Hallmark Review: "Win, Lose, or Love"

After years of putting up with her son Oliver's (Griffin Kunitz) school prioritizing sports ahead of all other extracurricular activities, single mother Clara Goodwin (Helena Mattsson) is determined to become Heartridge's next Parents Group president and make the changes she wants to see. Meanwhile, workaholic single dad Alex Kramer (Corey Sevier) finds himself struggling to keep his ad agency afloat, and is searching for a way to land a high-profile commercial deal with sporting goods tycoon Hal Harrington (Greg Grunberg).

Alex's daughter Emma (Kayla Madison) also attends Heartridge, and it is after learning about an upcoming Sports Day at the school that Alex gets an idea to salvage his deal with Hal: shoot the ad at Heartridge to market Hal's business as a family-driven one, with Hal donating to the school's athletic teams. But when Clara objects to Alex's plan due to Hal's donation excluding the arts, Alex takes his plan a step further and decides to become president of the Parents Group in order to ensure the commercial goes as planned. But to to both Clara and Alex's dismay, the vote ends in a tie, meaning the two will have to act as co-presidents until a re-vote can take place.

Forced to work together, Clara and Alex's vastly different personalities quickly clash, jeopardizing Alex's job and Clara's intentions with the Parents Group. Despite their differences, these rivals soon learn that as struggling single parents, they both share a lot in common and could both learn from each other. Could this rivalry lead to mutual understanding and maybe something more?

Originally premiering on Pixl before finding a second home on the Hallmark Drama channel, Win, Lose, or Love certainly fits the mold of a quirky Hallmark feature, with its vibrant sets and plot revolving around the melodramatic inner workings of elementary school PTA. But in the midst of this admittedly lightweight story, Win, Lose, or Love has a deeper overarching narrative in regards to Clara and Alex's struggles as single parents —particularly the struggles of the latter in trying to raise Emma as a widower while quietly dealing with his grief and trying to maintain the business he and his wife built together. It makes for a surprising heavy side that emerges from this otherwise sugary sweet film that is well-handled by the cast.

On the flip side, however, this heavy character-driven plot arc becomes a double edged sword when it illuminates how the "Love" in Win, Lose, or Love feels like a rushed afterthought rather than a developed story arc. Apart from a few blink-and-you'll-miss-it moments of flirtation, Clara and Alex never give off the impression that the feelings they develop for each other go further than platonic friendship. Had the film stuck to its guns and had Clara and Alex remain friends throughout the entirety of the film, it would have allowed for Win, Lose, or Love to be a heartwarming story about love between family and friends that sticks out as a rare non-romance Hallmark film. Instead, their friendship gets a last second unnecessary relationship boost, abandoning what could've made for a nice twist of the formula, weighing down the film's otherwise solid conclusion.

Before their relationship is given the "Strangled by the Red String" treatment, Clara and Alex's friendship is sweet to watch blossom, with Helena Mattsson and Corey Sevier sharing solid chemistry as they bond over their shared struggles as single parents. While Clara is certain to test your patience in the first act with her condescending and overly snippy attitude towards Alex, Mattsson excels when Clara begins to see the error of her ways and warms up to her co-president. Sevier, meanwhile, brings loads of charm to Alex, allowing him to remain likable even in his lower moments. Sevier also delivers when it comes to Alex's arc of dealing with the loss of his wife and his struggles with being a single father to Emma, bringing to life Alex's vulnerability and deep regrets about how distant he had grown from his daughter. Sevier also plays well off most everyone in the cast, with a cute highlight being his interactions with Griffin Kunitz as Oliver, as the two begin bonding over soccer.

Kunitz and Kayla Madison do well as the respective children of Clara and Alex, with Madison in particular bringing emotion to Emma as she finds herself disconnected from her father and unable to express her feelings regarding her mother's passing. Catherine Hicks brings an authentic air to her role as Alex's supportive but bluntly honest mother Dot, playing well off Sevier and Madison in addition to Parker Stevenson when Dot begins a whirlwind romance of her own with charming drama teacher Mike Canton. Greg Grunberg is a bundle of energy as the over-the-top Hal Harrington, and Catherine Haena Kim is clearly having fun as the passive-aggressive and sports-crazy Margaret Dell. On the lower end of the side cast, Nadine Velazquez does the best she can as Clara's friend Nancy Gander, though the role ultimately strands her with the standard "Main Heroine's BFF" template.

WARNING: Spoilers Below

The final noteworthy member of the supporting cast who gets shafted by the film's script has their derailment tied closely with the biggest problem of Win, Lose, or Love's third act: Devon Michaels as Alex's partner Jeff Miller. Throughout the film, Alex's coming around to Clara's idea for integrating all the extracurriculars into Sports Day and make it Activities Day is met with rejection from Hal, leading Jeff to go behind Alex's back and put up the Sports Day banners rather than the new Activities Day ones. This not only leads to the standard "Third Act Misunderstanding" that inexplicably convinces Clara that Alex has just been using her, but also has Jeff blast Alex for wanting to take time off work to be a father to Emma and claim his late wife Trish would want him to save their company at any costs.

In addition to Hal's rejection of Activities Day making little sense on a business standpoint and the frustrating execution of Alex and Clara's third-act falling out, Jeff's callous reaming of Alex for wanting to be an involved father and argument that his late wife would support him putting their business above absolutely everything else isn't called out nearly as much as it should've been. In fact, Alex is given more of a hard time for going along with Jeff's guilt tripping than Jeff gets for said guilt tripping. Instead, the film has Jeff pulling a last-second redemption, having been easily forgiven by Alex for his truly thoughtless actions.

Spoilers Over

With a superfluous main romance and a third act that hits a few problematic bumps before ending on a solid enough note, Win, Lose, or Love has about as much going for it as it has working against it as a fun Hallmark film. The cast brings heart to the film's weighty subject matter as well as charm to the softer scenes, with the themes of familial love and togetherness being sure to tug at a few heartstrings due in part to some strong emotional performances. While the third act proves troublesome to the experience as a whole, Win, Lose, or Love is overall a solid feel-good film to spend a cozy afternoon curled up with.

Score: 6.5 out of 10 red balloons.