This is a Bramble Jam podcast.

Welcome to a Girl's Gone Hallmark, a Hallmark review podcast.

I'm Megan and I'm a longtime Hallmark fan.

I'm Wendy.

I'm a former Hallmark hater.

Today we're discussing The Groomsman Last Dance, the third and final movie in the Groomsman trilogy.

You can catch our reviews of the previous two movies that have dropped recently.

We would love for you to hang out with us outside of the podcast.

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Hey, if you want to talk with other like minded, cool people who like Hallmark movies, join our Girls Gone Hallmark Facebook group.

Hey, remember a few weeks ago we made a joke about looking for somebody to be the admin for our Facebook dig you.

Well, thanks to Mackie and Brenda, we have too, and I just want to give them a shout out and say thank you for all you're doing over there keeping everything in tiptop shape.

Yeah, and we even.

Got more volunteers than those two we had already kind of like we were like, oh my gosh, we have two.

This is amazing.

So thank you to every single person who volunteered.

We appreciate you.

We do.

Let's jump right into a synopsis for The Groomsman Last Dance.

Jackson moves to Italy to be near his daughter, but a chance meeting with a cafe owner, Gabriella, and some Medalin friends may lead to a second chance at love.

Ron Oliver returns as director.

He also wrote the script for the third and final movie.

He directed all three movies in the trilogy.

If you want to watch a really good Roun Oliver movie, the time of my voice suggests that I don't think this is a really good round Oliver movie.

I want to make that clear that that's not what I'm doing here.

Check out Love at the Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Tyler Hine is back in the lead role as Jackson for this one.

And while we're halfway through the twenty twenty four Heinz season, that's what I'm calling it, There's still more to come.

Look forward to Hines and three Wiserman and a Boy and Holiday Touchdown, a Chiefs love story coming in.

Jonathan Bennett makes a return as Danny.

If you haven't got the first two episodes of Finding Mister Christmas on Hallmark Plus yet, they are definitely worth the watch.

It's a reality.

Competition that's giving us all the holiday vibes we need right now.

B J Britt returns as Doctor p and for anyone craving more of Bjay's holiday charm, you can check him out in last year's holiday movie on own called A Christmas Serenade.

He's also known for roles in Unreal Being Mary Jane and Agents of Shield.

Chloe Raphael plays Betty Jackson's daughter as previously mentioned, Chloe's and a ton of voice work with the children's animated series Thomas and Friends and Now We Know Lily Doddsworth Evans plays Elizabeth.

That's Betty all grown up.

She has seventeen acting credits with projects like Durracula, The Good Liar and the Art of Racing.

In the Rain.

Elena Rosconi plays Jackson's love interest, Gabriella.

She's an Italian actress with six previous acting credits, including the American TV series The Catch from twenty sixteen.

Her next project is called Rise of the Raven.

Oliver Shaw plays Young Milo.

He has just two other projects outside of the Groomsman trilogy, but can currently be seen in the series Disclaimer on Apple TV.

Cosimofusco plays Lorenzo Cosimo has fifty nine acting credits, but most notably he played Paolo from Friends.

Thank You to Girls Gone Hallmark Facebook group members for pointing out that tidbit to us, We're gonna take a quick break and come right back.

It is time for first impressions.

What is your first impression of the Groomsman Last Dance.

I'm kind of into a silver Fox Tyler Hines.

Oh, yeah, a little flash forward moment.

I liked it.

I mean it was a full silver Fox, and I think if it did go there, it was like almost like a costume.

I like the little the little little wisps, little brush of silver they put at his temples.

Yeah, he and Danny both got the aging treatment in BJ's all, I still look good.

My first impression is I spent this entire movie being so distracted by Alana Rasconi's perfect face.

Oh she's beautiful, truly striking, totally striking beautiful.

I read in an IMDb review that people didn't like her because she came off too hard in her in her portrayal of Gabriella.

I was like, whatever, whatever, whatever, man, let's talk what we liked about the movie.

Well, I want to ask you, of the three, how did you.

Enjoy this installment?

This movie had a very different tone for me.

It was like a calmer wiser, almost more serious.

In tone than the other movies.

