Hallmark Channel
Despite the charm and star power of Alison Sweeney, Hallmark Channel ends ‘Loveuary” on a real downer with a ‘romance’ movie that has its lead character do everything possible to avoid any romance, and that includes putting the viewers to sleep.
Romance at Hope Ranch stars Sweeney as Hope Morgan, a woman who has moved back to Ruidoso, New Mexico to fulfill her dream of running a family ranch. Her daughter Maggie (played by Sweeney’s real-life daughter Megan) has just gone off to college, so Hope is making this big move all on her own and she has the big plan to bring back the Giddy Up Gala that she remembered from her childhood. The only problem is she has decided to do this within a month of moving to the ranch, so she hasn’t really thought this plan out very well even though she goes on and on about her great organizational skills. She also has the animals to tend to, including four horses (one with either some anti-social issues or an extreme, unexplained dislike of Hope) and a coop full of chickens, one of which manages to escape the confines of the coop or the fenced in yard several times a day (Hope decides to name the hen Houdini). The ranch has a gate at the driveway, but it isn’t very secure as every person from town just shows up to say hi or bring Hope some news that only makes her life more difficult — one of them being the inspector who hands her a list of things that need to be brought up to code before she can even consider holding an event at the ranch … in three weeks. And he can’t come back to do the inspection until the day of the gala! The mayor also shows up uninvited and hands Hope a package of forms and permits she will need to get signed, as well as a tax bill that is due unexpectedly. Luckily, Hope has a charming rancher neighbor, Tom Grayson, who seems to take a liking to her right from the start, but any offer of help he gives is rebuffed with a ‘no thanks, I can do it myself.’ But Hope notices that the feed she got for her horses is not the right type, and Tom tells her that the store in town is under new ownership and they have been screwing up his orders so it’s best she go in person to get what she needs.
Hope does just that and discovers the new owner is none other than her two-times ex-boyfriend Jack Bennett, who just not-so coincidentally bought the store in the same town in which Hope is now residing. He claims it was just happenstance, but Hope suspects her bestie — and his sister — Lori let slip where she moved and he decided to follow to try and rekindle something they’ve already failed at twice, buying a store in the process that he has no business running. And despite her assurances that she will not be giving him a third chance, he persists. But Hope has no time for this because she has to bring her ranch up to code so … she spends three days decorating the living room, going on horse rides with Tom, and two-stepping at the local saloon. And her horses get out of the pasture at one point because she’s using a thin piece of wire as a twisty-tie for a gate hinge. Luckily, Tom insists on helping her retrieve them, and Jack also tags along, finding the troubled horse which seems to connect with him more than it does with her. While in town, Hope overhears another woman, Beth, bad-mouthing her to Jack’s employee Cora knowing full well Hope is standing right there. Later when Hope hands her an invite to the gala, she gives her the stink-eye and thanks her sarcastically … and we have no idea why she’s behaving like this. But as Hope is losing her battle with time because she spends too much of it doing other things, she also learns her daughter is so swamped at school that she won’t be able to visit for the gala … because she also insists that she can manage everything by herself. Luckily, Lori shows up earlier than planned and she takes control of things, getting everything from her tax bill to her permits taken care of but there is another snag — the system Hope was using to allow people to reserve rooms at the ranch for the gala double booked every room. We only see one set of guests show up so there’s no real explanation for how they took care of the problem — but when they arrive, it’s Maggie who wants to give them a tour of the ranch. Maggie, who the last time we saw her was about to have a nervous breakdown over her schedule, leaving Hope disappointed that she couldn’t come to the ranch. Yet here she is with no explanation (she finally reveals she joined a study group and they actually … help each other!). Lori quickly takes a liking to Tom, so he forgets about Hope rather quickly, which leaves an opening for Jack to swoop in and convince her that this time it’s real and she needs to give him one more chance. Hope learns on the day of the gala that, despite Houdini appearing in the food prep area, she’s passed inspection and things can carry on … except someone at the catering company left the walk-in refrigerator door open all night and the food is spoiled. Jack tries to lighten the situation by suggesting Hope could whip up some scrambled eggs but she’s not in the mood for jokes and tells him to just leave her alone, which then forces her to apologize to him. But the mayor heard about the mishap and hooked up Hope with a city-wide email and turned the gala into a pot luck, Lori and Tom seemed to get a bit more romantic and Hope finally decided that she would give Jack another chance. And Houdini still managed to make an appearance at the gala at which thousands of people were promised but it looked more like a couple dozen. Then everyone does a two-step line dance. The end.
