Wait, did I just see something blow up in a Hallmark movie? Yes, yes I did and well it stopped me in my tracks. In the year of chaos and change – 2024 – Hallmark has left me speechless. Write it down, because it is rare and it may never happen again. I do know this though, Betty’s Bad Luck In Love, is a romantic comedy that had me laughing, crying, cringing, and smiling.
Betty’s Bad Luck In Love is a movie that you need to watch. It solidifies Hallmarks commitment to evolution and making movies that are outside what we expect. Instead they are giving us movies that feel more mainstream and leaving us intrigued as to what can happen next.
This latest all new movie felt like Hallmarks answer to 13 Going on 30, without the traveling to the past. Instead it was living in the moment and Betty believing that a curse from the past has made anyone who could fall in love with her in danger. It’s a curse from when she was a teenager and almost kissed a friends crush.
Lord, middle school definitely sticks with us all and though I would love to be able to say that thinking you were cursed is ridiculous, have to admit that I have been there. So yes, definitely get it.
WHAT IT IS ABOUT: Betty (Laci J. Mailey) was about to experience her first kiss when a jealous classmate “cursed” her with the fate of never finding true love. After a long series of calamitous relationships that always ended in disaster for her boyfriends, Betty stopped dating entirely. Now working as an actuary, she plays everything safe, preferring to focus on her career while she helps to plan her best friend Mya’s (Meghan Heffern, Retreat to You) wedding. Understandably, Betty is cautious when Alex (Marco Grazzini), a danger-seeking news photographer asks her out on a date. After a great deal of encouragement from Mya, Betty decides to fight her fears and give love another chance. She joins Alex on his adventures with the goal of keeping him out of harm’s way. As their relationship blossoms, Betty begins to relax and wonder whether the curse is real after all – until Alex unexpectedly trips and falls down a staircase, leading Betty to blame herself for his accident. Heartbroken, she frantically tries to find her childhood friend to lift the curse. While in pursuit of tracking down her old friend, Betty starts to realize that perhaps the curse was only a series of random accidents, and she shouldn’t let fear lead her in life or in love.
WHAT IT IS GIVING: CAUTION
OUR MVP CHARACTER: Mya. Look, while everyone will be like wait what about Betty and Alex. They’re great. But look at what Mya has done. All of the crap that keeps happening to Betty, she is totes supportive. Most of us would have had a moment like Cher in whatever movie that was and where she slaps someone and tells them to snap out of it. Mya’s the true ride or die.
STANDOUT PERFORMANCE: Marco Grazzini as Alex. LOVED HIM. Betty was a lil spastic, but Alex was so endearing that you couldn’t help but love him. He liked to live life on the edge, embracing the moments, no fear. Alex’s sense of adventure was something that Marco brought to life so genuinely that you found yourself cringing, laughing, smiling and in shock. Feeling so much for one character is a sign of an actor that brought them to life fantastically.
WOULD WE WANT A SEQUEL: Had the “two month later” ending not happened, then yes. But after that, we’re good with how it ended.
OUR (MINE, ALL MINE) THOUGHTS: I love tropes. I love movies where it feels like the characters are spastic and don’t belong together, but they do. While I find myself loving when I can figure a movie out, I love it even more when there are little bits of a movie that surprise and shock me.
And this movie well, it surprised and shocked me in the best way possible.
Betty is a type A personality, who has to be in control of everything that she does. She definitely has turned that chaos into her career as her job is analyzing risk. Everything is a risk, but she’s the person that will tell you how big of a risk it is and she will be annoying about it. But for Betty, it’s about protecting herself.
And protecting those that she cares about.
Maybe it’s the fact that she’s so afraid of everything that is happening that she forgets how to live, that is driving me insane. It is like we’re supposed to be able to relate to Betty and feel for her, but what we end up doing is wishing that someone would really get her under control.
Laci J. Mailey is charming. Don’t get me wrong. She’s giving us a character that we love and cringe for all the time. She’s bringing Betty to life and showing us who we don’t want to be. We don’t want to be a person whose only thing that they live for in life is working and analyzing the risk involved. We want to be a person that takes the risk.
As we watch Betty and Alex navigate being completely different people, but drawn to each other, it’s endearing. They both are pushing each other out of their comfort zone and finding that life is learning from others and finding peace. Life is about accepting that things can happen, but if it does, you can and will make it through.
Especially if you allow people in.
Betty’s Bad Luck in Love isn’t about bad luck. It’s about getting out of our own way and allowing love in. It’s about taking chances but knowing what’s worth taking chances for. It’s about loving life and finding a way to get past the risk and realizing that in every risk you take there is reward.
Give me all tropey goodness. Definitely will be watching Betty’s Bad Luck In Love again.
