'Summer Nights' movie review: 'My One & Only'
The fun of the meta romance "My One & Only" (airing August 31 as part of the Hallmark Channel's Summer Nights) is watching a patently and unabashedly romantic movie play in the reality TV dating genre.
In short: Romance "realist" Stephanie (Pascale Hutton) is cast on a reality dating TV show. As she begins to "date" the show's bachelor Oliver (Stephen Huszar), sparks fly between Stephanie and Alex (Sam Page), the ranch owner working for the TV show.
"One & Only" gets to have its cake and eat it too. The Hallmark romance indulges in the charms of small town Wyoming ranch life, while playfully batting around the expectations of finding true life-long ... in a few days ... on a TV show. It revels in the ridiculous idea of strangers finding "the one" after just a few dates with a person you just met -- yet, the movie also follows a ranch hand and a city girl falling in love after just a few days.
After the bristling meet-cute between corporate girl Stephanie and down-home Alex, "One & Only" has fun peeling back the layers of the two leads as they get to know each other. Unlike city slicker Oliver, Stephanie reveals just how comfortable she is fishing or in a canoe. And Alex shows he has ambitions for his future and for the place on the ranch. Along the way, the two embolden each other to chase what they want in life.
When "One & Only" looks like it's about to lose some momentum, it tosses in Stephanie's co-star Oliver and fellow ranch guest Kelly (Rhonda Dent) into the mix. While Stephanie is supposed to be dating Oliver, she cannot deny her chemistry with Alex -- and she can't help but notice a possible crush Kelly has on Alex. The movie juggles all the moving parts, keeping "One & Only" engaging from start to finish.
The only thing that keeps "One & Only" from being a 5-star Hallmark Channel winner is some backstory baggage involving Stephanie's corporate career. Her future at her office is established right at the beginning - it only comes up sporadically throughout the rest of the movie. The plot point only conveniently comes up when the movie needs to give Stephanie a fallback plan.
Final verdict: "One & Only" punches holes in the very notion of reality TV romance while following a pair falling in love just days after meeting.
Score: 4.5-out-of-5 summer nights
"My One and Only" is rated TV-G and has a running time of 90 minutes. The movie premieres on The Hallmark Channel on Aug. 31.
