Smart Cookies (2012) starring Jessalyn Gilsig, Bailee Madison, Ty Olsson, Samantha Ferris directed by Robert Iscove Movie Review

Smart Cookies (2012)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Smart Cookies (2012) starring Jessalyn Gilsig, Bailee Madison, Ty Olsson

Cookies Again

Realtor Julie Sterling (Jessalyn Gilsig) will do anything to get a sale and as such she is just a couple of sales away from being "Real Estate Agent of the Year". But then her boss, Lola (Patricia Richardson), throws her a curve ball as she wants to up the public image of her company and so has volunteered Julie to spend 90 days in charge of a Girl Scout troop. They are a diverse bunch who are seen as hopeless by their rivals the Fireflies leading to Julie using her expertise at making a sale when it comes to the annual coolie sale competition. But whilst initially not keen on helping the girls Julie grows attached to them and to her surprising finding romance at the same time.

Walter Matthau, Emilio Estevez and Jessalyn Gilsig may not look like they have a great deal in common but in a way they do. Each has starred in movies where they have reluctantly been put in charge of a group of kids and ended up bonding with them. Now whilst Matthau and Estevez found themselves saddled with lack lustre sports teams to coach Gilsig finds herself with a lack lustre bunch of misfit girl scouts to be a den mother to. But what that means is that not only is "Smart Cookies" pretty unoriginal but also as a Hallmark movie it is simply cliche anyway.

Technically I should say spoiler alert but the gesture is pointless in a movie as obvious as "Smart Cookies". The whole movie is basically about Julie going from focused business woman with no time for romance or kids to one who bonds with these girls and falls for one of their father's who is a widow. That is all extremely cliche and along the way the humour of not only Julie trying to use the girls to help sell houses to using her own skills when it comes to the cookie sale competition is as obvious as everything else including the typical love hate romance thing going on.

But do you know what, whilst "Smart Cookies" offers up next to nothing new what it does it does in an okay sort of way with some jokes working better than others including an amusing scene where Julie lets the girls watch "Anaconda" and they end up petrified. Basically it is another one of those easy to watch Hallmark movies for those who just want something innocent and inoffensive to watch of an afternoon. And as such the acting from the likes of Jessalyn Gilsig is at the simple level where unfortunately you might be amused whilst watching the movie you will have forgotten about within a week.

What this all boils down to is that "Smart Cookies" is nothing more than just another Hallmark movie, easy to watch, inoffensive and ultimately forgettable but enjoyable in the moment.


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