The Hallmark College
Megan Mills (Kristy Swanson - A Belle for Christmas) is a wife, a mother and a career woman with her career always coming first much to the annoyance of her husband Mike (Scott Grimes - Robin Hood) who is frustrated that even on the day their twins, Sean (Paul Butcher) and Zoe (Allie Gonino - A Husband's Confession), leave for college her work comes first. When Mike finally has enough and moves to where the twins have gone to college so that he can fulfil a dream of studying engineering it causes Megan to realize that her dedication to her career has wrecked her family so she decides to take drastic action to save it. She decides to enrol in college to be with her family oblivious not only to how much hard work college is but also that being in college with her kids is not what they want. It leads her to wonder whether they would be better off with out her, especially as she has a job offer back at home.
Hmmm, how do I feel about a modern college movie which tosses in a Dean Martin reference? Not good to be honest as whilst some might know what the joke is the fact that it has to be explained straight away sort of highlights how little faith the writers had in the humour for it to work. It is the same throughout "A Lesson in Romance" with the obvious humour of separating parents in the same college as their kids being the mainstay of things, especially as Megan is trying to repair her relationship and bond with her kids who are a little messed up; the daughter can't make friends whilst the son can't talk to girls.
Of course all of this has a purpose as Megan finds not only college but doing the family thing much harder than she expected and having to decide whether or not she can do it. Of course the outcome of this is as obvious as the humour and in truth "A Lesson in Romance" trades on the obvious and cheesier side of things as it doesn't try to be anything other than easy to watch. And in a way it succeeds but you really need to enjoy Kristy Swanson and Scott Grimes as well as Hallmark family movies to watch "A Lesson in Romance" as it has a very clear groan side.
What this all boils down to is that "A Lesson in Romance" is the equivalent of those slices of processed cheese you get between layers of plastic. It isn't great, it is really cheesy and fake but they are easy to eat and once in a while they make a nice change.
