Love in Design (TV Movie 2018) Poster

(2018 TV Movie)

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7/10
Hallmark home improvement
phd_travel18 September 2018
Home improvement shows are really fun to watch so a Hallmark romance set in a situation like that ought to be good to watch. The leads are generally likeable Danica isn't too perky so that's good. Andrew Walker is her architect love interest. They have enough chemistry. Wish they would have shown more home improvement and less romance.
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6/10
simple standard Hallmark
SnoopyStyle14 January 2019
Hannah McElroy (Danica McKellar) has hosted four seasons of her modern renovation show in Los Angeles. Network brass Wally wants to change it up and for her to renovate a historic manor in her hometown of Lewisburg. She reluctantly accepts but is shocked to find her ex Jeff Winslow (Andrew W. Walker) as her liaison with city hall. The former couple clashes and reconnects.

Obviously, Danica has decided on steering her career directly into the Hallmark lane. That's no crime and she's good at it. She has the natural goodness charms since her childhood days. She's Winnie Cooper for heaven's sake. As for her co-star, he's also a veteran of these movies. They have the basic chemistry to make this work and it's not terribly demanding. It's a simple Hallmark movie and it doesn't need to be more.
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5/10
No Hallmark magic in this one.
Victor-J-196427 September 2018
Hannah (Danica McKellar) is a the star of a home make over TV show. She is assigned to conduct a make over for a historic building in her small New England hometown. She has to work with an architect Jeff (Andrew Walker), who just happens to be an old flame from her high school days.

The script is rather boring and most of the supporting actors provide little to spice this movie up. While McKellar and Walker are two of my favorite HM leads their chemistry is not convincing, so their isn't any HM magic in this movie.

Will I watch it again??? Not likely.
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6/10
Nothing new intros movie
omijer17 September 2018
Having seen the ads for a movie starring two of Hallmark's most popular regulars..Danica McKellar and Andrew Walker, this viewer could not wait to see this couple in a new film. Sadly, their names and star status did nothing to make this movie worth watching. The characters were formulaic. Career girl who leaves her small town to make it in the big city comes back to oversee a huge and challenging project. Surprise, surprise, the man she left in order to pursue her big city dreams is assigned co-partner with her and to add his talents to her work .Predictable, old angers arise, who really left who, and old unfinished business gets note way of their working smoothly together. How often will Hallmark bring out this old premise in order to make a movie try to feel new? These two stars are magnetic, each in their own way..McKellar is a forceful power in her private life as a mathematics genius, author of math books for girls, and even with a math theory named after her. Walker is a talented actor with great variation in facial expression and with sparking eyes. One of his best films, from some time ago, is Bridal Wave, If you have never seen it, look for it. It confirms his acting talents and his romantic appeal. However, in Love in Design, none of this is visible. He is overshadowed by McKellar's perky, bouncy manner and her take-charge style. His role becomes one of a passive bystander with very few interesting lines, and even fewer opportunities to show any passion or romantic gestures..other than being remembered for brushing her hair off her face. Oh,my goodness..this is almost embarrassing. The relationship between the stars falls flat. Of course, the ending is predictable, albeit contrived..This is a Hallmark movie,after all.

But one is left wondering WHY?? There is no chemistry at all between the stars or their characters. The ending is overly contrived. Additionally, there is a scarcity of significant dialogue..way too many pauses, silences and frought facial expressions. McKellar's eyebrows turn upward, his face goes blank, no words are utter. They both give the impression they can't wait for the filming to be over. Another Hallmark cliche should be addressed here..The female character almost always has a best friend, supporter, cheering section. And recently, it seems to be role assigned to young talented women of color. I this a nod to diversity in films? Why not really become part of the new day and the new reality and make the heroine a woman of color and make her best friend a woman of any color at all? Time is fleeting..Hallmark needs to catch up.

Another cliche Hallmark needs to address is the over-use of the heroine's parents as the ideal married couple, middle aged and playfully in love, an ideal she is sure she can never achieve. This harks viewers back to the old tv shows, Father Knows Best, Donna Reed Show, etc..and has very little to do with today's reality. Time for Hallmark to catch up or to be forever stuck in a cliche that may have gone by the wayside years ago. If you are looking for a bland, predictable, under-acted, under-written Hallmark movie, this is the one for you.
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6/10
Home and life improvement
studioAT31 January 2020
Two old flames collide in a home improvement style Hallmark film that is boosted by two very likeable leads in Andrew Walker and the ever lovely Danica McKellar.

