This is a bramble Jam podcast.

Welcome to Girls 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 here to review the final movie and our fall into Love Again throwback series Autumn Dreams, which originally premiered on Hallmark in twenty fifteen and is currently available to stream on Hallmark Plus.

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My gosh, we are getting some weather here today.

It really is apropos for us to be discussing this Fall movie because it is pouring down rain here in southern California.

It's it's a novelty.

We're very excited about it, and if you can hear it in the background, that's what that is.

I actually feel uneasy about it.

That's how like you.

Know, that's funny because I feel like that too, and then I think one, am my worried is going to happen.

It's just because we're not like used to it.

I'm just like, the last time it rained was probably January.

I'm like that, always have a roof leak or something.

Yeah, I always worry about that too.

It's coming down.

Yeah, Well, let's talk Autumn Dreams with a synopsis.

Years after the annulment of their spontaneous marriage, a couple discovers a mistake in the paperwork that means they are still husband and wife.

Autumn dream directed by Neil Fernley.

Neil was a machine of a director, with seventy eight directing credits that include forty six episodes of One Calls the Heart and many iterations of garage sale mysteries.

Sadly, Neil passed in twenty twenty four after a battle with als.

That's so sad.

I'm sorry to hear that.

Laurie Stevens wrote Autumn Dreams.

This is one of just two writing credits for Laurie, who also wrote the series time tracks.

Guys, can I just like pause right there?

I know I sound crazy right now.

I don't think you sound that bad.

Wendy's a little bit sick, so, oh my god.

I feel like I'm like a frog.

It doesn't sound that bad, I promise, okay.

Jill Wagner stars as Annie Hancock.

Jill most recently appeared in the series Lioness and will appear in an upcoming holiday film Cranberry's and Carol's on another network this season.

Cranberry's and Carol's.

I Mean that's as chat GPT as you can get.

Colin Egglesfield plays Ben Lawson.

Colin's resume includes shows like The Client List, Melrose Place, Rizzoli and Isles, and All My Children.

Ken Tremblett plays Hal Hancock.

Among Ken's ninety three acting projects, you'll find a role as Dennis Haskins in the Unauthorized Save by the Bell Story and appearance on Garage Sale Mysteries, as well as Wynn Calls the Heart.

He definitely looks like principal mister Belding.

Mister Belding, Yeah, yeah.

I used to work for a golf tournament and one of the pre tournament events was a pro am no a celebrity am, and he was one of the celebrities.

The celebrity m Yes, Dennis Haskins.

Wow, that was in like the year two thousand, was saved by the Bell?

Still no, no, no, no, no, during those days, I don't remember.

No, it was not Maybee the college years.

But I don't even think even that.

No, has he done anything other than save by the Bell?

I wonder.

I'm wondering where Dennis Haskins is.

That's a great question.

I'm surprised he's not on homework.

He's not in the movie.

No, just the guy that looks like him.

Rachel Hayward plays the role of Jessica Hancock.

Rachel has one hundred and thirteen acting credits, most recently appearing in the series Watson and last year's Hallmark movie A Reason for this season.

Maddi Finocchio plays Tony.

We last saw Mattio as Chief I say, Mattio.

We last saw Mattie as chief boyd Thompson On Providence Falls, Bill.

Dwell plays Driver Hector with one and twenty eight acting credits.

Bill has appeared several times on Hallmark, including several episodes of One Calls the Heart.

Tassia Tellus plays Giovanna.

Tassia has thirty one acting credits and has most recently appeared in the series Suresy Suresy, Suresy, Yeah, like Jersey Shuresey.

I think so Autumn Dreams was her only homemark project.

Okay, question for you.

HM.

When I'm typing up these notes, Giovanna, I was like, that name does not hit like I know I remember her saying her name in the movie.

Doesn't sound like it's what it was.

I was doing my notes and I had to scroll back up to see the name of the character, and I was like, that's not what I remember her name being at all.

Me here, And I'm like, am I saying it wrong?

Or is it wrong in IMDb?

I don't know.

And I'm too lazy to go back and put the movie on to see when she introduces herselves, all right.

Michael Carl Richards plays Joe.

Michael has appeared in a ton of Hallmark movies, including Open By Christmas, Sweet Autumn, and You're Baking Me Crazy.

We are going to take a quick break and we're gonna come right back with first impressions.

Hey, Wendy, what was your first impression of Autumn Dreams?

This week, Amy Winslow trades crime scenes for corn Fields.

I'm gonna talk about it and my wishes.

My first impression is I think we all know what I'm gonna talk about in my wishes.

Oh, I don't know.

I'm excited.

Let's talk like, Oh, I know I have it too.

