Photo: Crown Media/Bettina Strauss
When one thinks of holiday movies, one thinks of snowy fields, stockings by a chimney, and families reuniting during that special time of year. Generally, April Fool’s Day is never on someone’s mind. Hallmark’s business is making every holiday important thus creating a romantic comedy centered on a national prank day is a great idea to them. But is Lucky in Love a good time or does watching it put the joke on us?
Mira Simon (Jessica Szohr) decides to join in on the pranking fun by joking to her friends and family that she has a new boyfriend, a new apartment, and a promotion. Suddenly, all her good natured tricks become a reality and Mira finds herself dating the perfect man, living in the perfect home, with the perfect job. Unfortunately living the dream isn’t all its cracked up to be and she is forced to look and ask herself what she really wants in life.
Lucky in Love is just alright. The story follows a formula and it’s all well and good but there’s nothing special about the story. Mira has a great job but with a manager (Peter Benson) who doesn’t take the time to consider her ideas. Her best friend and coworker Jonah (Ben Hollingsworth) is clearly infatuated with her and while entire office can see it, she’s oblivious. Stuck in an elevator with her boss and professional hero Erin Billings (Deidre Hall), Mira uses the opportunity to literally elevator pitch her idea to relaunch the social media website where she works. She, again, quite literally bumps into a cute guy on the street whom she just happened to read about in a magazine and they become an item. It’s all dull.
When I watch this network, I expect heart pangs, laughs, smiles, some sort of emotion to come out of me. If I had been hooked up to a monitor while watching this, all you would have seen was a flatline. Maybe a blip for Erin because she’s Deirdre-freaking-Hall from Days of Our Lives and she’s amazing. She is the perfect casting for the role and every scene she is in she hits it out of the park, but she didn’t have to stretch herself as the character. What I did like is that the CEO isn’t a crazed female bitch of a boss. She is classy, smart, and kind to her employees. Erin gives fantastic advice and isn’t some Anna Wintour-like demon. But, the movie doesn’t rely heavily on her, it relies on Szohr.
I want to love Szohr, I do. As a fan of the book series Gossip Girl, when it was made into a CW series she was woefully miscast as Vanessa Abrams. While the show cut out the true essence of what made Vanessa great in the books, it was Szohr who wasn’t able to elevate the material and became what critics and fans agreed as the blandest character on a show reviled by the Parents Television Council.
Hollingworth is a tad dopey each time he has to long for his crush Mira. It’s not entirely adorable, it’s just kind of sad. Mira’s sister Sophia is played by Julia Benson, who just happens to be the real life wife of the actor that plays Mira’s boss Michael. She looks like a cross between Cobie Smulders and Idina Menzel in some scenes and I keep expecting her to belt out “Let It Go” at any minute.
Ryan Kennedy plays the perfect (but is he really) boyfriend Liam. I like Ryan, I do. He looks like the younger brother of the London twins (Jason and Jeremy). But we all know that Liam’s relationship with Mira isn’t going to work out and don’t feel invested in him at all. After realizing that Liam really doesn’t know her, he’s just an annoying romantic foil and really has no substance even though they attempted to write him as such with naming his restaurant after his grandmother.
The story is a classic case of getting what you wish for and it turning out not to be ideal. It’s the same case with this movie. You wish for it to be good but it’s all-together just bland. Lucky in Love was unsuccessful in making me love it. Try your luck somewhere else.
Cast: Jessica Szohr, Benjamin Hollingsworth, Ryan Kennedy, Peter Benson, Julia Benson, Deidre Hall, Tara Wilson, Cindy Busby, Lindsey Maxwell, Vincent Tong, Cynthia Mendez, Ian Carter, Darla Taylor, Matthew Kevin Anderson, Goldie Hoffman, Fiona Vroom, Marco Soriano
Bottom-line: Background movie or skip it.
Team Fog Reviews 
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