The Wedding Ring

The Wedding Ring is a 2021 Romantic TV Comedy starring Dillon Casey and Lauren Smith. A young jeweler named Kate Sterling loves seeing her clients getting engaged and planning their weddings. Things take a turn when Kate's childhood sweetheart Jamie(Casey) shows up after 19 years. Will Kate get engaged to Jamie? Overall I knew how this was going to end as romantic comedies are so predictable,unrealistic and corny.

The leads are great - Lauren is especially dazzling. The story is cute and there is real chemistry all around. As usual the crisis is a bit manufactured but if you signed up for the premise then just enjoy the ride. Other reviewers are too harsh - if you like the genre then you will enjoy this little trip into it. The story and direction are OK and you don't feel anything intrudes into a basic story.

This really was a snore-fest, despite a premise that is slightly different. To make up for it, the writers and director pull out any number of checklist rom-com tropes including getting flour all over each other and intrusive co-workers and friends. There is nothing to make the story stand out. Even the climax is weak The leads have no spark. As another reviewer says, Lauren Lee Smith is adequate but fairly plain as a lead. She does present an appealing character but little more. There's nothing wrong with Dillon Casey, but likewise, not great either. The dialogue is uninspiring. Very mundane. Did someone think some of that was witty banter? Situations that are supposed to be funny aren't.

There are a few original elements in this movie, but these done-to-death food prep/fight scenes are a nightmare for some people with eating issues/disorders.

I really wish Hallmark would make normal movies like they used to. It's almost like they keep a checklist for each film to tick off every PC diversity box and it just looks silly and artificial.

This is not quite a story of a Love for the Ages. More on that later. First the Two Leads. Lauren Lee Smith was Adequate. Perfectly pleasant and competent, but made no impact with me. The guy was...well let me be frank. Funny-Looking. Most of his face was quite handsome but his eyes were very distracting. They had more chemistry during the flashback to when they were twelve. Kate is a what I thought was a small town jewelry store owner and designer who is living her dream except her love life leaves something to be desired. Her first boyfriend comes back to town in order to recruit her for a big time position in Chicago with a huge jewelry corporation. They want to move away from their reputation as a cookie cutter mass-produced jewelry maker. They want Kate to develop and head their new design team. Of course the two old friends start a relationship. Kate decides to string him along making him think she might accept their offer in order to stay in contact with him. Besides, she needs a date for her sister's wedding. Nice, right? Except she does begin to be attracted by the power and money and presumably the opportunity to make a real positive impact on the jewelry industry. They start falling in love and he brings her to Chicago to be wooed by the big company. She accepts the position. She will continue to own her little store and her two loyal employees will run it for her. The girl will finally get an opportunity to design jewelry as well now that Kate will be an a semi absentee owner and the guy will now be the manager instead of just a salesman. This is great because he just had a new baby. By the way, Kate had more chemistry with him than the supposed boyfriend. Unfortunately he is married and loves his wife. Right before Kate signs the contract, she finds out that the big conglomerate will also buy her store, take it out of her control, and probably fire her two employees. The big boss says that she thought she knew, she thought the boyfriend was supposed to tell her that, and someone must have gotten their wires crossed. She immediately concludes that her true love must have been lying to her and deceiving her so he could get his commission. Of course he is innocent of such ignominy but she won't let him explain. She tells him to have a nice life, hangs up on him and won't take his calls. Nice, huh? Where's the trust?? She doesn't seem sad about loverboy, she is just angry. In fact, she bounces back pretty thoroughly. She finally finds out that it was big bosses fault, not boyfriends, but she just goes on with her life. Big boss re-offers her the position and she can keep her jewelry store but she still won't sell and move to Chicago to make up with her boyfriend. Presumably the professional dreams of her two loyal employees are dashed again and they go back to being drudges. No happy ending for them. Nice, huh? Turns out boyfriend is really a chef at heart (apparently for the sole reason that they can have a flour fight in the middle of the movie and he can tenderly wipe flour from her face (Eye-roll). After they make up, she tells him that, no, she is not moving to Chicago and that they will be breaking up. He tells her that he quit his job and he is moving to Minneapolis to open a restaurant so they can be together after all! Huh, I thought they lived in a small town? She says OK, then. It's a good thing she did not do the best thing for all concerned and take that opportunity of a lifetime in Chicago, n'est pas? There's a little wrap up at the end when he proposes and she accepts a couple of months later. But if I were him, I would have serious doubts about the depth of her love and commitment. So like I said, not exactly a love for the ages.

I record and watch every single rom-com that airs on the Hallmark channels and UpTV. But even with the stinkers out there, I've never felt like I had no other choice than to fast-forwarded to the end--until this offering where I broke down at the hour mark. In the past, I've managed to have the movies going in the background while I do housework. But this was just such a muddled mess! And I love Lauren Lee Smith from 'Frankie Drake Mysteries,' but that's an example of actually GOOD writing. In this film, the dialogue is cringey, the storyline is all over the place, and characters just suddenly emerge in random scenes and you have no idea who they are. There also needed to be scenes with Kate actually working to create her custom pieces. It would have helped to support the notion that she really loves her "little store." And no offense to the actor playing Jamie, but he was not "leading man" material. He had no charisma, and his hair was so distracting (from the really bad cut/style to the oil slick slapped on top). He wasn't that handsome, and he struck me as more of a comedian in looks. I can't give a rating any lower than 1 star, so I gave 1 additional star for Lauren Lee Smith. The other star is for the one realistic element presented, which was the actresses' hair. As opposed to most of the movies where the female characters look like they just came from Hair & Makeup (which the actors did), the women in this movie had hairstyles that looked like how a normal woman would do her hair. (Yes, "Chasing Waterfalls," I'm calling you out on the perfectly styled hair on the lead which was AFTER she'd gotten her hair all wet swimming.)

There are so many characters, I was confused who she was talking to and what she was talking about. A ring designer who is proud of owning her own store, then a party, engagement, lured by an old flame to work for a big company she apparently hates, suddenly breaking into a restaurant to throw flour at each other? What is happening? I was completely distracted when Nneke Elliot showed up! Remembered her from cp24!! Was she really pregnant at the time of filming? I haven't finished the movie yet, but I have no idea where it is going and there's only 20 minutes left. Does the guy really like Kate or is he trying to hire her at his company? Although he works at a restaurant not a ring place so why did they pay him to go and wine and diner her? This is so confusing. Chemistry is very bland, unconvincing. I also find it hard to believe you can recognize someone from grade 8 twenty years later. The young actors playing them don't look like them.

Kate Sterling (Lauren Lee Smith) runs a small shop selling her own jewelry. She loves selling her individually designed wedding rings for adoring couples. Out of the blue, she's contacted by her first boyfriend Jamie Coleman (Dillon Casey). He's an employment consultant and is in town to recruit her for a hated big jewelry company. He only tells her after she invites him on a date. He reveals that his real passion is cooking. Lauren Lee Smith is adorable as always. I've always known that she's tall but she seems especially tall in this one. Bigger productions usually can hide it or cast around it. The premise is a bit intriguing for this type of standard TV rom-com. The problem is that the guy has limited charisma and limited chemistry. This is not unusual for this type of movies. They just need to find a better guy. A good man is hard to find.

Sauce