[Warning: General spoilers ahead.]
Hallmark Movies & Mysteries returns to the Karen Kingsbury well Sunday night with an adaptation of her novel, A Time to Dance. The network had a two-part success this past holiday season and spring when viewers responded so favorably to The Bridge that the network moved part two up eight months. Sunday’s movie is a one-off story about a couple in crisis who keep waiting for the right time to tell their family that the idyllic life they’ve built together isn’t quite so happy anymore.
Jennie Garth and Dan Payne (last month’s All Yours), star as long-married high-school sweethearts who’ve drifted apart amid shifting dreams and careers and raising two children. As we begin, they’ve been secretly separated for months. They’re trying to find an opening to explain to their children and her dad that they’re divorcing when her daughter arrives home with news of her own that pushes the timetable again.
It’s a quiet, heartfelt film about a couple that grew away from each other when an equal partnership got less equal over time. Rather than be a bitter divorce story, it’s bittersweet about the hurt and loss that come with accepting the end of long-held plans, the finality of a divorce, and maybe realizing that the decision doesn’t have to be so final after all.
Garth and Payne do really nice, thoughtful work as two people who spent a lifetime building something only to lose their grasp on it, and each other. There’s a sense of sadness and longing as they sort through what comes next while trying to minimize the damage to each other and their family.
The cast is rounded out by familiar Hallmark family faces Corbin Bernsen and Ona Grauer (Murder She Baked) plus Andrew Jenkins (OUaT), James Swalm, Chanelle Peloso, Fiona Vroom (Bates Motel), and Andy Nez.
This is Garth’s first return to Hallmark in a few years. Her 2003 film, The Last Cowboy, opposite a pre-juggernaut Bradley Cooper and Lance Henrikson, is still a favorite. It’s nice to have her back here.
Karen Kingsbury’s A Time to Dance airs at 9/8c Sunday on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries (after an encore of both parts of The Bridge). Here’s a sneak peek of the film, plus Garth’s Home & Family interview from this week.
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