Yes, it's very predictable, and it drags a bit in places, but I cannot fault a film that thoroughly entertained me for the 86 mins run time too highly, because I thought it was warm, funny and heartfelt.
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6/10
Cute. Both leads shine on their own.
MIssM1926 October 2018
Danica McKellar and Andrew Walker, two of Hallmark's favorite (and mine) finally together in a movie. While I didn't think it was the best movie out there, I didn't find it as terrible as the rest of the comments make it. 99 out of 100 of these movies are predictable and use the same formula, by now I just hope they don't ruin it and make me have a nice hour and a half.

Both leads shine on their own, and I do think they had chemistry together, I even find myself hlding my breath during one scene. The plot, while predictable, it was original. I don't think I've seen it in Hallmark before.

I was even happy with the final problem, it was believable and not pointless as they tend to be. While I'll probably won't watch again, I actually find it cute.
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4/10
Love in need of improvement
TheLittleSongbird18 August 2022
Expectations were rather mixed for 'Love in Design'. Hallmark did do some well above average and more films in 2018, having literally just come fresh from watching one of the best from the year 'Pearl in Paradise'. Andrew Walker is always worth watching, even when the film isn't good (and that has happened quite a number of times). The concept didn't really excite me though. Am also not the biggest of fans of Danica McKellar, who tends to be typecast and plays most of her roles pretty similarly.

'Love in Design' didn't work for me. It is not unwatchable and has its good things, have almost always seen one or two redeeming merits in the Hallmark films that miss big time. It is also not particularly good and fails quite badly in a number of crucial areas, well strictly speaking the areas that matter the most. Is it one of the worst 2018 Hallmark films? Probably not, there were definitely worse. In my mind, 'Love in Design', while not one of the worst of the batch, is one of the duller ones.

Am going to begin with the good things. Walker is an amiable and subtly charismatic leading man. Also thought that the production values were attractive, it's not lavish but it didn't look cheap or shoestring budget like.

The music is pleasant enough, nothing memorable but it didn't feel at odds or melodramatic.

However, quite a lot doesn't work. McKellar is very bland and shows a rather limited range of expressions, literally the most believable expressions come from the eyebrows and even they are mainly one emotion. The two have no chemistry together and seem incredibly distant, they wouldn't even be believable as friends. For a story so heavy on the personal drama, the relationship felt very undercooked and the drama was thin and what there is lifeless. Didn't care for their cliched and really difficult to endear to, due to the overwritten negative personality traits (especially with McKellar's) and the characters have very little to them.

Supporting cast are undistinguished at best. The script has nothing to it, did not sound like everyday conversation, is too talky and is very forced and over heated towards the end. The story doesn't engage at all and drags badly most of the time, too much of the drama going nowhere. What there is is very predictable, with there only being one surprise in the whole film and it still managed to not be that big. For a setting as promising as this, nothing really is done with it. We even don't get to see much of a final result. The ending is not as too neat as most Hallmark films, but this reviewer did lose interest quite some time before the end to really care about the outcome and part of me thought it contrived (like the whole conflict itself) and anti-climactic.

Overall, very lacklustre. 4/10.
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9/10
Love the actors, but not the characters they portray
jasminechai1713 February 2019
It's a weird phenomenon. I love 😍 Andrew Walker and Danica McKellar in their individual movies, but the characters and the story was so uninspired in this one that I cannot even explain how bad the end result was. At best, this movie was like a dream cast that fizzled quickly. The story doesn't delve into the any scenarios that would make you want to root for this couple. These characters don't have much chemistry at all even though I was really hoping they would! Try Andrew in Bridal Wave. Try Danica in A Crown For Christmas or Perfect Match. Much better chemistry and writing.
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7/10
Joanna meets Chip, Hallmark style
MickyG33330 October 2023
7.3 stars.

So "Joanna" is a TV personality who showcases home renovations and designs. She hosts a show, but the ratings have not been the best. She is sent on a project to get her career back on track and to her surprise her ex-boyfriend "Chip" is the architect who will be consulting with her on the project.

'Love in Design' is all about two soulmates who somehow lost their way many years ago when they should have stayed together, but per the usual Hallmark theme, they parted ways because one of them got some hairbrained youthfully ignorant notion...

