Why do I find this Hallmark Channel TV movie so good? In part because this story about a jazz trumpeter who starts teaching high school music hits a lot of my buttons. Mostly, I think, because the script by Wayne Lemon and direction by Eriq Lasalle starts with people doing things. They play the trumpet or get into fights or run away or simply look uncomfortable. This is a movie, after all, not a radio play and for it to be good, it needs to be visually interesting. Things have to move. Happily they do.

There are some problems with this movie, including the clichés it falls into. Eddie Cibrian is a jazz musician, so he wears a Miles Davis sort of beard, but he does look good in it; the school is threatened with being closed, and of course the band he starts is needed to help save it. However, this one is pretty much a model of how to take your standard Hallmark plot and do it very right.

This is a feel good story about a high school band formed by a dedicated music teacher / jazz trumpeter played by Eddie Cibrian.

Along the way a slightly troubled prodigy is nurtured and a romance with the principal ensues. There is some charm here and it's a little pseudo drama.

The music is fairly cool and there is some charm to the characters.

Don't get me wrong I watch the silly Hallmark romance movies everyday. But I really miss the heartfelt quality movies they used to make. This could be one of the last one of those. Great cast, well acted, likeable characters and developed many of the characters. It's worth seeing for sure.