Stream It or Skip It: “A Lifelong Love” on Hallmark, starring Andrea Brooks as a poet forced to write an overly complicated book about love

Hallmark’s spring romance lineup continues with A love for life, a love story that is full of many other love stories and a mystery to boot. Andrea Brooks and Patch May play exes brought together by an aggressive publishing executive to put out an ambitious – and personal – book about love. Will compiling a book of love stories inspire these two to rekindle the flame they once had? Or will these two close the book on their romance?

The essential: Andrea Brooks (When the heart calls you) plays Annika, a professional poet who runs the popular website/social media page Capturing Romance. He has 25,000 subscribers, okay? It’s a success in every way! But Annika wants to branch out by publishing a more ambitious book of poems that she has spent a decade working on. And since a superstar editor is a fan of her work, she thinks she has something to do with it.

May patch (The professional bridesmaid) plays Ryan, a successful photographer who is ready to take his career to the next level by publishing a book featuring his street photography. He is also Annika’s ex; he proposed to her in college but she totally wasn’t ready for it. Their destinies realign in unexpected ways when… dramatic music sting — the publisher’s number two totally rejects their proposals! Instead, this guy sees dollar signs in another idea, one that Annika and Ryan started randomly and accidentally: what if they teamed up and created a book about the search for the one who ran away from Annika’s grandfather, a woman he hasn’t seen in over 60 years? What if the book was filled with poems inspired by the love stories of all the people Annika and Ryan meet during of their research? What if these poems were accompanied by Ryan’s portraits of these people? Oh, what if they also published the photos and previews of the poems on Annika’s website to generate interest?

That’s exactly what Annika and Ryan decided to do, with grandfather Abe (Tom Young) and Ryan’s niece Ellie (Averie Peters) joining in to help with the investigation. There are of course a number of setbacks. There are far too many people named after Abe’s long-lost love, and Ryan’s lackadaisical approach doesn’t mesh well with Annika’s methodical process. And on top of all that, this random publishing bro doesn’t understand why these two can’t produce a fully formed book of poetry and portraits in a few days. Can a book of love stories really be born from anxiety?

What films will this remind you of? : I know I’ve watched at least a few Hallmark movies about helping a grandparent reconnect with a lost love, and I know I’ve seen at least one other Hallmark movie in which characters bring together stories of love of strangers. The problem is, I’ve seen hundreds of Hallmark movies at this point and no specific title jumps out at me. Take this as a sign: A love for life is a classic brand, through and through.

Performances to watch: Michael Strickland (Holiday Helpline) is clearly having fun playing Rory, a publishing bro who is only interested in dollar bills (you can tell he’s not in it for the art because he has a Bluetooth headset ).

Memorable dialogues: I couldn’t choose just one.

• “I make my living doing poetry online. This means I’m notoriously good on the Internet.
• “Since when do you have to be famous to release a book? “Since….2016?
• “You can’t wait for the perfect moment. You can only do your best to make the moment perfect.

Our opinion : So… there is a plot is happening here. I know there’s no point in criticizing the credibility of a business plan or large-scale artistic endeavor in a Hallmark movie, because those movies don’t reflect real life. The obstacles, headaches, and heartaches of writing a book, keeping a restaurant open, or saving Main Street are all simplified and minimized in order to give these films that good Hallmark vibe. But even with all that in mind, I couldn’t figure out exactly what was going on with this book in A love for life.

Annika — a successful poet in 2024! – cannot sell a book of poetry. Ryan can’t sell a photography book. So they’re drawn to join forces on a book about… okay, a mysterious book about the search for Annika’s grandfather’s ex, filled with poems inspired by random people who willingly, eagerly and (above all) immediately tell their love stories to a few strangers. And they’re paired with what appear to be high school portrait-level snapshots of Ryan. How to fit all this into a blurb on a dust jacket, I have no idea.

I’m so hung up on the book proposition because the movie is so hung up on the book proposition. Instead of just leaving it as a nice little plot device to get Annika and Ryan to work together, the film spends a lot of time dealing with deadlines and logistics, which highlights just how complicated this book idea is. We spend too much time with Annika stressing over captions for what I assume is the universe’s equivalent of Instagram posts, with Ryan urging her to relax and follow the vibes.

And maybe I took it too personally, because Oh wow I felt for Annika – someone who values ​​her craft – who was forced to write a dozen poems in one night by people who don’t understand poetry. Let the woman work! You’ve given her the bizarre task of turning strangers’ lifelong romances into poems based on a single interview she just conducted a few hours ago! If you wanted a poetry book ASAP, Annika has one Ready to go and his poetry has already 25,000 subscribers. I don’t know what to tell you, Rory! Take off your headphones and listen to the logic!

Now if A love for life had a little more self-awareness, maybe that would balance out how absurd the book project is. It would have been helpful if Annika and Ryan talked about some of the more unreasonable aspects of their mission. But instead, the movie has that classic Hallmark burst of positivity. Even Annika’s type-A panic attacks during Deadline don’t have the edge they should have, an edge that would give the movie a bit more urgency and perhaps make us a little more invested. It’s perfectly fine for what it is, but A love for life it seems too simple for such a complicated premise.

Our call: JUMP. A love for life is a perfectly enjoyable watch, but the convoluted concept easily overpowers the laid-back performance.