Hallmark Channel's 'A Valentine's Match' is the perfect movie to start the romantic season with
The time for romantic Christmas movies may be over, but with Valentine's Day just around the corner, Hallmark Channel has your back. One of those movies is 'A Valentine's Match' starring Bethany Joy Lenz of 'One Tree Hill' fame and Luke Macfarlane from Syfy's 'Killjoys'.
Lenz plays Natalie Simmons, a reality show host who gets fired a few minutes into the movie for "losing her authenticity".
Natalie seemingly has a perfect life otherwise. Her boyfriend, Brooks is quite successful, albeit lacks a little bit of attention. He offers Natalie chocolate ice cream, not realizing that she does not like it. Later on in the movie, he sends her flowers, namely, lilies, forgetting that she is allergic to them.
To recoup from the loss of her job, she goes back to her hometown when her mother asks her to help with the town's Valentine's Day festivities, mainly the kissing booth.
Of course, her mother has other plans: She wants her daughter to get back with the latter's ex-fiance Zach Williams. Natalie's mother is not alone in this endeavor as Zach's mother wants it to happen too.
Zach, an artist, supposedly broke up with Natalie to go to an art school in Europe a few years back. He now owns a hardware store. Needless to say, Zach's and Natalie's first encounter is quite awkward. Later, their moms conspire to make the two former lovebirds work together to set up the Valentine's Day auction.
While they clash on ideas for the auction at first, they eventually settle on collecting antique collectibles. During their hunt for them — an activity known as "picking" — Natalie and Zach grow closer again. Along the way, we also learn that Zach might have had another reason for ending his relationship with Natalie in the past —something his parents insist that he tell Natalie.
The Valentine's Day Festival comes around, and since this is a Hallmark movie, Natalie's kissing booth actually involves kissing cute little puppies. Unfortunately, Natalie's and Zach's auctioning skills leave something to be desired for and the auction gets off to a rocky start. But they soon find their rhythm and the auction ends up being successful.
This being a Valentine's Day Festival, there's a dance to end the night with and would you know it, sparks fly when Natalie and Zach share a dance to Pat Benatar's 'We Belong'.
Zach, however, then tells Natalie the truth about what really happened.
Zach did not go to art school in Europe — he did not even apply. Zach wanted to stay behind in their hometown, but knowing that Natalie had her heart set on big dreams and moving to San Francisco, and feeling that he held her back, he broke up with her.
Natalie gets upset and runs away thinking that Zach gave up on them. She then berates him telling him that he did it because he was scared. Just then, Natalie's boyfriend, Brooks shows up with good news: a meeting for a new hosting gig.
Natalie gets ready to go to her interview, but her family tries to make her speak to Zach before leaving. Zach does tell her that she is right and gives her a box and a letter just before she leaves.
At the airport, while waiting for her flight with Brooks, Natalie opens Zach's letter and gift, which is a piece Zach created depicting Mount Kilimanjaro — a climb both Natalie and Zach wanted to do.
Natalie's interview goes well, but she rejects the offer because she wants to do something she really believes in. But, she works out a deal with the interviewer. Later, Natalie realizes that Brooks doesn't know anything about her and breaks up with him.
Natalie rushes to the airport to go back home, but she ends up slightly late and is asked to wait for the next flight. She then explains her story to the flight attendant, and when she does, Zach walks in as well! They reunite, share a kiss as the others in the airport applaud them.
Natalie and Zach then start their own show called "Treasure Hunters", based on Zach's hobby of "picking".
As Shakespeare once said, "all's well that ends well."
'A Valentine's Match' is a nice movie to start the Valentine season with. Lenz and Macfarlane share good chemistry, though every once in a while the viewer might end up reminiscing about Lenz's work on 'One Tree Hill'.