Before I watched this movie, I thought it was about Gary Sinise and Joely Richardson getting stuck in a snowbound cabin together and falling in love. But it's not. They do fall in love, they do spend time together next to the fire while a storm is raging outside--but it's not just them.
The first third of the movie shows Gary Sinise's backstory. How he felt his father neglected him for his job as the caretaker of some rental summer homes in Maine. How he met some little girl during a Christmas Eve car accident years ago. How he ran away from home so he could become a better man than his father. How he mostly cares about business now as a 40 something lawyer. How he got called home at Christmastime because his father died. During all that time, he ends up only talking to Joely Richardson on the phone because she and her daughter have rented one of the homes Gary's dad took care of for the holidays, and they're making new arrangements now that his father has died.
Up to the moment when Joely and Gary meet, I was okay with the incorporation of the overused single mother story line. But when the daughter first meets Gary Sinise, she sticks her hand out for him to shake, looks in a completely different direction, and greets him while not looking directly at him. And it hits me! She's supposed to be blind! I know it makes me seem heartless, but I stopped caring about the movie right then and there because it was such a typical, sentimental Hallmark move. I kept watching, and I saw Gary and Joely fall in love, but seriously?!? A blind girl? Next time, skip the kid and just let them fall in love. Spare us the needless tugs at the heartstrings. Don't get me wrong. Sinise and Richardson play their roles well, but this movie was slow-moving and not what I was expecting. I'm sure there are those who love it, but for me, it jumped the shark at blind girl.
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