If we’re being honest, I never thought that at any point in my life I would watch anything about birding. I don’t understand the fascination with birding, but if we’re being honest, I have a phobia of birds. Birds flying at me, coming near me – hard pass. So Adventures In Love & Birding sounded terrifying to me – because of the birds and not because of the actors.
Just needed to make that clear.
The logline for the movie, “A single mom agrees to be the partner of a bird enthusiast for a birding competition but misunderstands the assignment and tells everyone she’s his new girlfriend instead of just his teammate.”
With two of Hallmark’s most popular actors taking the lead in Adventures In Love & Birding, anyone had to take notice. Andrew Walker and Rachel Boston are captivating on any screen that they are on. Seeing them together in a movie for the first time, I curled up in bed and got ready to watch.
Boston plays Celeste. She’s a single Mom and is facing life with an empty nest. She works at a school, and all of the teachers are over-the-top gossipers. Celeste just wants to live her life, figure out being there for her kid, and be there for her friends. She’s trying to get her life in order, but getting one’s life in order sometimes means taking a lot of detours.
Her friend ropes her into taking her place with a stranger for a birding competition. Somehow she misunderstands that and thinks that she is going ot be a fake girlfriend/date. It’s quite a big miscommunication – but I think that we’ve all been there before. In the miscommunication part – not the fake dating part. Though if you have done fake dating, kudos to you.
John (Andrew Walker) wanted to open his own company so he could take people on birding adventures and just have them out in nature. The birding contest (and yes, that is a thing) money would enable him to do just that. John is adventurous and carefree. He loves nature, being outdoors and touching grass. Something we all could learn from.
Most of the movie takes place outside, walking around, and finding birds. I had to look through my fingers a few times (yes, I am that afraid of birds) and wonder what was going to happen next. But the two just genuinely enjoyed getting to know each other with no promises and no expectations.
John and Celeste are opposites, and yet they sometimes make the most sense. That is somehow confusing because I think that things that start as a lie aren’t the best things and will never end the way that they can last. I also know that I need to suspend disbelief, as it is a movie.
A movie that started as a book. A book that has A LOT of sexy, steamy scenes. I do believe that is part of what I was confused by – watching the show. Birding With Benefits by Sarah T. Dubbs isn’t what you would think would come to The Hallmark Channel.
Walker and Boston make a good team – yes. The birds? Well, still don’t like them and am still terrified of them. But Walker and Boston should be in more movies together.
Adventures In Love & Birding ended up being more about being able to reinvent yourself at any age. It was about opening your eyes to life, not ending because you reach a certain age. It was about life not ending because what you’ve done so far ends.
While I have to admit it wasn’t my favorite Hallmark movie, I can overlook a lot because Boston and Walker made me not want to change the station. The two have a natural onscreen chemistry that comes off the screen and makes you enjoy the movie even more. Sometimes it isn’t all about a script; it’s about the actors that bring it to life.
And it’s because of these two that I will tell you that Adventures In Love & Birding is worth watching.
