Last month, the Hallmark Channel began rolling out a mini movie franchise called Hearts Around The Table. The films revolve around a family of foster siblings who have all grown up, but reconvene every week at their foster mother’s home for Sunday dinner and catch each other up on their lives. In the second film of the series, Hearts Around The Table: Shari’s Second Act, one of the sisters, fresh off a divorce, starts to rebuild her life and embraces a new career as an artist. At the same time, she starts falling for a new man, but, wary of taking things too quickly, she pulls away so she won’t get hurt, risking her own happiness in the process.
HEARTS AROUND THE TABLE: SHARI’S SECOND ACT: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: A plane touches town in Washington D.C. As one of its passengers, Shari Adams (Mishael Morgan) wheels her luggage through the airport, she receives a phone call from Evan James (Brendan Morgan), who works at an artist co-op, telling her that she’s been selected for an artist’s residency where she can live and work and get her career off the ground.
The Gist: Shari, a portrait painter, recently arrived back in D.C. after living in Switzerland. Seeking a fresh start after breaking things off with her ex-husband, she moves in to the artist co-op, but can’t help but feel a little lost and alone, post-breakup.
Fortunately Shari has a great support system around her: she’s one of four adult foster siblings who were raised by Angie (Mindy Cohn), a warm, kind woman whose home is the center of the film. Shari’s siblings (who are all the focus of their own Hearts Around The Table films this month) are Jenna (Ashley Newbrough), Kiki (Kathryn Davis) and Josh (Jake Epstein), and they, along with their teenage foster brother Rory (Justice James), all congregate every Sunday at Angie’s home for a family supper.
As Shari settles in to her new apartment at the co-op, she starts hanging out with Evan, the owner of the building, but she’s hesitant to begin a romantic relationship since the wounds of her divorce still feel fresh. But she’s also drawn to Evan and even forms a relationship with his grandmother, Lindsay, a painter herself. Lindsay gave up on her painting dreams, selling off all of her old artworks, something she regrets, and she uses that as a lesson for Shari to not let go of what she’s passionate about.
At the same time that Shari grapples with her feelings for Evan, her siblings all fave their own personal issues: Josh, a teacher, is dealing with a troubled student, and Kiki is dealing with the death of her first foster mother. These details aren’t necessarily essential to the plot, but it helps to illustrate that this is a community of people who care –– through their own difficult circumstances, they all triumphed and came through it as a chosen family. And, yeah, in the end, Shari chooses Evan, to be a part of that family, too.
What Movies Will It Remind You Of? The Hearts Around The Table series is similar to Hallmark’s The Groomsmen series which came out last year, with each film focused on a different member of a core group. Though The Groomsmen films felt a little more fun and silly, Hearts Around The Table has a warmer, more familial vibe.
Our Take: In my review for the first Hearts Around The Table film, Jenna’s First Love, I wrote, “there’s a great warmth to the foster siblings’ dynamic [but] the romantic story line and chemistry here feels pretty generic.” The same can be said about Shari’s Second Act – there’s not a lot of sizzling chemistry between Shari and Evan, and Shari’s reticence to pursue a relationship for the first two-thirds of the movie only makes it harder to get invested as a viewer.
So then… perhaps it’s worth reframing what I expected these films to be, which was a straight-up Hallmark romance. Instead, I suppose I’d be less disappointed if I simply embrace this as a movie about a unique family who has supported each other through thick and thin. These films just happen to be set at a time when each of the siblings is ready to move into a new phase of their lives. Still, Shari’s Second Act might be a bit slow for viewers because… not much happens. The most tension in the film is when Shari and Evan attend an auction to buy one of Lindsay’s old, formerly lost paintings and they end up getting outbid. While the characters and the general sentiment of the film are dependably nice (that’s literally the only word I can think of to use here: nice. Everyone’s just nice. Boring, but nice.), unfortunately there’s just not much to sink your teeth into with this one.
Parting Shot: Once Shari and Evan finally get together, she reveals that she found one of Evan’s grandmother’s long-lost paintings. They bring it to his grandmother who is stunned to see her artwork back in her possession.
Performance Worth Watching: Once again, Mindy Cohn’s performance stands out, and not just because I have a soft sport for Natalie from The Facts of Life, but because her role as Angie has made me realize that she’s a great actress, perhaps better than she typically gets credit for being. No matter who her scene partner is, she appears as ease, totally embodying her role as a wise, maternal figure. (Oh my God, I’m just getting it, guys, SHE’S the Mrs. Garrett of the group now.)
Memorable Dialogue: “Let go and rebuild,” Shari says, repeating advice that her sister Jenna has given her. “Sounds a lot easier than it is.”
Our Call: Hearts Around The Table: Shari’s Second Act is a sweet film, but its slow pacing and fairly dry relationship drama keeps it from being great. SKIP IT.
Liz Kocan is a pop culture writer living in Massachusetts. Her biggest claim to fame is the time she won on the game show Chain Reaction.
The post Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Hearts Around The Table: Shari’s Second Act’ on Hallmark, About A Divorced Woman Easing Into Her Next Chapter appeared first on Decider.
