The Wish Swap is Hallmark’s second Loveuary movie of the year. My wish would be for Hallmark to change the word Loveuary. I don’t know why it bugs me, it just does.
Casey (Emily Tennant) and Henry (Jake Foy) happen to share the same birthday. While they are celebrating at the same restaurant, Henry finds that his family never ordered him a cake while Casey’s co-workers ordered her a giant cake. So Casey offers to share. The two blow out the candles on the cake, making their birthday wishes. Amazingly, the wishes come true. Only Henry has Casey’s wish of completing the list of things she wants to do for her birthday and Casey gets Henry’s wish of owning a farm. Now they will have to work together to make each of their dreams actually come true for them.
This was a pretty cute movie but it also felt a little empty. Casey’s first (of three) item on her wish list was to perform in Dance Your Heart Out, a Dancing With The Stars type television show where random couples perform a dance on live TV. While the theater was empty during their rehearsals, of course, it was also empty when they were actually performing. It was just the dancers, the host, and a camera. It felt eerie to me. On top of that, very little seemed to be happening at the form. Sure, Casey collected some eggs from the chickens and she fed some goats but that was it. Most of the rest of the time Henry spent dancing or talking to Casey. He was the least farmery farmer ever. I get that production probably didn’t want to deal with all of the animals but then make it like Christmas On The Alpaca Farm, a specialized farm with only one type of animal that we see more often. Film all of the goat scenes together so you can get the goats out of there.
If you can look past the emptiness of the scenes, they movie itself wasn’t bad. Tennent and Foy didn’t have a ton of chemistry together but they did seem to have fun. The script could have used a little beefing up. Maybe that would have made the movie feel a little fuller as well. Overall, it was fun but it felt like a nicely made amateur movie where the only actors are the directors’ friends. Hallmark could do better.
Rating: 3/5 out of 5 hearts