I See What You Did There..."Scents And Sensibility"

Scents and Sensibility (2011)

PG

Starring Ashley Williams, Marla Sokoloff, Nick Zano, Brad Johnson,

Directed by Brian Brough

The Story:

Elinor (Williams) and Marianne (Sokoloff) Dashwood's world upends when their father goes to jail and they must get real jobs to make ends meet and take care of their family.  Elinor ends up as a janitor and Marianne changes her last name to land a job as a copy editor.  While they try and make enough, naturally they run across a couple of men (Zano and Johnson) who are both irritating and attractive, at the same time. However, when Marianne's scented lotions that she makes on the side look to be profitable and get the girls out of debt, evil forces conspire to rob them of their chance to regain their status as upstanding citizens. Whatever will the girls do?

This is what you get when you take 2 parts Jane Austen and one part Lifetime channel and shake vigorously.

That said, it's not bad.  There are numerous Sense and Sensibility adaptations out there for your perusal.

This one is a fun re-imagining of the story, set in the modern day

It looks like a TV movie and feels like one, but that's fine.

Sometimes a good TV movie is exactly what you can be in the mood for.

Enough romance, drama and comedy to make it a light, fun affair without holding strict to the coattails of Jane Austen.

Available to stream instantly on Netflix as of this writing.

Final Grade: C+

Rewatchability/Purchase Factor: No need to buy it, but cute and harmless enough, could watch it again for background noise when you don't need to totally concentrate on a film.

The Twelve Reviews of Christmas...Day One: "Christmas in Boston"

Love at first sight, mostly?

The Story:

Gina (Marla Sokoloff) and Seth (Patrick J. Adams) have been pen pals for over 13 years.  Bestest of friends, chance has brought Seth to Boston for a toy conference because he works at a giant toy company and Gina is a reporter who will be covering the show.  The problem?  Seth had sent Gina a picture of his best friend, Matt (Johnathan Cherry).  No real worries, as Gina had sent a picture of her best friend Ellen (Lindy Booth) also.  Silly kids.  So they make their best friends meet... and they hit it off.

Big time.

Now what are the two supposed to do?  Their best friends are falling in love with each other, and Gina and Seth are disappointed, yet connecting with each other unbeknownst about who they really are.

Plus, Gina has the toy business scoop of a lifetime. 

Will she publish the story and destroy Seth's career?

Is fate going to step in and save the day?

Yep, another cute holiday movie served up from ABC Family as part of their 25 Days of Christmas programming.

From 2005, this one was probably seen by us for the first time 3 or 4 years ago.

It's a cute little tale, and all of the actors do a fine job.

Nothing earth-shattering or genre revitalizing, but ABC knows how to crank out an annual new film for their channel, and I'm glad for it.

So if you're interested in a sweet little romantic comedy for the holidays, here's a good one to try and start off with.

Final Grade: B-

Rewatchability/Purchase Factor: At least once a year around now, and now thanks to a multi-pack of ABC Family films, I do own it!