Accidentally in Love (2011) Jennie Garth, Ethan Erickson, Fred Willard, Marilu Henner, Dannika Liddell, Adam Karelin, Zack Ward, Michael Patrick McGill, Patrice Jennings Movie Review

Accidentally in Love (2011)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Jennie Garth in Accidentally in Love (2011)

Garth's Mulligan with a Rabbit

When Eddie Avedon (Ethan Erickson - Santa Switch) decided to become an actor he didn't imagine he would be making his living dressed in a rabbit costume and be bouncing around as Mulligan on a children's TV show. It is why the minute they stop recording he ends up in a bad mood and that leads to him banging in to Annie Benchley (Jennie Garth - Secret Santa) when her old car breaks down at a set of traffic lights. It is not a good first meeting, with Eddie behaving like an impatient jerk. But it turns out not to be there last as Eddie learns that Annie has a daughter who is losing her sight and one of the things she loves is Mulligan the rabbit.

I watch a lot of Hallmark movies and whilst it would be fair to say when it comes to their romantic comedies the main formula has stayed the same some things have changed over the years. It doesn't seem that long ago when "Accidentally in Love" was made but you can see the differences to their more recent romantic comedies with a greater focus on set piece comedy. For example in "Accidentally in Love" Eddie ends up in a police cell after being pulled over for a traffic violation and he ends up having the other guys in the holding cell help him rehearse his lines. Whilst it is amusing this sort of comedy is always on the forced side and so many of the set piece gags and scenes in this end up feeling too focused upon.

The thing is that once you look past the forced comedy "Accidentally in Love" has that formula which sees chalk n cheese characters fall in love after a less then pleasant meet cute. As such what we get is a lot of comical arguing between Eddie and Annie following their car accident but when you introduce a young child who is losing their sight their issues start to melt away and the cuteness starts to take shape. I really don't need to go in to specifics of what happens in "Accidentally in Love" as it is only routine at best with Jennie Garth and Ethan Erickson looking the part but sadly not having great chemistry either romantic or comedy wise.

What this all boils down to is that "Accidentally in Love" is pleasant enough with a nice looking cast and a nice formula driven storyline. But it isn't a great Hallmark movie because this is one where all the comedy ends up feeling forced.


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