[Warning: General spoilers in preview, images, and video.]
Hallmark Channel switches things up for Mother’s Day with a Mother’s Day Eve (if you will) premiere of Mom’s Day Away, a super-charming outing about a stay-at-hom mom, Laura (Golden Boy‘s Bonnie Somerville), who finally hits a wall about all the things she traded out of when she married and had two children. Moved by a visit from her globetrotting career-woman BFF, Trish, she takes the reins on her holiday weekend and makes it all about her before her family lets it get by without a celebration. In the process, her family learns exactly how much they need her.
What makes the story special is the portrayal of the friendship between Laura and Trish, who realize each wants a piece of the life that the other has, but without full-on envy–they want the very best of everything for each other, always. It’s a lovely validation of a long-term bond between two friends who traveled different paths but stayed grounded in the closeness that made them friends to begin with.
I love Ona Grauer, (who some folks may remember as one of the Crossroads Demons on Supernatural) and she’s often an ice queen or someone duplicitous so it was terrific to see her as Trish, who’s genuinely a good person. Somerville is great as woman who finally snaps to about the life plans and career she forfeited, and realizes that she’s the only one who can get it back for herself. She and Grauer have wonderful chemistry together.
There’s a terrific line in the movie when they realize how fast time has gone, and Laura tells Trish simply, “The days are long; the years are fast” that’s so revealing about how time passes–both for long friendships and families. There are several lovely moments like that throughout. Revenge‘s James Tupper is solid as Laura’s husband, Michael, who realizes he’s been missing out on a lot because he spends 90% of his time on the phone. Their kids are played by Iain Belcher and Kaitlyn Bernard and they’re also good as a late teen and desperate-to-be-a-teen who are so caught up in their own stuff that they sort of glaze right past the notion that their mom is a whole person, and she had a life before them.
The movie shot in Vancouver, and takes advantage of the both the city and the gorgeous Sparkling Hill Resort, which I’d never heard of (I know!) just up the road. It was written by Neal H. Dobrofsky, Spyder Dobrofsky, and Tippi Dobrofsky, who’ve all worked on When Calls the Heart and several Hallmark Channel films, and directed by Mark Jean, who directed one of my favorite Hallmark films, Thee Weeks, Three Kids.
Mom’s Day Away premieres tomorrow night at 8/7c on Hallmark Channel and repeats Sunday at 9 pm/8c after an all-new Signed, Sealed, Delivered. Here’s a sneak peek:
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