If we’re being honest, avalanches are something that I am terrified of. The whole idea of being trapped in snow makes the only snow that I want to see is the kind I see in the city. Also, there is the fact I tried to ski once and had to be taken down by ski patrol – so no.
So yes, this movie, the whole prospect of it gave me some anxiety. I was like if someone gets trapped in snow, I am done. I am over it. I don’t want to see it. However, I felt a little safe, because it’s Hallmark and we’re not going to have something turn into being stuck and having to eat each other or people suffocating under the snow.
Yes, I went there.
Love in Glacier National: A National Park Romance, isn’t what I wanted it to be and because of that, I can think of nothing else about the film, but that. It’s frustrating.
Heather is an avalanche expert who has developed an algorithm that can predict avalanches. Chris is a Snow and Ski Rescue Chief, who doesn’t believe in technology. He’s quite the jerk, but from the beginning you can’t quite figure out why. He believes in the old school way of doing everything. He believes the technology can be wrong.
And he’s not wrong. Technology can be wrong. But old school ways can also be wrong. They leave room for human error.
The two meet shortly after Heather’s arrival. She was warned that he wouldn’t be the most open to what she is doing. Her sister, who is with her, is all hormones, volunteers her to participate. From the get go, the two are dismissive to each other. Quite honestly, from the beginning, I am wondering if he’s dismissing her because she’s a woman claiming to know about avalanches.
Both are dedicated to their job. Heather’s doing everything that she can to show him that she’s interested in his way of doing things and wants to learn from him. He’s doing everything to tell her that he trusts the old school way more than he will ever trust her way of doing things. She’s taking it in stride, knowing she has to convince him.
She was warned after all.
The thing about this movie, is though I do love the story and do see chemistry between the two leads, Ashley Newbrough and Stephen Huszar, there are big holes in this movie. The biggest being between the character of Heather and her sister, Riley. It is because of this part, I can’t say that I loved this movie.
I am all for adding as much drama to a movie as possible. However, when you add an important storyline, that affects a lot of people, but you don’t address it and really tie up that story line in some sort of support and acknowledgement, it is all that I can hang on to.
Riley is undergoing IVF and she’s hormonal AF. She’s basically, since they arrived, tried to get her sister to date Chris. And hey, as the movie progresses, Chris and Heather are getting along. Riley is right in seeing their chemistry. That’s not the storyline that we take issue with.
It’s the fact that on the most important day in Riley’s IVF journey, the day that she’s supposed to take a pregnancy test, her sister goes to a fundraiser versus staying with her. Yes, Riley tells her to go, but that’s not the point at all. As a sister, you put the pushing aside and you stay there with them.
YOU DON’T LEAVE.
Heather did though and she has not thought twice about it. And then when Riley takes the test, and isn’t pregnant, and she’s alone. We don’t see how it effects her. We don’t see how it effects her family. We don’t see her sister comforting her.
And yes, I know that a lot of people may not get that it was that, that pulled me out of the entire thing, and made me really go – ugh, I was loving this movie and now I am like too many storylines for the sake of nothing.
And that is something that I hate. This isn’t the actors fault, it’s part of the editing. And for all I know, it was something that was filmed and was edited out.
The story between Heather and Chris, as well as the stage 5 clinger, Sonya, really is cute. It’s a movie that makes you just smile, until one thing that just makes you not care and really feel that something was taken for granted. A storyline should not be in a movie for the sake of being in a movie. A storyline should be in a movie because it adds something.
And I honestly feel like we really just got for the sake of adding here. It’s too bad, because we would have had a good movie otherwise.
Who would have known that the avalanches would have been the least scary thing about this film.
OTHER THOUGHTS
Love in Glacier National: A National Park Romance, premiered Saturday, January 28 (8 pm ET/PT) on Hallmark Channel.
- Snow on mountains – beautiful.
- Samantha is a gem and we love her.
- Chris’s reluctance to tell Heather about his wife and how she died. We get he’s in pain, but also – like sir, this could have been a good moment that really bonded you guys.
- Really, Samantha telling Sonya that it’s not a good time was gold.
- Don’t really understand the whole Sonya and Heather tryin to out do the other all the time. Also, Sonya seems like overkill, to a point.
- The dogs were the best thing about this movie.
