MOVIE REVIEW
Movie: Country at Heart
Network: Hallmark Channel
Original Air Date: October 3, 2020
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| Credit: ©2019 Crown Media United States LLC/Photographer: Shane Mahood |
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| Credit: ©2019 Crown Media United States LLC/Photographer: Shane Mahood |
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| Credit: ©2019 Crown Media United States LLC/Photographer: Shane Mahood |
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| Credit: ©2019 Crown Media United States LLC/Photographer: Shane Mahood |
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| Credit: ©2019 Crown Media United States LLC/Photographer: Shane Mahood |
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| Credit: ©2019 Crown Media United States LLC/Photographer: Shane Mahood |
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| Credit: ©2019 Crown Media United States LLC/Photographer: Shane Mahood |
CAST:
Jessy Schram ... Shayna
Niall Matter ... Grady
Lucas Bryant ... Duke
Annastasia Boston ... Carls Assistant
William C Cole ... Bartender
Yvonne E. Davidson ... Molly Tobin
Chris Handfield ... Ron Van Hursten
Tommie-Amber Pirie ... Jenny
Michael James Regan ... Tyler
Zach Smadu ... Carl Campbell
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| Credit: ©2019 Crown Media United States LLC/Photographer: Shane Mahood |
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| Credit: ©2019 Crown Media United States LLC/Photographer: Shane Mahood |
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| Credit: ©2019 Crown Media United States LLC/Photographer: Shane Mahood |
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| Credit: ©2019 Crown Media United States LLC/Photographer: Shane Mahood |
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| Credit: ©2019 Crown Media United States LLC/Photographer: Shane Mahood |
PLOT:
Storyline via Hallmark: A struggling country singer meets a Nashville songwriter in need of inspiration. Teaming up to write a song, their work gets complicated but results in both a hit song...and true love.
Struggling Nashville musician Shayna is on the verge of giving up on her career and returns to her small-town home, when a chance encounter with prolific songwriter Grady changes everything. He’s trying writing a song for country music star Duke Sterling and Shayna seems like the perfect writing partner. The two grow closer and romance blooms as they work on their love song, but when Shayna meets Duke, who takes a liking to her and asks her to be his opening act, it undermines everything she and Grady created and Shayna feels forced to choose between love and possible stardom.
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| Credit: ©2019 Crown Media United States LLC/Photographer: Shane Mahood |
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| Credit: ©2019 Crown Media United States LLC/Photographer: Shane Mahood |
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| screen grab via: Hallmark Channel |
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| Credit: ©2019 Crown Media United States LLC/Photographer: Steve Wilkie |
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| Credit: ©2019 Crown Media United States LLC/Photographer: Steve Wilkie |
Movie Review:
Coming...
See or Skip:
Coming...
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*images via: Hallmark Crown Media Family Networks
Credit: ©2019 Crown Media United States LLC/Photographer: Shane Mahood
I really hope Hallmark will air this movie and Love Under the Olive Tree during Fall Harvest on their regular channel. I was so looking forward to watching both of them. I still don’t understand the decision to remove them, but I have a feeling they’ll both be on Hallmark Movies Now. 😔 I follow them on Instagram and they’re getting a ton of slack from viewers who are very upset about the removal of these two movies from the Fall Harvest lineup in order to air When Hope Calls and promote their streaming service. Fingers crossed they’ll listen to the viewers and air them after all. I guess we shall see. Thanks again Net for keeping us up to date on all things Hallmark!
ReplyDelete- Melissa
I agree, Melissa. Our cable company is one of the largest and they dropped Hallmark Drama. I'm concerned that the extremely high ratings (for which I am grateful) during each of the past few years' Christmas seasons have possibly nudged Hallmark into what happens when companies expand a little too broadly, too quickly. I haven't read the stats on the streaming channel (I need to), but as a viewer I dropped my subscription around nine months ago because at that time the sames movies were on month after month after month - which would have been OK if they had rotated a well chosen variety of movies each month along with the ones (mostly Westerns) that hung around so long. I check Hallmark Movies Now every couple of months just to see if they've improved, but so far not enough for me to subscribe again. I hope that they will listen to viewers requesting that these two movies be included in the lineup. The storyline sounds like it's a well written script and the actors are for so many of us, in our top twenty favorites. If they've pulled these two movies so they can run the When Hope Calls that's fine as long as they get them back in before October 25th when Christmas starts. Eventually I'll subscribe to Hallmark Movies Now to watch When Hope Calls because I do want to see it, but I'm waiting until they have a whole season on there. For the two Fall movies they could do a great promotion throughout the day and evening and let them premier on a Friday rather than Saturday and then put them in a repeat lineup on Saturday and Sunday instead of two of the movies that have run repeatedly over the past three months. I rarely write comments but I think it's time for Hallmark to listen more closely to viewers.