There are still some like they infuse the comedy, but I think it speaks to the fact that if you look at the way Tyler Hines does comedy as opposed to the way Jonathan Bennett does comedy, Tyler is more like in small expressions, He's his comedy is in like throwaway lines, where Jonathan Bennett does like a real good physical comedy.

He's so expressive and man spent months on Broadway.

So I liked this movie as the culmination to our three stories.

If I'm gonna have to pick a favorite, it's gonna be Second Chances.

Really, hmm, that is so interesting.

I think it was the best of the three.

Oh, but I do think you're right the tone was a little different than the other two, and I also think it stands out it honestly could have been like a solo movie.

I totally agree.

I think it has something to do with like the forward progression.

It doesn't this movie.

I mean, although it starts out with some overlapping scenes, again, we have like progression in time, like almost a year's worth at least, right, So that's why I'm like, oh, I could see this as a standalone movie, but of course we have the Betty of it all, like that is the tie that brings them all the three together.

So I'm not suggesting it should have been a solo movie.

I just talking about it, that's all, No, I hear you.

And not only did we get like the solid year progression because obviously Betty has picked up, moved in, she's settled there, but we also get a fifteen twenty year flash forward because we are dealing with adult Betty at this point.

I do like that they brought so many elements of this story full circle that we get the reveal, which I will have some issues with, but the Betty Elizabeth runaway bride reveal, we get the storyline behind all of that.

I really enjoyed this like exploration of father and daughter connection.

And you and I had talked like off Mike about well, this is like kind of weird.

Why is the why is Betty going away with the mom to Italy?

Like why doesn't Jackson have any say in any of this?

Right?

And learning that the mom worked in like military.

I had asked you.

I was like, does that change anything for you?

It wasn't just like she was like, I'm picking up and moving to Italy with my daughter, and oh, well for you, dad, does it change for you or no?

I mean I understand her motivation for needing to leave.

I'm not yeah, I'm not trying to paint the mom with like a selfish brush here.

Obviously I didn't have the information.

We talked about this in last episode, and I was like, welcome, she just gets to decide.

I understand why the mom needs to leave.

I think for the sake of time, we can't get too into the weeds in the movie right of the custody battle of it All.

And perhaps obviously Jackson has a great relationship with Betty's mom, like they're friends.

They seem to have a lot of love and respect for each other, and so maybe it's just that he was like, I'm not going to be the one to take her away from her mother, so I'll have to be the one who suffers.

But I still think if you were going to dig into it, it'd be like, well, how come this super involved dad just has to lie down and take the fact that his daughter is moving away.

Yeah, now I can see that also though, and of course I've made this whole narrative up in my head.

Jackson has the means to travel and see her whenever he would like.

And I can also see Jackson's character also being like, you know, a girl needs her mom or whatever.

So of course we're not gonna like, we don't know the ins and outs of it, but whatever.

I just it's an interesting way they did it.

I thought.

Towards the end of the movie, we learned that Jackson blames himself for the demise of his marriage because he was a workaholic, Like he was so focused on like making the next dollar, and so perhaps, you know, we know that he's still carrying that with him because he's like, I am not going to be good at a relationship.

Perhaps he blames himself enough that he's like, I don't get to make these decisions about Betty's life because I already ruined it once in his house.

Yeah.

Yeah, interesting, But back to my original point, I like, I like the story they're telling in between like fathers and daughters, because if we see it between like Betty and Jackson, but we also see it with Gabrielle and her dad too.

You know that it's important that daughters have stable men in their life to kind of role model what love is and sure steam and yeah, anyway, I just thought it was a nice narrative, one we don't typically see on Hallmark.

And I don't think, like, looking at this movie, like people are going to really come away from from it with like, oh that whole point of the movie.

Maybe it's because I have.

My own teenage daughter that I'm like and have my own like father daughter things.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, like what have we been saying for weeks?

And we like we want to see ourselves in these So that's what I'm taking away from it.

I mean, I think it's definitely layered.

I think they did a nice job of not making the father daughter's story secondary.

Betty's storyline is strong throughout all three movies, even when Jackson's storyline isn't the one who is featured.

They did a really nice job of making it clear that she's in their lives that like it's Uncle Pete and Uncle Danny, and these men have a lot of affection for their friend's daughter and they take their role in her life seriously, because it all comes together in this movie, right, We would be less invested in her future marriage if we didn't have all of this other backstory.

