Mabius Goes Back to School
Wayne Wenders (Eric Mabius - Signed, Sealed, Delivered: Home Again) is an actor, although the biggest thing he has starred in is an advert for IBS medication. It doesn't stop him from believing that his next commercial, for a root beer ad, will pay dividends. And pay is high on Wayne's agenda as he owes rent. So when the advert is delayed to run when a Bruce Willis movie is released he needs to find a quick payday. It is the reason why he heads back to his old high school to take a temp job teaching English for Principal Brenda Post (Stefanie Powers - A Ring by Spring). Soon Wayne is loving teaching Shakespeare to the students and Brenda is impressed by how enthusiastic the students are as he has them making short films of their stories. But Wayne also finds himself falling for fellow teacher Amy (Virginia Williams - Honeymoon with Mom), which only means trouble when the school year is over and he has to consider where his heart truly lies.
"Reading, Writing & Romance" can be summed up by saying Hallmark does "To Sir, with Love" as we have a temporary teacher inspiring a class to learn but facing a choice at the end of the year. We get Wayne's first day struggles as the class not only don't want to listen but enjoy making fun of him for being the guy from the IBS advert. That of course leads to him grabbing their attention with humour and doing things out of the box such as jumping on his desk to explain what a preposition is. None of this is new but then it is only the lead in to the Hallmark parts of "Reading, Writing & Romance".
As to those Hallmark parts of "Reading, Writing & Romance", well again it is familiar with Wayne finding himself not only enjoying teaching more than he expected but ending up falling for the delightful Amy, which of course leads to his dilemma come the end of the school year as to what he should do. But the thing I have learned about Hallmark movies is that familiar works and so does this movie with a really easy to watch vibe going on. A big part of that is down to the appeal of Eric Mabius and Virginia Williams who are sweet and look good together whilst the likes of Stefanie Powers, Martin Mull and Meredith Baxter add humour in supporting roles.
What this all boils down to is that "Reading, Writing & Romance" is 100% typical Hallmark and that means it is sweet, bubbly and ultimately familiar. But that is good because it is easy to watch, a surprising amount of fun and has appealing performances from Eric Mabius and Virginia Williams.
