I will admit that Lauren Alaina has a ways to go in her acting ability. It's not horrible, but there are many times when you can tell that she is making an effort to deliver her lines or her expression rather than having it flow naturally.
But to say that she and Tyler Hines have no chemistry is going too far. For me the chemistry sizzled. The dialogue helped. When they are sparring at the beginning, it is fun rather than mean. Then it transitions into a friendship on the edge of romance which is only held back by the knowledge that he is already in a relationship. They educate one another in things that are new to the other and do it with obvious good will mixed with good natured teasing. I love watching relationships like this one.
Alaina has a spectacular voice. Hallmark has used a couple other ladies whose day job is singing and Alaina's voice is as good or better than each of them. I'm sorry we didn't hear more of "Run".
The only tension or conflict is the already existing relationship, but that's ok for me because I tend to be adverse to nasty conflict.
Plot summary
When Callie returns from her military service she finds that her boyfriend has a new girl and that their family BBQ restaurant has hit hard times. On top of that Callie has a car incident with director Luke and his manager Dan who just made a detour to the restaurant on their way to California with a classic car which is a present to Luke's movie star girlfriend. The incident strands Luke and Dan in the restaurants guest room while their car gets fixed. During his stay Luke is confronted with Callie's country music and country ways which force him to see things from a new perspective.—Johan Hammar
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
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Top cast
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Chemistry and dialogue
Lauren and Lockheart
This was very enjoyable thanks to the charisma and southern charm of Lauren Alaina and her chemistry with Tyler Hynes. The plot wasn't much, but I do love a fish out of water story and two loves being from different worlds. Lauren is back home from her stint in the army and is upset to find that things haven't stayed the same as when she left her small southern town or Lockheart Tennesee. Her boyfriend has found someone else, and her family's charming barbecue roadhouse is on the verge of failure. If that weren't enough, her dead grandfathers barbecue sauce recipe has been lost and they now use store bought(!!!) Because it's Hallmark, only a festival can save them, but ticket sales have been slow. Enter Tyler Hynes as a Hollywood TV director who gets stuck in town while driving his girlfriends birthday present to her in Nashville. Tyler's gradual thawing to the ways of a small southern town, and coming to appreciate Lauren, was involving. The shallow girlfriend threatening from the background kept up the tension and suspense.
Unfortunately, the conclusion left a lot of loose ends and questions. Bad girlfriend agreed to give the festival a social media push in exchange for Tyler directing her movie. She holds up her in end, but he welshes on the deal! Not Good. Another thing that bothered me was the dissonance between the plot and the theme. The moral of the story seemed to be that change brings good opportunities as well as sadness and disappointment. Yet instead of developing her own recipe for BBQ sauce, which would have symbolized moving forward and a fresh outlook she just finally finds her grandfathers. And finally, how are Tyler and Lauren going to make their relationship work when they live in different worlds? Will Lauren leave her small town to develop a singing career? Or will Tyler give up his successful profession to hang around Lockheart Tennessee? Neither option was given any time at all. Like Lauren's own BBQ sauce and Tyler's lack of integrity, it was left dying on the back burner.
Saving the roadhouse
'Roadhouse Romance' is the first Fall Harvest Hallmark film of 2021, in a year that was not a consistent or exactly great one but turned out to be a lot better than it could have been. All the previous seasonal blockings of 2021 were a mixed bag, especially the Summer Nights one. Another reason for seeing 'Roadhouse Romance' was for Tyler Hynes, he is one of those actors who has a hit and miss filmography but is nearly always one of the better aspects in all of them.
Which is the case here. 'Roadhouse Romance' is not one of the best Hallmark films of 2021, but it is also not one of the worst. Somewhere in the middle if anything and my feelings on it were mixed to fairly positive. It is not too bad a start for the 2021 Fall Harvest block and is above average. With a good deal of good things, a few not so good things and one big aspect that was very mixed. So not great, but a long way from terrible too.
It is a little bit of a slow starter and some of the dialogue in the early stages is awkward.
The ending is also on the too neat and contrived side and inexperience does show, sometimes badly, in some of Lauren Alaina's acting. Sometimes she is charming and easy to like, but at other times she is stiff and tries too hard.
Hynes however is his usual easy going and subtle self and he and Alaina do have a warm and sincere chemistry on the whole, though more caring mentor than romantic. The supporting cast are solid and the characters were not ones that bored or annoyed me.
The best aspect is the music, which is just great. So infectiously uplifting and soothing on the ears. Furthermore, it looks good. Especially the scenery. The script has some awkwardness but is suitably light-hearted, the rapport between the two leads made me smile. The story may be formulaic and not exactly original, but its energy, charm and ability to lift the spirits more than made up for that. Not to mention that it was to me easy to relate to.
Overall, decent. 6/10.