So I think they do a good job of building all of these layers in the movie.

Yeah, I think so too.

I think so too.

Here's something else I really liked.

I have really enjoyed seeing Tyler Hines and this against It's not even truly against type.

It's just that he's like this single sexy, involved dad rather than the single sexy Lithario.

I don't know, not that he plays that role, you know what I mean?

Though he's not the single sexy guy looking for romance.

It's like he it adds another layer to his character being like dad, which I really find appealing.

Yeah, I think I like.

I like the differences we got in our three guys and the way that they're approaching romance and their roadblocks were all so different, and I don't think that's necessarily super easy to do.

They made them different without making them caricatures of relationships.

I think it made sense for obviously it made sense for Tyler's movie to anchor this series.

But I think they did a really nice job of building the momentum and building these movies on each other.

It's I believe Jonathan Bennett recently said how long they were on location.

I kind of feel like it was like three months maybe.

Yeah, I feel like it was a long time because remember it was all happening during summertime, and we were like, what are they really?

Yeah, what's happening?

Like they were sending out all these like cryptic things that we were doing there in Greece.

I'm just a mad a murder board style directorial setup.

Or you're trying to figure out all of the different stories that you need to tell in the individual movies and all of the ways you need to support them and make them make sense and not leave pieces hanging.

And this was a huge project and I genuinely think this was a big hit.

I wonder when they're gonna move this over to linear cable.

Yeah people can the other people can watch it, so non Hallmark Plus subscribers can watch it.

Yeah.

My feeling is that it's going to be a minute before they do that.

I mean, they really want to use this as a huge draw to the Hallmark Plus and they are Hallmark Plus has this you earn points like with Hallmark dot com, like for buying stuff.

I think you can all use in store.

I don't really know.

I haven't actually been set up my account that way.

But if you watch all three of these movies, you do get a five dollars credit to a Hallmark store.

How does that work?

Do you know?

I have absolutely no idea.

Well or just knows because you link your Hallmark Plus account with your other account.

But what's very right, but you do your own points.

They are really trying to build out the experience on the app.

In a totally non sponsored plug here.

I recently went into my local Hallmark store and I gotta tell you, their ornaments were popping.

They were oh my gosh this year.

Me too.

We were in there yesterday because we went to the mall and they had some did you see the Lacy bear?

I did?

I did, Okay, go ahead, what'd you see?

We were just mostly looking at the ornaments, although they did have like a Hallmark channel knockoff Stanley Tumblr and it was like my to do list, watch Chrystals movies, watch Chrystals movies, watch Christmas movies.

And I was like, that's real cute.

We need that.

You're like, am I gonna need this for the crews.

And they have some really nice plush blankets.

I say, like my homemark watching blanket or whatever.

Their stuff is nice.

It is nice.

And hey if also if you're a Gilmore Girls fan, they have some really cute Gilmore Girls themed ornaments this year too.

I love their ornaments so much.

And it's like, we're real weird about the kind of ornaments that are allowed to go on your tree.

And the ornaments on your tree.

No, we have a we have multiple trees, so those go on our bedroom tree, all those like themed ornaments.

But they had some really cute Every year they just come out.

There's some funny Christmas vacation ornaments.

They're really fun.

My husband and I went to the Hallmark sort.

It feels like it was months ago, but ever since then, like these boxes keep showing up on our front porch address to him and they have like the purple Hallmark like packaging on it.

And I was like, hey, thanks for keeping me in business, because you know, I feel like I'm somewhat associated.

Our podcast is somewhat associated.

So funny, what is he ordering?

I have no idea.

I don't know.

He hasn't showed me there, so I don't know if they're for me or I mean, I have no idea.

I have no idea.

Oh that's very exciting, report book.

I will in Anothery're like, I just got to say the location was stunning.

It was absolutely gorgeous.

I know they weren't in Italy while filming this, but.

Where was beautiful?

Yeah?

Yeah, because they only filmed in Greece in Bulgaria, so this must have been you know, Bulgaria stands in as faux Friends and apparently fo Italy as well.

Yeah.

Yeah, I have to tell you.

There were a lot of things.

I liked how this movie was executed, and we did talk a little bit about it already, but the overlapping scenes at the beginning I really like.

I like how we revisit that and like we're like, okay, now we're starting something else.