This movie is nothing new for this genre. Almost every aspect of this plot has been displayed on multiple occasions and in multiple films, just take your pick. On the bright side, it's just entertaining enough to keep your attention and there is a pleasant feeling shared between the leads. I think they have a nice symbiosis on screen.
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2/10
Indifference in Design.
savethewatchmaker2 May 2019
Warning: Spoilers
Looking at the tin, you'd think this movie would be a recipe for Hallmark success: a romantic story, two immensely popular leads, and the classic girl-goes-back-to-her-small-hometown cliche. Just because the ingredients sound good on paper, though, doesn't guarantee the end result will taste good, much like this movie.

For starters, despite being two accomplished Hallmark favorites, Andrew Walker and Danica McKellar have absolutely zero chemistry. Watching them interact is like watching paint dry, even in moments of heated banter or gazes of adoration. The movie relies heavily on their background -- a past relationship we get told of in sprinkes as the movie goes on -- to make their final reconciliation seem plausible. Had we been watching these two meet for the first time and try to fall in love, this movie would've been absolutely impossible to sell.

Secondly, for a movie that is essentially about a grand home renovation, it's super disappointing that the final product of this renovation never gets the time it deserves. It feels like the characters spend weeks standing in exactly the same room, discussing alterations, and the audience never really gets to see much of the final product beyond a few sweeping shots of the backyard.

Thirdly, the conflict of this story was absolutely absurd. The couple's fight near the end of the movie is ridiculous; an argument about Hannah not being able to stick around in her hometown somehow devolves into complete gibberish for added drama. The fact that the two of them lead very different lives and live in different cities should have been enough conflict to spur on the (temporary) separation of the two of them before inevitably reuniting. The only surprise this movie has in store is that Hannah didn't choose to quit her job and return permanently to her hometown, as most of these movies tend to go in that direction, especially since there were some hints pointing in that direction (Hannah and her parents complaining about not being able to spend more time together, Hannah making a few comments along the way that she missed her hometown, and how it makes her feels, Hannah's fight with her boss about how he micromanages her).

And lastly, as she does in every movie, Danica McKellar continues to let her permanently sad eyebrows do most of the acting for her. Why her default reaction to any weighty scene seems to be to tilt her eyebrows and look as miserable as possible is beyond me.
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8/10
Love the leads
jewhitmer2526 July 2021
As usual Danica McKellar was exceptional, and she worked well with the always superb Andrew W. Walker.

Be the way, if you haven't seen Andrew in "Dashing Though The Snow" it's great, one of my favorites.

Be sure to watch Danica in "Campfie Kiss" she gets to show off her math geekiness, it's great.

The supporting cast was splendid, especially Alvina August as best friend/coworker, and Jan Skene and Eric Pollins as Hannah's parents.. Paul Essiembre was a hoot with directions like "Be bold, but not too bold." Is that the kind of advice you want from the head of the network. It was like and inside joke with people on set.

The plot was not real original, designer is redoing a house, her ex is involved, they bicker, they reconnect, and all is right in design world. This is what we love about HM movies, they are predictable. If wanted orginal we would all be watching Hamlet and Taming of the Shrew. Oh, wait, even Shakespeare wasn't original.

"Many academics, most notably author Christopher Booker, believe that there are only seven basic plot structures in all of storytelling - frameworks that are recycled again and again in fiction but populated by different settings, characters, and conflicts." thank you Google.

So we love our HM movies, just some more than others.

My Advice: watch this movie, it is entertaining and fun.
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1/10
Lost interest after 15 minutes
linda-plant221 May 2019
Please can we have less of Danica McKellar playing a wide eyed and coy female ? She's a middle aged woman of 44 for heavens sake ! and in this film it was hard to tell the difference between mother and daughter - yes in real life McKellar is 16 years younger, but honestly ? swap the hairstyles and the roles could have been reversed.

This was not a good vehicle for Andrew Walker either. The story was puerile and the script juvenile. These films are not made to be believable, but its worse when the lead actors are playing characters at least 15 years younger.