Okay, let's talk likes.

Can I start?

Sure?

Maddy freaking Finocchio is the star of this movie.

I agree with you.

He's such a delight his accent, his attitude.

I loved everything about Tony Tony.

I agree.

I imagine that there are some I didn't look at the IMDb reviews, but I imagine there are some who are like, Oh, this guy with his fake accent and fun and is like over the top.

You know it has seven point four rating on it.

I really I loved Matty Finocchio in this world.

I'm like, we've been saying for a long time, give this guy lead role.

I mean, he did have a really big role in Providence Falls.

Yeah, so I guess we got there.

But I thought he was damn delightful.

I hope we see him in Countdown to Christmas.

If I did a message Eric Tavley asking if we would see him in Countdown to Christmas, he ghosted us.

He left me on read maybe he just can't say.

Maybe he's too busy.

Maybe usually sometimes he'll give us a nugget.

That's too bad.

Speaking of supporting characters, uh huh.

I also loved Sweet Hector, the chauffeur.

What is that look on your face?

That dude was creepy.

That's why I texted you to ask if you had watched the movie, because I was like, I need to talk about this one character.

You read him as creepy.

I read him as paternal and loving and warm and kind.

I'm going to talk about it in my wishes.

Well, I am going to go on record as saying I really enjoyed sweet Hector.

I thought he was exactly like I said, paternal and loving and warm and kind and supportive both to Annie and to Ben.

I got the dick.

Oh my goodness, didn't you think poor Bill Dow wasn't that giving?

Like Pretty Woman vibes to you?

Like remember Pretty Woman where I can't even remember the actors, and he's very famous, and he like helps her, he helps Julia Robert, it's along I can't.

He's the one who like sets up the dinner where she can like practice how to eat and all that.

Yeah, I don't remember who it is, but okay.

Anyway, it gave me that same sort of feeling.

Okay, we'll talk to me about what you liked.

Is that all you like?

Now?

Okay, First, I want to say, overall, I thought this movie was good me too, in a very typical Hallmark kind of way.

It was better than some we've watched in this little collection of fall movies.

I thought I liked how it opened in the past, and it was very much show us, not tell us.

I loved that, like we got a big chunk of storytelling in the past.

Yeah.

I thought it was great.

And I just want to say, Annie as like an eighteen year old when she gets married.

She's got the cutest little dress on.

Yeah, real cute.

I was like, so cute, my seventeen year old would wear it today.

I liked all that stuff.

I thought Jill Wagner and Colin Egglesfield were both very good in this.

I'm going to talk about Jill Moore and my wishes, but I thought they were very good in this.

And what I really liked is that Jill's character.

I liked that they made her out of her environment, but they didn't make her like a country Bumpkin.

Yes she was smart, yes, capable, yeah, but not out of sorts.

But just in a new there's so many people.

I mean, yeah, but you know they go to brook and she's.

Like, I love Brooklyn when she has that pizza.

I've been to New York a couple times and I was like, don't you go to John's.

Isn't like John's like the pizza place in the West End that's in London and the West Side.

I don't remember where it's at.

I don't remember where.

As a pizza place that we don't do every time we're in New York.

I don't eat pizza New York's would be very offended by the way I order pizza, no cheese, peaseless.

So I just don't even bother.

Yeah, so I don't know what the good pizza in New York is.

I am a hold on a second.

I'm so embarrassed that I called it like the West End, where the heck is John's.

People are screaming at me right now, Pizza New York, John's of Bleeker Street.

Okay, that's where it's at.

Gotta try John's of Bleaker Street.

It was delicious, delicious.

Send us your New York recommendations.

I'm going next month.

I've been several times.

I've been a lot of times.

But if you have some like.

Review, where are you staying?

We have We're are staying in midtown.

We were going to stay somewhere like fun and exciting, but.

We're not.

Okay, We're staying in a Maria all right, just to make life these well points baby points points.

That's right, one hundred percent booked on points.

That's all I have because we already talked about Matty Finocchio.

Do you have any other likes?

Yeah?

I like that we see some growth in the character of Giovanna, at least growth in the way that she's portrayed.

We meet her as this like kind of bride Zilla in the Home of Vader before we know who she is, although I think we know who she is and we know that she's not well matched to Ben, but they also show her another side of her, which is kind and warm, and I was a little bit waiting for the other shoe to drop in that situation.

If you've seen My best Friend's Wedding, when you know Cameron Diaz character brings Julia Roberts character like she makes her a bridesmaid and she brings her in close and she's like, you kept me close, and she's like, I was right to do so, because you were trying to steal my husband.

I was waiting for that moment where that's what she was trying to do.

