Note to self – Do not google “Frozen in Love” images and not expect to see some very disturbing fan art re Anna and Elsa from Disney’s Frozen. Gonna have to scrub my brain to get rid of some of what I saw! Anyway, today we’re going to dive into Frozen in Love, starring the girl from She’s All That, and some guy.
Small town in between mountains, and country music on the opening credits. Colorado, apparently. Do they play country music in Colorado? Rachel Leigh Cook is Mary. She runs a book store, and has a brother named Tyler who doesn’t take his business school education seriously. Mary doesn’t like sports, and doesn’t like tech stuff, and her book store isn’t doing too well. Foreshadowing of the love interest – Adam – he’s a hockey player who got ejected from a game, and was featured on the front page of the paper that Mary and Tyler discuss, showing off how little Mary knows about sports.
Adam hasn’t grown up – he’s gotten cut from a bunch of other teams, and he’s ducking his ex-girlfriend/team manager Erica.
Adam is now being a dick in Mary’s bookstore because he thinks all book stores have coffee. They really don’t like each other…..hmmmm.
Mary has a thing about not going anywhere, just reading about it. I wonder if there is backstory there, or if it’s just something that makes her quirky. She seems very orderly – everything has a hook, and a place in her tiny apartment that is literally across the street from the bookstore. (Oh, FYI, there really is NO explanation as to why she is the way she is, so I guess we’re at the quirky reason).
She seeks out help from a college buddy who works in public relations to save the bookstore – and the suggestions are 1) sponsor a kids hockey team 2) throw a party to celebrate the 40th anniversary and 3) something with a Winter Festival. What are the odds that all three will happen before this movie is over? Mary doesn’t have the money to do any of these things, though. I think Mary’s college buddy is semi-Sassy Friend.
Mary and her brother can’t tell their parents about the failing book store, because they are retired, and Mary doesn’t want to worry them? Disappoint them? I don’t know.
Adam just got a ten-game suspension. Erica (ex-girlfriend/manager) tells him to work with a PR lady – and that’s gotta be Semi-Sassy-Friend! So this is how Mary and Adam are going to get together! They both hate the idea, but I have to say, Semi-Sassy-Friend is written very intelligently. Good for her. She manages to get them to agree.
Ok, side note. Production designer has this very nice bookstore have book carts on the sidewalk…in the middle of winter…in Colorado. I don’t think that will add much to retail value for those books, do you?
Both Adam and Mary are having major issues working with each other. Mary is a big book snob, and Adam still acts like a dick. But off we go to the hockey rink to see if Adam is going to show up and coach some kids. (He’s late – but she’s a big stick in the mud.) She’s also very involved for just a sponsor – but her influence doesn’t help Adam with his rage management issues, and he insults the ref at a kid’s hockey game. Way to go Adam!
Adam and Mary have a truce and are now working together. He put a coffee truck in front of her store – and now he’s re-shelving books. I’m worried about the state of this bookstore, honestly. The covers of the stuff on the shelves are very 1980s. No wonder business isn’t good. But they bond over book talk, and she mellows out a bit, but she gets her crazy hat back on again at the book fair, where they argue about the fact that he was flirting with hockey fans, and she didn’t like it. That seems like a very stupid reason to give at this stage of the movie, but I’m guessing the writers like to showcase their main character as a jealous shrew?
Semi-Sassy-Friend as at her wit’s end about what to do with these two soon-to-be soul mates. But now the tabloids are wondering if Mary and Adam are dating…I really wonder about the state of journalism in this area, if THAT is the biggest news story that they have to write about. But this headline also has the added bonus of making ex-girlfriend and manager Erica all upset and bothered.
At Mary and Tyler’s book club, it’s now a podcast, and while discussing War of the Worlds, it becomes Mary and Adam back-and-forth show. And Tyler, the underwritten brother role, becomes the facilitator of the Mary and Adam romance by getting Adam to go to dinner at their parents’ house.
Ooooh, backstory on Adam – he’s a foster kid.
Adam has a friend who has a massive jaw. Like Hapsburg level jaw. It’s very off-putting.
Both Adam and Mary are protesting the fact that they like each other. Protesting waaaay too much. After a bit more mellowing, Adam gets Mary on the ice in full hockey regalia. It’s cute – she hit the puck the wrong way – that is something I totally would do, provided that I knew how to ice skate.
Winter Fest! They have to do some sledding in a themed cardboard box sled. It’s weird. She’s wearing a helmet. But she has SO MUCH FUN you guys.
For the big celebration, Semi-Sassy-Friend says to do the podcast about books in front of a live audience. Mary hates the idea of talking in front of people. The party will have lots of games and food, but if the party isn’t a HUGE success, she has to close the store. That’s a lot riding on a party.
Adam’s long-jawed friend is wondering if Mary is Adam’s soul-mate. And ex-girlfriend/manager Erica is messing with their dinner plans, and Mary is wearing a very sparkly dress! Come on, Erica, why are you being a bitch? She creates an obstacle for Adam – come to a party on THE VERY DAY of Mary’s party and he’s back on the team. What will he do? You know she just invented that party because the writers wanted her to be jealous, too, right?
At the family dinner table where Mary has to tell her parents about how the book store might close (they are fine with it, by the way) Mary’s mom has 2 wineglasses in front of her plate. I’m guessing that’s why she’s fine with it? Actually, they are fine with it because they almost closed it before they turned it over to Mary to run. I find that very shady parent behavior – they totally set her up for failure. Talk about therapy!
Mary tells Adam to go to the hockey party. She does it while the tears are just.barely.there. Way to save your eye makeup, Mary!
Adam had 20,000 scarves made and embroidered with the bookstore logo to giveaway at the next game. That’s a lot of scarves / and money that he spent. Awww. How did he get that done in a few days? Embroidery takes at least 2 weeks!
Cross-cut between Mary talking to the podcast audience, and Adam apologizing to the hockey people. It’s like one speech sewn together until the end, where Adam says he’s gotta go see about a girl (paraphrasing) and then long-jaw starts a slow clap. Ex Girlfriend / Manager Erica is NOT THRILLED, but honestly all he was supposed to was show up and apologize, which he did, so it’s not like he didn’t do what she wanted. She grudgingly lets him go.
Adam shows up right at the book chat podcast – which they are doing outside, in Colorado, at night, in the winter.
OOOOOOOH Big kiss in front of everyone, including Mary’s parents. And the crowd goes wild and the end.
So. Lots of hockey talk, which I haven’t around since college, and went to a Rangers/Flyers game (where the Flyers fans spit in my hair). I’m glad Rachel Leigh Cook has this back-up career of Hallmark movies – she plays vulnerable very well. And the guy who played Adam had terrific stubble. All in all, solid outing, Hallmark Channel. Don’t think I need to revisit, but it wasn’t painful to watch, which I did, just so you don’t have to.
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