DeleteHello Melissa & beckypb... I wholehearted agree with you both. It was really disappointing to see both these movies pulled, especially after they were announced via press release, and then suddenly removed without explanation. I think fans of these actors and Hallmark viewers do have a very good reason to be frustrated and confused by these latest programming decisions. I've been quite used to schedule changes, but removing two films just before they were set to premiere is quite unfair.
DeleteI have been subscribing to Hallmark Movies Now since "When Hope Calls" began, and I have thoroughly enjoyed each new episode, but the other content is 95% (I'm just guessing here) of movies I've seen. I'm sure many people will subscribe next month, as you are becky pb, to watch it all for the one month price.
Maybe, since fans have been complaining, they will play one of them, after all, but it's still unknown for now what they plan to do.
Thank you both for sharing your thoughts here!
Blessings, Net
I sure wish they would play this movie as they promised. Your poster is terrific Net, I thought it was the real deal.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Karen! I thought the mini poster might show Hallmark how much we all like these actors and really want to see this movie!!! :)
DeleteReally excited to see this movie! Hope you will do a post on Jessy's clothes after it airs.
ReplyDeleteThat's sweet, Tammy... I'll try to see if I can do that! :)
Deletetwo of my favorite Hallmark actors...looking forward to seeing this whenever it airs
ReplyDeleteSame here! I'm so looking forward to hearing them both sing! :)
DeleteIt seemed so odd for them to remove a movie with known Hallmark actors. Hope they find a way to add this one in.
ReplyDeletedenise
Yeah, for the weekends in October includes Love Under the Olive Tree & Country at Heart could find air dates in October premiere Fall Harvest movies alongside Over the Moon in Love & Love Under the Olive Tree for October premiere soon in the Weekends
DeleteI agree, dstoutholcomb, it does seem odd to remove a movie like this with such a great Hallmark All Star Cast. Plus, it appears the setting of this movie was purposeful set for Fall Harvest.
DeleteI keep hoping they can squeeze both in their Oct schedule, but I really do not foresee that happening, but you never know! Especially... If they want to please their fans.
I recall... they were going to remove the Thursday night Christmas movies on HMM, but viewers voiced their opinion on social media and they surprised everyone that Thursday night by reversing their decision and bringing it back. So... I guess anything is possible! :)
It annoys me that everyone is out to make another buck. I already pay a hefty monthly fee for cable TV in order to get 2 Hallmark channels. We can't get Drama yet. I am angry Hallmark expects me to pay an extra fee beyond my cable payment for Hallmark Now. I refuse to do so.
ReplyDeleteHallmark does not get paid by cable tv companies that carry their channels, unlike other networks, and they are just doing the same thing everyone else is by starting a streaming service.
DeleteIt seems as if there's no Fall Harvest lineup at all. Very, very strange and disappointing.
ReplyDeleteI know exactly what you mean, Barbara. Half of what we were looking forward to seeing is gone now. I want to enjoy what's left, but this makes it a little harder to do.
DeleteI am sure there is a good reason they made this decision.
ReplyDeleteI just wish they would tell us why. That would help.
DeleteWe wanna watch this Fall Harvest movies: Country at Heart & also, Love Under the Olive Tree to air I. October soon
ReplyDeleteWe sure do! :)
DeleteI think I'm in the minority when I say that I am not a fan of When Calls the Heart, so having some fall-themed movies replaced by a spin-off that's on a pay-per-view station, was really disappointing. I'm glad there's a show like When Calls the Heart that has struck a cord with so many, but there is such a thing as overkill, and I think HM is capitalizing on something that is very close to viewers' hearts, and sometimes this can backfire, especially when other content is sacrificed. Just my two cents. :)
ReplyDeleteBarbara I am in the same boat as you, just not a fan of the show. But I feel that Hallmark goes out of their way to do everything that fans of that show want. They make sequels of the movies that those actors are in whether or not they are good or not. I LOVE Pascale Hutton and Kavan Smith, and they are great as Rosemary and Lee, but in Perfect Bride, it was so awkward, and then the 2nd movie was extremely awkward, they kept laughing and doing very awkward things. But that sequel got made.
DeleteI hope it is for other reasons that we did not get Fall Harvest this weekend, but I feel it is for When Hope Calls, WCTH, and their fans. Not only are the 2 movies missing from Fall Harvest, but had it started this weekend, there would be fall themed movies played instead of 2 airings of Forever in my Heart, yes once sat and once sunday, I changed the channel cause it is unnecessary to play over and over. I alos saw Love At Sea on when I left to go for my sunday walk at the trail, I mean really another Summer movie being played?????? I felt lucky that they happened to play A Harvest Wedding yesterday.