We never get that, And I do wonder if you know, we don't really get any closure in their relationship other than the newspaper article, and so I don't know if there was a breakup scene that was filmed and not used.

But all we know of her the way she treats Annie.

She's actually quite kind and lovely to Annie and invites her to participate in the rehearsal and in the wedding, and she takes her shopping and she helps her find a truly lovely dress, and she doesn't set her up to be like, oh no, that's great, right, fact, it's like a Glinda the Goodwitch situation in Wicked.

I love that scene actually with the wedding dressing too.

So I like that we saw two sites of her.

I think one of the things I'll talk about in my wishes kind of helps us to root for Giovanna a little bit.

I think Joe Wagner's just so good.

Like you said, she and Colin Egglesfield were well matched.

It's hard for me that Jill Wagner is such a good actress.

Yeah, we've talked about that at length and when discussing in his history one on one.

So let's talk about our wishes, Okay.

I hated that Annie just went with her dad and that Ben didn't fight for her.

Nobody fights they were adults.

I mean, I wouldn't want my eighteen year old daughter to run off in a secret wedding situation either, but I wouldn't demand her to come home.

It was just weird.

Ben was not a bad guy, so I don't I couldn't really track why the dad would be so upset other than their age.

Yeah.

Yeah, I didn't love that either.

They both just kind of caved.

They're like, all right, grab my suitcase, going with my dad to run away and to get married.

But not to fight for it.

Yeah.

I thought that was weird.

I thought it was weird.

I have a feeling this is what you're going to talk about.

But I felt bad for both Joe and Giovanna are both collateral damage here, yes, And I feel like the writer tried to make them both unlikable so the viewers didn't feel bad when they got cut loose.

That's an interesting thought, Well that was you know, I thought that about Giavano when we first at first, Yeah, you know, they make her seem unlikable, and she even Annie says like, oh, I feel bad for whoever her fiance is, right, I was marrying her.

But then we see that she's not a bad person.

It's just more that she and Ben are poorly matched.

She wants to change his apartment and do all of these things, and it's just that they're not a good match.

They're not meant for each other.

And I think the same is probably true of Joe.

Joe, I mean, the writing is on the wall when he's like, let's set a date.

We've been engaged for two years, and she's like.

Yeah, I didn't really feel like they made Joe look like a bad guy.

I just feel like they made it obvious from the beginning that Annie wasn't all in on Joe.

Yeah, I was so reluctant to set a date and plan a wedding and do anything with moving that relationship forward.

She was like this, what do you call hey, Joe, how's it going?

Like?

It wasn't like how you would talk to like your romantic partner at all.

Hey Joe, what's up?

No?

And so I feel like they try and get around the fact that they broke up their relationships by making them not break up for each other.

And Ben shows up and he's like, what do you mean she's not engaged anymore?

But they did behave inappropriately, They do kiss, They are on basically dates.

Yeah, out this movie, you know, her going up to his apartment and all that time they spend together, they were both cheating on their partner.

That's the stuff you hate.

Yeah, I do.

Yeah, I do.

Even though obviously Annie and Ben are supposed to be together.

Obviously they still have the same chemistry.

Obviously they're in relationships that are mismatched.

I hate it when it comes together like that.

Yeah.

There was a scene where I think they were in the limo and she like snuggled up on his shoulder and I was like, no, girl, you're doing You're sending some really mixed signals here, not even mixed signals, like what are you doing right?

So there's a TikToker I follow, No, don't even follow showed up on my for you page and she's like, my husband left.

I'm going through a divorce and like I keep running into her stuff, right and she's like processing, like her life through divorce.

Well, then the other day TikTok showed me another woman who's the other woman?

Oh my goodness.

And the comments this is the worst part, the comments ranged shrump he left her for you, which I was like, yike, let's not do that.

Let's do that, little boy.

Then they were like a strong home is not built on another woman's tears.

And this woman her post was like I know you all want to make me the villain and go.

And I was like, maybe TikTok's not the police for you right now.

Wow, Like so she was the any in this situation.

But it's it's complicated because obviously Annie and Ben were a better match.

But you're right, there is collateral damage here.

Yeah, and I think it might be hard to live with that.

If you're Annie or Ben.

Yeah.

Yeah, especially she's gonna have to see Oh actually, I take that back, because they were on the roof of a New York penthouse or a building at the end.

Yeah, I was thinking like she would have to see Joe all the time because he worked for the farm.

They're on a penthouse at the end.

Yeah, you don't remember, like she's pregnant and they're like in a field, but then it pulls back and it's on top of like.

A New York City building.

I literally have no member of that scene.

Yes, because here's what I didn't like.

