Game of Love (2023)

Game of Love (2023). Game of Love: Directed by Jason Bourque. With Kimberley Sustad, Darien Martin, Michael Teigen, Christin Park. It follows Audrey and Matthew. They are tasked with creating a new game to help players find romance. As they try to work together, they discover something they have in common: they each have a lot to learn about love.

“This movie, Game of Love, stars the handsome Brooks Darnell and the well-known Kimberly Sustad, along with several other promising supporting actors. I may not be well-versed in the names, fair warning, but I will do my best to use the character names.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eMatthew (Darnell) is a marketing research consultant assigned to create a game that focuses on love connections; this is also true for Audrey (Sustad), who is a game creator in her own right. They – together – start this path of creating a game from scratch. They use the talents of Audreyu0026#39;s staff at the company funding this project, a young woman (Patty) and young man (i am not sure of his name) – along with her friend (Evie?) from the local game cafe, the Boardwalk.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe premise is strong, but the execution isnu0026#39;t riveting – I think this is where the 1 star is lost for me, because while it is somewhat interesting, the game creation process is probably a bit too nuanced to draw in the normal Hallmark viewer. They do some impressive tossing-around of terminology (a funny scene) and then venture into the creative process. All along, Audrey is getting texts from an online friend that she has never met (you can see there is some foreshadowing here). These texts are more of a friendship/u0026#39;venting buddyu0026#39; nature, and this element works well to help reinforce whatever point the plot may be trying to make.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI really enjoyed the movie, but found no truly romantic chemistry throughout, until the very end, when Audrey relents and learns to feel her feelings and actually let people inside her heart. The movie could have better developed the u0026#39;whyu0026#39; behind her closed-heart status, and they also could have shown a more clear realization on Darnellu0026#39;s part that his texting u0026quot;online buddyu0026quot; (spoiler) is Audrey.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI also loved the supporting roles, and am disappointed that none of the cast credits Iu0026#39;ve seen online (either on Hallmark, IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes, and more) will offer proper credit to each supporting role. They spoke and did a great job, so why would we not have that info?u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI Digress because I really enjoyed the overall movie; I loved:nu003culu003eu003cliu003eBrooks – heu0026#39;s awesome and super alluring in some way. Iu0026#39;m old enough to be his…older sister…so I just figure heu0026#39;s magnetic to almost everyone.u003c/liu003eu003c/ulu003eu003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eu003culu003eu003cliu003eKimberley – while I was not a fan of hers initially, she did a great job of at least giving me a reaction or feeling — some movies leave me so disinterested, I have no opinion at all on the character.u003c/liu003eu003c/ulu003eu003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eu003culu003eu003cliu003ethe scenery, of course – way to go, as always, HM!u003c/liu003eu003c/ulu003eu003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eu003culu003eu003cliu003ethe lovely relationships abounding — so much love and inclusion in the entire movie among friends, coworkers, etc. It reminds me a lot of my own life, which is incredibly fortunate/blessed to have good people. I love watching movies that reinforce the goodness still in the world.u003c/liu003eu003c/ulu003eu003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI would love to see it again and will.”