And has anyone noticed, the AOMH special Sat it doesn't say Fall preview, but Fall Announcement. Now I may be getting extra happy, but I am wondering if the announcement will be them adding Country at Heart back? Or is it that they had to edit the Lacey and Brennan preview show so much deleting 2 movies, the little questions, the behind the scenes, that there is no preview show left? I just feel cheated as a fan of Hallmark, the movies, the older movies, that I am not valued but if I was a WCTH fan, I would be.
I knew when they decided to put a WCTH spinoff on the streaming service it was bad. Like you and others have said, all these $5.99 for this, and $5.99 for that add up, people with kids, now have to pay extra for Disney stuff, I know personally I have Audible for $14.95 and Spotify for $9.99 and UP app for $5.99 and I had to draw a line there is just too many add ons. Then people that get to watch WHC are talking about how great it is, but then others can't watch it. If you have Hallmark, HMM, and Drama, you are probably already paying a big amount for cable. so they should leave the streaming for movies.
Barbara and Sabrina... I still look back on the end of WCTH's season 5 differently then I do the rest, but season 6 changed my heart and brought me back to the series like I hadn't anticipated. Just goes to show, that we all like different things and interests.
DeleteAs for apps... that is so true, month after month they really can add up. I know if our family went to the theater to see one movie it would cost way more than $5.99, so I feel like we are getting that and much more with our Hallmark Movie Now subscription for these couple months - as we watch "When Hope Calls." But you really have to be careful which ones you choose and not go with too many.
While I don't mind the streaming, I would prefer everything was just on TV like it was before. All the streaming sources here and there really is getting out of control. I mean, we can only watch so much, right? And sometimes, it's hard to keep up with that.
Blessings on your day, Ladies... let's hope Hallmark gets Fall figured out in a way that makes everybody happy again! :)
I am very disappointed only 3 Fall Harvest Movies. Overkill on summer movies. They should show When Hope Calls in February before When Calls The Heart returns. Hope Hallmark hears their loyal fans and airs these 2 other movies!!!
ReplyDeleteThat would be so nice if they did that, but I wouldn't count on it. In the Fall Harvest Movie Announcement commercial they still only mention three movies. Wish it could be different. I know everyone is disappointed.
DeleteIs the Fall Harvest Preview Special still being aired next Saturday?
ReplyDeleteDoesn't seem as if they will have much content for it!
However, I am wondering if perhaps they might announce new dates and show some scenes for the two movies which were pulled in this preview.
Yes, during the encoring airing of All of My Heart: The Wedding from 9pm to 11:20pm - they will include sneak peeks to the three Fall Harvest films.
DeleteHey, you never know - there could always be a surprise thrown in! We'll have to watch and see I guess!
One other thing, I saw on the bottom of the tv this weekend, it says for Countdown to Christmas "new movies every Saturday and Sunday starting Oct 25th", but that is already an untrue statement when Sunday Oct 27th there is no new movie, its Shoe addicts Christmas. Instead they should just say the new movies will be premiering Sat and Sundays not every Saturday and sunday.
ReplyDeleteGood point, Sabrina! Maybe they are still planning to play something new that weekend. I mean, they could add anything new in at any time... so who knows, right?
DeleteIt’s could add A Cheerful Christmas on Hallmark Channel
DeleteThis goes back to what I was trying to say a while back here on this page. I knew what Hallmark was advertising, but I was saying that anything could happen to change the schedule so that new movies were not airing on all the days they said they would (for both HMM and Hallmark Channel). After seeing how they strayed from the "new movie every Saturday" vow, I knew they could or would easily stray from the "new movies every Sat/Sun" on HC or "every Thurs/Fri" on HMM.
DeleteThey have enough movies to be able to air one on 10/27, but instead they are piling new movies into every night of Thanksgiving Week on Hallmark Channel, instead of just 5 consecutive nights like they'd done in the past. They could have taken the Monday or Tuesday night movie and plopped it into the 10/27 slot, but they decided against it.
As Net said, though, they could still add a new one to that date.
Net -- As if we needed anymore confirmation, "Country at Heart" is definitely off the schedule this year.
ReplyDeleteSomeone kindly pointed out to me that writer Rick Garman posted this comment about it on his Facebook page earlier today:
"Things change... Country at Heart has been pushed to next year so you'll need to put your cowboy boots back in the closet for a little while."
