Hallmark Review: 'Strawberry Summer'

Hoping to bring in more people for her hometown's annual Strawberry Festival, high school teacher Beth Landon (Julie Mond) arranges for country star Jason Keith (Trevor Donovan) to perform at the festival. But with Jason's rocky reputation, many people in Fairland--including Beth's mother Eileen (Shelley Long)--are skeptical that he'll be a reliable act. When Jason arrives and proves to be as dismissive and hard to work with as the tabloids say, Beth begins to wonder if she made a mistake hiring him.

But as the festival goes on and Beth and Jason continue to work together, Beth sees a new side of the music star emerge from under his icy shell. Bonding over the festival activities and their shared passion for music, sparks fly between the unlikely allies. But will they confront their growing feelings before festival's end?

Starting out, Strawberry Summer (also known as Easy Heart on Pixl) had me wary on whether or not it would be any good. In addition to a slow start and some choppy dialogue, the film seemed set on a finite "Haters to Lovers" Hallmark formula without any deviation. Sticking too close to a well-tread plot path has been a killer for many a movie I've reviewed, and as shown in Baby's First Christmas, a "Haters to Lovers" story is easy to make an unbearable watch. Mercifully, while it does suffer from being too formula-driven, Strawberry Summer is salvaged as an enjoyable romance thanks to its cast and a script that crafts together likable characters and heartwarming moments.

Starting with the main cast, Trevor Donovan makes for an appealing leading man. Throughout the first act, he gives Jason Keith a strong sense of charisma, even as he's rude and apathetic towards his festival duties. From his introduction, we're allowed to see that behind his rough exterior, Jason is grappling with an internal conflict regarding his career--a conflict we learn more about as Jason bonds with Beth. SPOILER ALERT Personally, the main source of Jason's struggles (him having grown up in the city rather than the country as he's led his fans to believe) rang hollow for me. It would've been more believable if Jason were suffering from severe performance anxiety that he was trying to hide--a possibility hinted at by his admission to having panic attacks. It would've made his habit of canceling shows last-minute more sympathetic and still aligned with his case of imposter syndrome. Spoilers Over But in spite of my issues with the source of Jason's inner struggles, Donovan brings touching emotion to Jason as his softer side comes to light and shares chemistry with Julie Mond as Jason and Beth grow close.

Mond, meanwhile, shares in Donovan's charm as Beth Landon. Character-wise, Beth is much less attention-grabbing than Jason, as she's essentially your standard "Small-Town Girl with Big Dreams" type. But in Mond's hands, Beth becomes something of a firecracker as she refuses to let Jason disrespect her or her town. Mond and Donovan play well off each other as their rivalry becomes a tentative friendship--one which has Jason surprisingly inspiring Beth to take another chance on her forgotten musical ambitions. It makes for a sweet if not formulaic arc for the couple, and one which ends on an appropriately uplifting note--pun intended.

(Though when it comes to the singing we hear throughout Strawberry Summer, the vocals sometimes become hard to understand without subtitles. While Mond's are clear from what little we hear of them, the vocals on Donovan and the glee club kids at times become incomprehensible)

The supporting cast is a match to Mond and Donovan, with everyone bringing something sweet to the proceedings. Shelley Long and Barry Van Dyke are warm and supportive as Beth's parents Eileen and Jim, managing to recover from their clunkier bits of dialogue. Dagney Kerr is a bundle of energy as Beth's perky sister Tracy, as are Meagen Fay and Cindy Williams as Fairland locals/Jason Keith fangirls Mimi and Ruth. Williams also brings emotional resonance to Ruth's subplot, which speaks to a struggle many small-town watchers can relate to and allows for some tender scenes between Williams and Donovan. Some noteworthy members of the minor cast include Michelle DeFraites and Dexter Darden as glee club members Kara and Noah and Jonathan Chase as Gregg Marks. Gregg's scene of finding out some big news amidst festival activities is made memorably adorable through Chase's delivery.

WARNING: Minor Spoilers Below

Becky O'Donohue and Jilon VanOver also provide good performances as flirty local Roxanne and Jason's manager Ray respectively. Unfortunately, both get shafted when it comes to their underutilized characters. Both Roxanne and Ray are set up as potential antagonists. Roxanne is established as a rival of Beth's out to seduce Jason, and Ray as an overly controlling manager who doesn't want Jason going against his plans for the festival. With Ray also being set up as a college friend of Beth's, both he and Roxanne had a lot of potential going for them.

Instead, however, both only pop up to provide cheap conflicts for Beth and Jason's relationship that are dealt with as quickly as they're introduced, with neither of their story arcs getting a proper ending. Roxanne suddenly goes from antagonizing Beth and trying to romance Jason to applauding their duet at Jason's concert, while the film ends without revealing how Ray reacted to Jason defying his orders to perform his original song. The latter is especially frustrating, as Ray is never given a reason for being so against Jason's plans for his performance. You'd think he'd at least support Jason singing with a local glee club, given his mission of fixing his client's soured reputation. It's upsetting to see that Strawberry Summer had two opportunities to add a little something new to its familiar storyline, only to whiff them both.

Spoilers Over

So as mentioned in the above Spoiler section, Strawberry Summer sadly ignores some golden chances to revamp its familiar plot. While it never gets to a point of becoming insufferable, the routineness of its story and some other flaws take away from Strawberry Summer's strengths as a Hallmark romance. But with a good cast to liven things up and some heart to keep you invested in the story, there's enough here to make the movie worth checking out. Plus, the solid musical efforts add a little bonus to the mix. It's far from Hallmark Top 10 material, but for what it is, Strawberry Summer might make for good downtime watching as this summer comes to a close.

Score: 6.5 out of 10 strawberry earrings.