Once Upon a Date (TV Movie 2017)

Once Upon a Date: Directed by Lee Friedlander. With Katrina Bowden, Dean Geyer, James Callis, Bruce Nozick. A romantic comedy about a struggling family-owned theatre at risk of being forced out of business by a greedy real estate developer. Josh undertakes the task of convincing the owner to sell by auditioning for Prince Charming in the upcoming production Once Upon A Date.

“Save the family … theatre. Big corporation sends the closer (and owneru0026#39;s son) to buy it and dismantle it. The closer keeps it secret and even lies to the theatre owneru0026#39;s daughter. Yep, all this has been done over and over and over. Why bother, right? Well, I thought there was a little bit of a different flavor to how the usual story was told.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe closer lucks into a part in the current play opposite the daughter. OK, thatu0026#39;s nothing special. But the play is. Actually some will think the play is a little flaky. And the audience doesnu0026#39;t see some things about the play until itu0026#39;s performed. Itu0026#39;s a little fantastical, but the way the end of the play ends the story is actually kind of nice, well played (pun intended).u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThereu0026#39;s another different thing about this movie, actually I thought a little strange. In this story, the secondary couple, Izzy and Anthony, are really the ones worth watching. Chris Brochu is great as the irreverent and rebellious and apparently lazy brother of the closer. He sets his eyes on the super of the building where they crash to maintain their cover. Izzy is a take no prisoners, independent, spirited foil for Anthony. Thatu0026#39;s part of the problem with the movie, which isnu0026#39;t really that big a problem, but itu0026#39;s different. You see, the secondary couple each has personality. I would struggle to find much noteworthy about the personality of either Tiffany or Josh. Also, Iu0026#39;m not sure this is exactly accurate, but it sure seemed that Izzy and Anthony had more screen time than Josh and Tiff. The former certainly had more good relationship building which is what I look for in this kind of movie. The relationship between Tiffany and Josh was flat. Izzy and Anthony are at each otheru0026#39;s throats for most of the movie, but you could see that there was a lot more flirt than hurt in that sparring.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI hated the conflict resolution. I thought it was trite. It sprung out of nowhere and was contrived. And Franku0026#39;s attitude made no sense. For a ruthless realty baron, he was indecisive and flighty.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThere were definitely aspects of this movie that I really enjoyed, and parts I didnu0026#39;t. I think I can see how a couple minor changes could have made this an 8 or 9 star movie.”