I think that's cool.

I loved the whole throwback to the video game in this movie.

Will Milo explains like he was MLB and it wasn't Danny.

I thought that was very clever.

I was like, I need to go watch that scene again where she's like, oh MLB Danny.

Yeah, I know, I'm trying to remember what Jonathan Bennet's face was like that, yes, exactly, Yeah, my financials by the way, before I was married MLB.

Anyway, Oh, that's interesting.

That tracks the baseball ho just kidding.

Uh.

And the use this is what I really liked.

The use of Elizabeth slash Betty to tell the entire story and how those relationships and her life shaped her own perspective on love.

I thought was really smart.

I really enjoyed it, you know.

I thought it was a really interesting take to take these movies, take these stories which are cinematic, and not every romance it's like that, right, Like if I look at mine, there's no like big conflict and major resolution before I got married.

And I thought it was really interesting for a company that makes movies about love and about sweeping love stories to tell these three really beautiful stories and then to put one of their main characters in position to be like, wait, does that make my personal love story less powerful?

I just thought it was really interesting and have her come to the realization like our story is just as special.

Every story matters it totally.

Every story does matter.

And while you were talking about that, I was thinking about all the entertainment we have consumed over our lifetime, right watching like soap operas or watching reality TV or watching teen drama.

Sometimes you've become so invested and you think, like that mirrors what real life should look like, and it doesn't always, But that doesn't make your own experience less less than you know, so you're right, it's super interesting that a company that gives us all these big stories was like, no, it's okay, your story is as equally as important.

I have a few more likes, okay.

I enjoyed Gabriella as Tyler's love interests.

I like that she was a strong woman and like firm in her beliefs on things.

I'm not sure if I cared a lot about like her storyline storyline getting like the parents' restaurants to like, yeah, be bigger and better like but I can see like they needed it to show some sort of like parialism between like her relationship with her dad.

But I liked Gabriella a lot, and I also liked her mom, who I thought had several funny moments.

There was an up and down look she did with Jackson, like when she she meets Gabrielle's American friend for the first time.

That was really funny, and she had this other this really funny line I thought was really great about this is before I did I realized that the mom and dad were divorced.

But she's like, I don't talk to your dad and he doesn't talk to me, and everybody lives happily ever after.

Yes, it's totally in my notes too, we have an agreement, we don't talk.

I loved that.

I laughed out loud.

And let's talk about the dance scene at festival.

Oh my gosh, so steamy.

I thought so too.

I wrote spicy and sensual and it was just not just a dance, but it was a dance.

There was nothing like.

Inappropriate inappropriate about it, but I thought it was really nice.

And I don't know if you saw this yesterday, but on our Instagram reels, I posted what that scene reminded me of.

And it's a movie called Swingers.

It's from the late nineties.

Have you ever seen that movie?

Yeah?

But I think you posted in stories, But yes, I have seen Storyvie.

Yes, that's where it was.

It was on Instagram somewhere.

Swingers is one of my all time favorite movies.

And when I saw this scene in the Groomsman yesterday.

It instantly reminded me of that.

Danny and Pete are like on the side, like there's our boy, you know, they were so excited for him.

I loved it.

I just loved it so much.

And at the end they're like doubled it be.

It was just was really funny.

It reminded me of our conversation with Jeff Beasley where we talked about how like we love infusing comedy into these moments that you know he sometimes directs like real straightforward like a day Spring, or like Miracle and Bethlehem that are you know, more serious in tone, but like finds the humor.

And I think it was such a nice balance in this moment, like it made.

It more watchable.

They weren't trying to make it this like deeply HBO moment when you've got Danny and Pete on the side, like I didn't know his hips could move like that.

It was a great balance in that moment.

I agree, Did you like anything else?

I'm tapped out?

Me too, I have but one wish, Oh tell me I have too?

Go ahead, Well look absolutely no shade to Lily Dodsworth Evans, who is as cute as can be, but I'm having a hard time buying her as adult Bettie.

Same it's my same wish.

As soon as you said like, their eyes are different, I was like, oh my gosh, their eyes are different.

Which they're both blue.

I thought young Betties were brown at first, but oh they are blue.

They are blue, but they're dark blue.

Lily Dodsworth Evans has striking light blue eyes.

