Golden Globes & Two Hallmark Films

Two of my favorite Hallmark movies were on recently -- Loving Leah (DVD copy has "Making of" featurette, behind-the-scenes interview) and Candles on Bay Street.  I commented on these before, so a bit of a reprise.

I wrote this about Loving Leah: This Hallmark film was on over the weekend and it's a favorite of mine. One lesson in this charming love story is that faith and religion can still have power even if the literal doctrine is not followed. The spirit over the letter. Each realizes this, including the Orthodox mother, adapting it to the reality of their 21st Century lives.

Candles on Bay Street by K. C. McKinnon concerns a small town vet who finds out his first love (who now makes candles, which she explains has special symbolic significance -- truly now, since in effect her own candle is dying out) is dying of cancer. The first part (a life up to the narrator's 30s and how she affected it in miniature) is the best. Somewhere near the halfway mark, it becomes a somewhat drawn out road to the inevitable, the poetic musings getting a bit thick. It isn't a long book, but it comes off as too long.

I first found out about it because it was made into a Hallmark movie. The need for padding underlines the thinness of the novel's plot at times. As with Legally Blonde and a few other books, this is one of the times when the film version actually comes off as somewhat better. It was well acted  with the main roles fitting the characters, including Alicia Silverstone in the lead. [Now that I have seen the whole thing, I can add to my previous remarks that they altered a significant thing from the book, but as a whole, do think the film is a better complete package.*] 

As to the Golden Globes, saw some of the opening and a bit later on. Used to loyally watch the Oscars, but sort of got bored of the whole thing. As to the two hosts, Amy Poehler and Tina Fey are great role models -- Poehler, for instance did a kewl thing entitled Smart Girls at the Party to help educate budding feminists.  I sort of don't like their comedy as a whole (not a Parks and Recreation fan; Tina Fey movies tend to be "she can do better than this, can't she?" sort of things), but admire you know the concept. 

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* Spoiler Alert: The film is basically about a thirty-something single mom who is dying and takes her son back to her home town to basically have her old friend adopt him. This provides the final step, in effect, to do one last thing for the first girl he loved and take a final move toward being an adult.

The book adds that she wants his help to die -- active euthansia. This tidbit is removed from the movie, which perhaps helped (lol) the "family friendly" (read conservative) Dove blessing. I admire the book's handling of this controversial subject, but don't think the film really suffers from them leaving it out. Also, again, I think the film is a better complete act of story telling while the book bottoms out midway.