Hallmark Channel
As much as I like Alison Sweeney, not even she can save this slog of a romance. As written by Juliana Wimbles, Sweeney’s Hope is just irritating. It’s one thing to be an independent woman, it’s another to insist that she alone can do everything when there are clearly things out of her range of experience — like fixing a water pump. She’s lucky she hadn’t completely pushed Tom away by that point because she could not afford a plumber and he at least had some skills to fix it … with Jack’s help. If Lori hadn’t shown up when she did, the gala would have never happened because despite her claims of organizational skills, Hope does not seem to be able to focus on the task at hand, even though she also spent time creating a To Do list on a white board with at least twenty tasks on it, and just days before the gala only about three were checked off. Sweeney does her best to make Hope likable yet independent, but as written she is just someone who comes off as a know-it-all who in the real world would end up being shunned by everyone she’s pushed away with her ‘I can do it myself’ attitude. No girl, you need help! And making her daughter just as bad, if not worse because she obviously is not emotionally ready for the stress she gave herself with all the extra classes, does not make Hope ‘Mother of the Year’. The whole ‘Jack may or may not have followed Hope to Ruidoso’ storyline also strains credibility, even for a Hallmark movie. It really would have been better had Hope found romance with neighboring rancher Tom. But the worst part of the whole story is how much work Hope has to do but she spends her time doing anything but as the clock ticks. And there is no explanation as to the horse’s behavior, or why Jack is the one person he takes to. Lori is the most engaging character because she’s funny and she also knows how to take charge and get things done. Lori is almost single-handedly responsible for making the gala happen. And why does Beth hate Hope but then shows up at the gala all apologetic without really giving Hope a reason for her behavior??? Director Tailiah Breon lets the story meander as much as Hope does, making it all feel like a series of vignettes just strung together, making a story of some urgency have no urgency at all. By the end, do we really care if Hope and Jack decide to give it another go?
The cast, at least, makes the most of the screenplay. Sweeney is always charming even when Hope is the most annoying character in the movie. She does interact with her daughter well, but it’s crazy that she would be the one to tell Maggie to ask for help (I assume that is Wimbles’ idea of irony). At least she does make it seem like Hope could handle herself on the ranch under normal circumstances, and in any real life situation that person would not have tackled moving to a ranch and planning a gala within weeks of arriving simply because the previous owners retrofitted the barn, making it into an event space. Sweeney does her best to ground everything. Gabriel Hogan also has a task on his hands of not making Jack completely grating or appearing to want Hope to fail so she has to ask for help, even though he does seem to take joy in her having to ask for help. Unfortunately, he seems more like a stalker for just ‘happening’ to buy a farm store in the same small town as his ex. If this were a Lifetime movie, he’d actually be terrorizing Hope more overtly than he is here.
Hallmark Channel
Scott Martin is much more down-to-earth as Tom, but the character is written to just be subtle enough in his interest in Hope that she doesn’t notice but we do. Martin does a nice job and actually makes us want him and Hope to connect, but then he just seems to forget about her the minute Lori shows up and sinks her claws into him (because she wants Hope and Jack to get back together … so does she really have an interest in Tom and would she relocate to Ruidoso?). But Tom is the better match for Hope, and perhaps when she and Jack fail again, Tom will be there for her. Stephanie Beran brings a lot of effervescence to Lori. She seems to know Hope better than anyone, and she knows that despite her claims of independence that Hope needs help. It’s not really a coincidence that she shows up at the ranch earlier than expected. She really is Hope’s support system, and Beran makes Lori the friend anyone would want to have. Megan Sweeney also does a nice job as Maggie, in what seems to be her first major acting role. She has a natural rapport with her mother, and she handles her freak-out moment well enough though she does let it get a little out of her control at one point. The rest of the supporting cast is fine, but I’d still love to know what the motivation was for Beth’s behavior toward Hope.
Hallmark’s 2026 edition of ‘Loveuary” had a decent run until the end, and aside from having Sweeney reunite with her ‘Hannah Swenson’ co-star Hogan, or seeing the Sweeney mother-daughter combo making their debut, there isn’t a whole lot to like about Romance at Hope Ranch because Hope spends nearly the entire movie avoiding any hint of romance. And, by the way, the trailer makes this seem like more of a love triangle than it actually is. Sweeney can make almost anything watchable, but this one really tests your patience.
Romance at Hope Ranch has a run time of 1 hour 24 minutes, is rated TV-G, and is streaming on Hallmark+.
Preview | Romance at Hope Ranch
Hallmark Channel
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