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STUDIO: Rhi Entertainment
MSRP: $14.95
RATED: Unrated
RUNNING TIME: 85 min
SPECIAL FEATURES: 

  • Nada

The Pitch

It’s another Hallmark moment

The Humans

Director: Andy Wolk

Writers: Kelli Pryor

Cinematographer: Maximo Munzi

Composer: Lawrence Shragge

Cast: Samantha Mathis, Peter Dobson, Gina Hecht, Kevin Kilner, Thomas Kopache

The Nutshell

Callie and Jasper are two individuals who receive new hearts and set out to find the daughter who was left behind by their donors.

The Lowdown

This is a weird movie. It started out as a saccharine filled Hallmark tale that made me want to rip off my ears. The story starts with a female voice over discussing about the perfect family – the mother, father and little girl living a perfect life. You know coming in what to expect. The mother dies when she is hit by a car, the father cannot get over this death and when his daughter needs him the most pushes her away. The daughter develops a heart condition and grows up to be a very sick woman.

The movie switches gears when Callie checks into the hospital to await a new heart transplant. I was genuinely creeped out watching the sick people walk around, each with their own IV. I don’t know if it is the sick people that freaked me out as much as the creepy scenes with the strange music as she meets a joking fellow patient named Jasper. The movie almost plays out here as an old slapstick romantic comedy between the two.

However, the movie being a Hallmark film, knows how to pull on the heart strings every moment it gets. It is emotional manipulation at its worst. Both Callie and Jasper get their heart transplants at the same time, although she is out and back on her feet while his is more complicated and he remains critical. The movie is filled with cliché and both the religious and morally uplifting moments are thrown in at an alarming pace.

When Callie suspects that their donors were parents who died in an auto accident, leaving behind a little girl who mirrored her own childhood, the movie kind of steps over the line from realistic drama to an over baked Hallmark moment. It also continues to be creepy as they become stalkers of the little girl, and I question any character watching them follow this little girl around without having them sent straight to jail.

The biggest problem with the movie, other than the saccharine moments, is Peter Dobson, the actor portraying Jasper. His acting was over-the-top and seemed a bit much. Samantha Morton in the lead role was solid but there are many actors who overact in a way that seems like they want you to understand how hard all these problems are, instead of allowing the script to tell the story itself.

I don’t think the movie knows what it wants to be, but it ends up being a really strange drama. It pulls your heart strings but adds a little something extra that makes it unique. That extra “something” makes is weird as well. At the end of the day, it’s still a Hallmark card, with way too many eye rolling moments.

The Package

Nothing


6.5 out of 10