafe" certainly delivers the Hallmark look from the way the actors look great together to the look of the town, the buildings and even the interiors such as the wood grain on a table. I wouldn't say that "Love Struck Cafe" goes all out and does picture perfect but it does deliver that world which I would guess many of us would love to live in or at least escape to.

What this all boils down to is that "Love Struck Cafe" is just a quintessential Hallmark Channel movie which is obvious the minute it starts. But as I often say about Hallmark movies, this delivers everything that fans of Hallmark movies enjoy and watch them for which is some easy going charm with an appealing cast and that Hallmark look.


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