Love Finds You in Valentine (2016) (aka: Family Secrets) Michaela McManus, Diogo Morgado, Edward Asner, Lindsay Wagner, Kellen Boyle, Hunter Cross, Kevin Fox Movie Review

Love Finds You in Valentine (2016)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Michaela McManus and Diogo Morgado in Love Finds You in Valentine (2016) (aka: Family Secrets)

Love on Kennedy's Ranch

As a child Kennedy Blaine (Michaela McManus) always wanted to visit the family ranch in Valentine, Nebraska but her father would never take her. But now, following her father's passing, she finds herself inheriting the ranch. But whilst Kennedy plans to sell the ranch so she can move on with her life there is a condition in her father's will that if she sells the place she mush actually be there to do so. Having arrived at the ranch things become a lot more complicated as she meets her mum's cousin, June (Lindsay Wagner - The Thanksgiving House), handsome foreman, Derek Sterling (Diogo Morgado), and her grandfather, Gabriel (Edward Asner - All of My Heart), who fell out with her mother many years ago.

"Love Finds You in Valentine", which is also known as "Family Secrets", is a comfortable movie, because it is familiar, squeezing in many recognizable story ideas and delivering them with the soft charm that gives the movie a type of glow. To give you an idea of those ideas we have the city girl, with a boyfriend of sorts in the city, heading to a small town where ranch life grows on her and she finds herself falling for the handsome cowboy who has a few skeletons in his closet. On top of that we have the equally familiar cliche of whether to sell the ranch or not. But there is more because there is her grandfather who Kennedy has never met, family secrets, bad blood and even someone trying to make life difficult so that Kennedy will sell the ranch. There is basically nothing new in "Love Finds You in Valentine" but the combination of things, as in so many elements, makes it entertaining.

Edward Asner in Love Finds You in Valentine (2016) (aka: Family Secrets)

But as I said "Love Finds You in Valentine" it has that soft charm, that afternoon movie warmth which means it is one of those movies for those who don't want to be challenged by what they watch but still want to be entertained by it. And that is partly down to the casting as Michaela McManus as she is easy to warm to whilst veteran actors such as Lindsay Wagner and Edward Asner simply add to the easy to watch tone.

What this all boils down to is that "Love Finds You in Valentine" is not anything new as it takes several storylines which have been used in ranch dramas over the years and brings them all together. This makes it a movie for those who are fans of the familiar and also the tone you find in many made for TV movies.


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