2015's entry into the Hallmark Hall of Fame catalogue and it shows: 'Away and Back' benefitted from a much bigger budget and a much better cast than usual - Jason Lee co-stars with Minka Kelly of Friday Night Lights fame - and the result is a strong and unique movie that mixes romance and trumpet swans. Yes, you read that right. Kelly plays Jennie, an ornithologist, who comes into the life of single dad Jack (Lee) and his three children when trumpet swans make a home on their Washington state property.
Whilst Away and Back has a fairly predictable plot line, it works because of Lee and Kelly, whose chemistry comes bubbling to the fore once their characters get through an early thorny patch. The actors playing Jack's three kids (Jaren Lewison, Conor Paton and especially the bubbly Maggie Elizabeth Jones, who is perhaps the real star of this movie) are very good in their roles. No over-acting or under-acting. Believable emotion. A tight script, some great visuals (with the occasional obvious CGI moment) and the sort of happy ending that we all want from a Hallmark movie.
Everything Minka Kelly is in that I've seen, she knocks out of the park. 'Away and Back' is no exception.
Whilst Away and Back has a fairly predictable plot line, it works because of Lee and Kelly, whose chemistry comes bubbling to the fore once their characters get through an early thorny patch. The actors playing Jack's three kids (Jaren Lewison, Conor Paton and especially the bubbly Maggie Elizabeth Jones, who is perhaps the real star of this movie) are very good in their roles. No over-acting or under-acting. Believable emotion. A tight script, some great visuals (with the occasional obvious CGI moment) and the sort of happy ending that we all want from a Hallmark movie.
Everything Minka Kelly is in that I've seen, she knocks out of the park. 'Away and Back' is no exception.