Not a good pairing anyway, but hopefully we may see both of them in productions more fitting to their age.
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4/10
Predictable, cliche
ofmeshupar20 September 2018
Most Hallmark romace movies are predictable, but they are usually sweet, and have a touching story. This one is boring, full of cliche's, no chemistry between the main characters - in short, a waste of time.
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9/10
Love In Design is a Great Film
MovieTVRomanceFan22 February 2019
I always love any Hallmark film starring Danica McKeller and she has done it again with another fantastic film. It's such a creative film as I'm also a fan of design shows and it's a great way to combine two of my favourite things: movies and designs shows. Plus I found it to be so fun and interesting to watch the chemistry between Hannah and Jeff unfold as the film progresses. Overall, yet another great film where opposites do attract and people always find their way to each other.
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5/10
Designer and architect spark on this tv renovation romance.
cgvsluis19 May 2022
Hannah's modern renovation tv show needs a refresh and she is sent to her home town to remodel a historic manor. The twist is she is being over-seen by her ex-boyfriend the consulting architect for the local preservation society.

These two rarely agree on anything...except the feelings they have for one another.

Fun, happy-go-lucky, a little competitive but not as deeply romantic as some of the other Hallmark romances.

The donuts looked delicious! I also loved that the parents seemed like they could really be parents.

This is light fare, but romantic if that is what you are looking for.
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10/10
chemistry in design
melvin4749317 September 2018
"The home makeover is a too crowded, we need to spice things up a bit" - I'm paraphrasing the comical TV exec in this remarkably fun and cute movie, but they did! The lead actors were well cast, they clearly had a lot of fun with the banter in the script. The chemistry was totally believable, and it zipped along at a good pace. A lot of hallmark movies are nice little nuggets that wrap things up, but this one, I'd be curious to see where this well designed pairing leads!
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1/10
Not believable/boring
bilc-0194922 September 2018
The story line left me wanting to immediately change the channel. It moves slowly and the friction between the two stars I did not like. I give it 👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎 Out of 10. I fo not recommend unless you have 2 hours you seriously just want to waste!
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2/10
Another bomb from Hallmark
cdebuois16 September 2018
I only watched this because Danica McKellar-always Winnie Cooper to me- was in it and she is a real cutie. Just like all of her other movies that I have seen(at least with Hallmark), she plays the same predictable sweet, hard-working/career-driven type of character. Although these are admirable qualities, too much of anything can be sickening since it delineates predictability to the extreme. And when you combine Danica McKellar and Hallmark in a movie, you know exactly to the "T" the kind of movie you are getting. Based on interviews and her personal youtube videos, I think the way she is portrayed on movies is her real persona, so it is hard to change her and/ or the casting people want her to always be that cute girl from The Wonder Years. But it would be nice to see her, for a change, as playing the naughty sexy girl that guys secretly like.

To me, this movie of Danica's was one of the worst since besides you know what is going to happen before the credits roll, the storyline is ridiculous and, to be honest, I have no idea what this movie was even about or what it was attempting to achieve. From watching this half-asleep, they were previous lovers and she likes change and is a career-driven woman, while he does not like change, etc.-you get the picture.

This movie has really no pragmatic twists or turns that the viewer cannot predict. The characters had no chemistry and no sexual tension-you know the kinds of things that make male-female relationships fun and interesting. Just act like a sycophantic gentleman and BOOM-you get the girl. Give me a break.

The worst part about these types of Hallmark movies is that they paint an unrealistic picture for young men(and even women for that matter) that by acting the way these guys do in almost all of these movies-that is put a woman on a pedestal and make her your world-that ultimately in the long run you will get the girl. Unfortunately in today's society that is not reality and will put a young guy in a the friend's zone and cause him extreme frustration. Of course this type of ingratiating behavior has worked in the history of mankind-more so several decades ago- it is never in a man's best interest to act in this kind of manner to get a woman. 99% of the time it will not work out for him. It is normally best to state your intentions to a woman upfront so she cannot manipulate you. If she is receptive and likes a guy then she will let you know if you state your intentions from the beginning and if she is not receptive then you can move on and she as well. That way no one wastes their time. It is also in a guy's best interest to live his life and focus on his career and/or passion, and let go of the craving and desire for women that run most young men these days. Ultimately when you focus on your passion and let go of wanting a woman, she will ultimately show up in your life (a paradox, but true). As the adage says: You find life when you least expect or looking for it; so cliche, but true.
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10/10
Awesome - Feel Good Movie!
httompkins19 November 2018
Awesome - Feel Good Movie!

Love the story and the acting from start to end!
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