My Grandmother used to always tell me that when you fall in love, no matter how much time passes, you will always love that person. Love doesn’t fade. It can take many forms and become many things, but the truth is that it never leaves you.
It stays in your heart and we’re definitely dealing with that situation in Hearts in the Game. Hearts in the Game is the latest movie in The Hallmark Channel‘s Spring Into Love event and we’re going to be corny and say that it’s definitely a triple, but since it brought the player stuck on third base home, it’s a home run.
Don’t judge me, I don’t know baseball all that well. But this movie does have to do with baseball, so I am trying.
Ok, so Hazel (Erin Cahill) and Diego (Marco Grazinni) were high school sweethearts, until he broke her heart by breaking up with her the day of prom. She was heartbroken and it has stopped her from having another relationship. She’s thrown herself into work. He’s thrown himself into being a baseball player.
Hazel has gone on to being a big shot PR person in New York. Everyone wants to hire her. Her on your team ensures that you’re going to be protected. She can spin anything and she does. She’s great at her job.
And as she’s changing lives, she’s called in for the possibility of taking on someone else. She’s called in for revamping a baseball players image.
The baseball player, Diego, is supposed to be signing with The Mets. The player is controversial because he choked in the seventh inning at The World Series and no one knows why. The Mets want his image revamped before signing him and his agent brings in Hazel.
Hazel and Diego let on that they know each other but don’t want to say why. But that brings in the real VIP of these scenes, Hazel’s assistant, Jax. Jax is played by Donia Kash, and they definitely steal every scene that they are in. They are the voice of reason. They are able to talk to Hazel in a way that no one else can.
And to complicate things even more, Hazel really wants to get into a certain magazine, and it’s the one magazine she’s had trouble getting into. When she approaches the journalist ad says that she has the Diego story, she does decide to take on the job, because it will get her what she wants.
And the complication to that – the journalist wants the article written in Diego’s hometown. She wants to see where he came from and get the story from there. But you know what they say, going home is never easy. Confronting your past is always a hard thing, because it means coming to terms with it.
For Hazel it means coming to terms with the love that she lost and how she still feels it deep. It’s coming to terms with the life that she wants to live versus the life that she’s existing through. When it comes to this character, no one could have played her with such strength and innocence that Erin Cahill can. She just brings such determination and such grit to the role, that you know that she’s really pulling from her heart.
When it comes to Diego, I was really surprised with how much I loved Marco Grazinni in the role. I had such a hard time with him in the role, Designing Christmas, on Discovery+, that I wasn’t sure what to think. But he definitely recaptured my interest in his acting. He made me hate and love Diego. Especially that twist of what he does at the end.
What I loved so much about this movie was that it was about characters that had known each other. It’s about appreciating the relationships that you had, the ones you have, and finding your truth again. It’s about appreciating each other, understanding, and knowing that you can’t just make assumptions.
What I loved about this movie is that it wasn’t only a romance, but it also put forward the power of female friendships and made a point of why we all need to treasure the friendships that we have and nurture them.
Hallmark has been changing up their programming so much, that I am pleasantly surprised everyday. I am pleasantly surprised because they continue to make me believe in the power of storytelling and the heart of it.
Hearts in the Game isn’t perfect, but no movie is. However, it is a movie that touched my heart and made me believe in these characters. Heck, it made me believe that love isn’t such a bad thing and that is definitely something I can get behind.