They got engaged right away, uh huh.

And my notes they they should not have gotten engaged.

They I don't know anything about each other.

Oh, I understand you had this relationship years ago, but you need to date now.

Yeah.

That's what really irritated me is they just jumped.

I was like, no, no, no, no, no no no.

I don't care that you're married already.

You need to get engaged and you need to date each other.

You need to meet each other.

You spent three days together, right, So that very bothered me.

I think you turned it off before you saw that end scened.

Maybe I did.

I don't remember her being pregnant at all.

Yeah, finally, this is not a Fall movie other than one throw away mention of the season.

I love Fall.

I think that was it.

I think you're exactly right.

Here are my two final no I have three wishes.

I want to talk about Jill for a second.

She gives us strong Amy Winslow energy all the time.

Now, we have only seen her in Pearl and Paradise and Mystery one on one, so I feel like she's always Amy Winslow.

Though, like in this movie, I was like, she moves like Amy Winslow to me.

She's kind of like take charge.

Yeah, we need to see a different note in her.

I like her as an actor, but it gave the same sort of energy.

When she comes in on that tractor.

I was a little afraid that she was gonna lean real hard into country bumpkin.

Yeah, like she's got that, like she's almost like it has an accent a little bit.

She doesn't do it.

It's that only moment where I was like, Oh, we're gonna get character joll Wagner.

Yeah, but we didn't.

Yeah.

Yeah.

The other thing we'll talk about Hector creep me out.

I know we it's on my notes here.

We talked about it.

He's always like observing, always watching in the riverview mirror.

It fell creepy.

It was like a tight scene of h his eyes in the river mirror.

I was like, yuck, I hated all of that interesting.

I hated all I know exactly what you're talking when he's kind of like smiling when he looks you see what.

Creeps?

Okay, the full creeps.

And last I talked about it in a movie we just reviewed.

There is a problem with time in this movie.

How much time is in one week?

She gets there?

It is a work day, yeah, and then on Saturday Ben is supposed to get married.

But they do all these things.

They go to court, they go shopping, they go sightseeing.

Giovanna goes to Chicago and comes back.

They have a rehearsal dinner like, yeah, or not dinner, but a rehearsal.

I'm like, how many days are in a week?

Care?

Yeah?

I mean that honestly is all my digitsy that too?

Oh?

Really?

Yeah?

Especially how does Anny make it home in time to save the crops?

The storm is actively happening.

I thought about that as well.

I was like, if a storm is active, is more of an issue getting an airplane into des Moines or whatever, just like.

Walk to the airport and walk on an airplane like you gotta like, you know, you gotta get to the airport, find a flight, get home.

This is hours later.

It kind of seems like she probably is not getting there, but for the rain has actually started.

We're already in blustery windblowing.

Everything, and Annie is one person.

Yeah, why couldn't you call it?

You don't have some extra farm help?

You could have called into sandbag.

The crops, right, exactly?

That's my only digit.

See that now, you know, I have a question because they're like, we made quota.

What does that mean?

Exactly?

Doesn't mean they grew enough.

Or harvested enough to be able to sell it and make it make sense.

Okay, that makes sense.

I mean not a farmer.

I have no idea me either.

That's just what I'm assuming.

All right, let's talk.

Did you see that?

I know you already mentioned yours.

I have one, and it's just the scene where Annie and Ben reunite as adults in the office.

Yeah.

She knocks on Tony's door and Ben makes some sort of like comment or whatever, and he turned around and Ben goes Annie, question mark, and Annie goes Ben question of Mark.

Like, that's not how you react to somebody.

You would be like, he would say, Annie, and she would just say, oh my god, Yeah, it's not Wait are you who I think you are.

Like, yeah, you're going to immediately realize you were and get you were married?

You were married?

Yeah, yes, excellent point.

Uh huh.

Do you ever envision that moment, like running into someone from your past being like.

Oh my gosh, yeah, I don't I don't like that, oh from my past past.

Oh no, I don't want to do it.

I don't either.

I would pretend that I don't know you.

Oh.

I have turned and walked the other way, and.

As have I.

As have I.

I was at a concert like a long time ago with my current husband and who was walking down the opposite of me is somebody that I used to date, and I was like, we're just going to continue walk by like I don't know you.

Yeah.

I've not had that in my adult years, but I've definitely turned and walked away from people that did not want to have a confrontation.

Absolutely.

Hey what did you rate on?

I gave it three and a half stars.

I gave it three point seven to five stars.

I like this movie.

I liked it.

Thank you for listening to this episode of Girls Gone Hallmark, a Bramble Jam podcast.

We'll be back next time with more Hallmark reviews, goodbye Mae.

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