Now I, personally, still think it is suspicious that Hallmark pulled TWO Fall movies. That implies to me that it is a deliberate choice because they have a plan for those movies, and not just something technical that went wrong.
So I am still thinking that one or both of the lost Fall movies will end up on Hallmark Movies Now, just as "Valentine's Again"/"Once Upon a Winter's Date" and "In the Key of Love" did. But, whether it goes to HMN or to Hallmark Channel, right now it sounds like the latest word is that "Country at Heart" will appear (somewhere??) next year.
Oh my! That is certainly interesting news. Thanks for sharing that info here.
DeleteNext year. hmmm??? That probably won't go over well, I'm guessing, with Hallmark viewers who were already anticipating it this Fall.
I agree with you, it must be a deliberate decision to pull them for Hallmark Movies Now. Nothing else really makes sense and with When Hope Calls airing recently to booster HMNow sales it seems like the logical explanation. Time will tell I suppose.
Thanks again for sharing! :)
It definitely feels deliberate, and I just feel like with them going all out this year to make so many movies, more Christmas, more movies period, that they have spent a lot of money on this stuff, promotion, that they are shelving some of these movies for next year, so that wont be money spent on next years budget. I feel like 2020, will be a big lower # of movies, many weeks without new movies, it will be a year of low # of movies up til Christmas, and then a boat load of them. I am sure this year has cost Hallmark more money than they ever spent before, so they will save these for next year, Love in Store, Olive Tree, Country at Heart.
DeleteI remember back when Fall Harvest first started in 2015, there were only 3 movies and GW, and it did start 1st week of October, and then 2016 had only 3 movies as well. But then 2017 and 2018 they took off with the Fall movies, it was so exciting. I heard our local meteorologis5t say yesterday that Meteorologically Fall starts on Sept 1st, but that the equinox was the 23rd, and I was talking to the tv, that even the weatherman says it is fall and I want my fall movies.
Ok, I would be understanding of losing 2 movies, if they could have just started playing Fall themed movies this weekend and beyond. Guess what was on again yesterday???? Yes, A Summer Romance, I changed the channel. Just over it.
I did notice that I think it is next week, the 8 pm and 10 pm moves all week are fall harvest movies. I was super excited, but I am feeling uncertain, as I feel they will change it to add in My One and Only, or A Summer Romance or yet again Forever in My Heart,. If they keep it, I will be very happy next week :)
That's a really good point that they probably went over budget this year with the extra Christmas movies, and would definitely explain pulling Country at Heart and Olive Tree until next year. I just hope they air these on Hallmark Channel and not HMN.
DeleteUnknown -- "Country at Heart" and "Love Under the Olive Tree" were already filmed. The number of Christmas movies made has nothing to do with two already-filmed Fall Harvest movies being pulled from the Fall schedule. Those two things are not related.
DeleteThe 2 Fall movies were already wrapped up. If they had never been filmed, that might have been a different story. But they were filmed, so the Christmas budget has zero to do with the Fall Harvest schedule.
I also doubt they went over budget with the extra Christmas movies. Remember, last year they premiered 38 Christmas movies between two channels. This holiday season, there are 40 or 41 between the 2 channels. They only added 2 or 3 extra movies this year -- and at least a couple of this year's movies are acquisitions that they picked up later (presumably, for a cheaper rate than what it would have cost to make the movies themselves).
It's not as though Hallmark added 20 additional movies on top of the 38 from last year, climbing to almost 60 movies. They have only got 2 or 3 extra movies (depending on whether or not they throw in that other movie that they added and removed within a day a couple of weeks ago).
And they had already acquired Christmas Camp way back in 2018, so I am not even counting that one.
I know that it's easy to want to try to somehow pin the blame for this specific Fall Harvest fiasco on the Christmas movies, but I don't think they are connected. I do not see any kind of connection.
Technical or post-production issues would have been the more likely reason for one of the Fall Harvest movies to be removed. But I still think that Hallmark is trying to decide whether to put one or both of the lost Fall movies on Hallmark Movies Now, because they want to start adding more exclusive content to HMN -- especially if they ever plan to make it a live streaming service, or perhaps eventually put ALL of the new content on HMN too. They need to start getting more people to become aware of HMN, and adding steady new content will do that -- even if it means having to take some of that new content from the channel on which it was supposed to air.
Net, thank you for posting these pictures from Country At Heart. I love all 3 of these stars, but I am so happy to see pictures of Lucas Bryant individually. There isn't much of him in the previews, so these made me extremely happy.
ReplyDeleteCountry at Heart is one of the best Hallmark has ever made. All of Lucas Bryant movies are a WOW! More coming please.!!!
ReplyDelete