Completely different, her eye shape, everything completely different.

Yeah, I just look.

I know people change, their hair can change.

She could be straightening that curly hair.

I get it.

And who knows which actress came first.

And there's a lot of factors that are going into the production here.

It's not just struggled with it a little bit.

I understand.

I did too.

I think it was a little bit of a miscast in terms of consistency.

But yeah, but both its actors were great in their roles.

I have one more, and this is because I'm hashtag no fun.

I don't need to see the wedding dance again, the.

Whole, the whole.

You know there, everybody's doing it at one time, like a nineties rom com.

You know they're going to do it on the cruise right.

Well on my notes I put but please everybody know I will participate if it's offered on the cruise.

Trying it too.

I was watching on a wave.

I'm laughing so hard because I had a do it.

I had a similar thought.

I have not one rhythmic bone in my entire body, but I was like, maybe I could do this if they teach it.

It's like a line dance basically.

Yes, and working to do it, and I'm gonna film it, so you guys need to watch.

We'll need to have one of those themed cocktails ahead of time.

Yeah, they should do it up to the Wednesday bar crawl.

Okay exactly.

Maybe I say bar crawl will just turn into you like this, You know what I mean?

Okay, are you ready for dig You see that I am.

I also only have one, Oh I have I have a couple.

In Betty's wedding scene, they're flashing on, you know, the different characters, and at one point they flash on Zach played by Oxen Lincoln and seated next to him as a young boy, and I thought to Danny and Zach have a baby.

But then I don't, like, you know, the timeframe here.

But then in the actual wedding.

There is no child seated.

I was like, maybe he went chat with someone else.

I don't know, but I wondered if they were hinting at perhaps Danny and Zach have a baby.

Yeah, that's interesting.

I noticed that there was a child sitting next to the actress who played Betty's mom too.

Yeah, me too.

I was like, who's that baby?

Not baby, but she was a young child, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, Well why did you see that?

They're kind of all over the place.

But since we're talking about Betty's wedding, there was no dance floor.

They were just dancing on the hotel carpet in that ballroom.

Mmmm, I don't like that feels interesting.

Pross Well, I don't know.

Like a million people I've been there before.

They're not licking it.

I know.

Hey, wedding dan ant scene gets kind of crazy.

You should have saw mine.

Like my father in law and his fraternity brothers were on the floor doing like the worm and stuff.

Things get out of control, Okay, things get out of control.

H Milo's groomsman.

Why why is it Danny and Pete?

Why are they sitting up at the head table.

Milo does has no friends.

I think that's the most neglected piece in all of these movies is the wedding parties, other than obviously the groomsmen there for each other.

Like Chelsea her best friend who she was in her wedding isn't in her wedding, and then Benny's friends.

She's just got these two.

In my mind, they're like Anastasia and Drozlla, like the Wicked Stepsisters.

Like they don't and I'm not saying they're unattractive, they just look miserable the entire time.

And I was like, what's happening, Like yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, two more wishes.

I swear Actress Lily Dosworth Evans has an.

I can swear it.

I agree with you, And I tried to look everywhere.

I've never seen any of her other projects, so I don't know how she speaks.

But somebody please tell me.

Is she like a British actor?

I know.

I googled is Lily Dudsworth Evans British?

I went to her Instagram.

She did have Instagram stories posted, but she wasn't speaking in any of them.

I tried to find it too, and finally this this comes from our Facebook group.

But I don't know if you noticed.

I did see somebody in heels walking on a cobblestone street and their ankle turned just alone.

No.

In our Facebook group, somebody was like, why do they always have women walking in like heels or wedges or whatever on cobblestone streets?

Team tennis shoes.

So yes, I totally saw that team tennis shoes.

I agree.

Stresses me out.

It makes my feet hurt.

In solidarity, maam, I'm a klutz, so me too.

I'll break an ankle in ten minutes and I have so yeah.

Yes, in tennis shoes, in.

Tennis shoes, no less, yep, yep.

All right, what did you rate the Groomsman Last Dance?

I gave it four stars.

I gave it four and a half stars.

Cool, enjoyed.

Thank you for listening to our review of the Groomsman trilogy.

If you love this podcast, we love your five star ratings and your reviews.

You can leave them in the podcast app you're currently listening in and we'll.

See you next time.

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