Hallmark Channel
Hallmark Channel’s ‘Spring into Love’ theme sends one of its top male stars on a girls’ road trip — and one guy — down the Pacific Coast in the charming I’ll Be Seeing You.
Stacey Farber, last seen on Hallmark Channel in 2024’s Hanukkah on the Rocks, stars as Amy, a young woman with a ridiculously complicated job title that no one but she understands — something to do with signing exclusive contracts with inventors of new and innovative products — who puts her career ahead of her personal life because a major promotion is on the horizon (and apparently the last time she was up for a promotion, the rug got pulled out from under her). She can’t even sustain a normal dating life because she has to schedule everything, and that is a real turn-off. But she finally has a weekend to herself and she is going to be spending it with her grandmother, Vivien (Christine Ebersole), who lives in a senior community. Vivien hangs out with her bestie Sue (BJ Harrison), and they love to give interim Activities Director Mark (Tyler Hynes) a hard time … but all in good fun. When Amy arrives, she joins the three in a game of mini-golf, but the seniors whip their butts. Not all is lost, though, as Vivien and Sue can see there just might be a spark between Mark and Amy.
Unfortunately Amy’s plans are interrupted when she gets a call from her boss, Phyllis (Amber April Telek), with an urgent request — one of their big clients is ready to sign a contract with the firm and Amy has to go to the man in Eureka, California immediately before he changes his mind … and her promotion depends on getting that signature. Instead of losing her weekend with Vivien, she asks her to go on a road trip down the coast, from Washington to California, and Vivien is in. And she wants to bring Sue along as well because this particular weekend would have been her wedding anniversary, and now it is the first without her husband. So a girls trip it is … until Amy hits a deep pothole and damages the under-carriage of her car. The nearest tow truck is four hours away, and that is four hours she can’t afford so Vivien has an idea and she calls Mark. He arrives in his classic VW van, Mable, and while Amy is disappointed the girls trip now includes a man, at least she likes Mark enough to travel with him. Vivien just has one request — to stop at a small town along the way because it holds some sentimental value to her. When they arrive in the town, she gives the group a little tour, and while enjoying a stop in a park she finally tells them about the man she met there in the 1970s, Teddy, and how they would leave notes for each other in the tree they are under — the 70s version of texting. Lo and behold, Mark spots a small bottle in one of the crooks and inside is a note from Teddy, and an address, left there many years ago. Should she try to find the man she called the love of her life (to be clear, the man she married was her ‘great love’) to see if they might rekindle their romance? Everyone says yes, but the detour will cause Amy to be late for her appointment and there are no trains to Eureka from where they are that will get her there in time. Mark lets Amy drive Mable, and he will accompany Vivien and Sue to their destination, mainly so he can remind Sue to take her pill on time, but while he and Amy are off buying snacks for her trip, the seniors hop on a train and take off in an obvious attempt to keep Amy and Mark together. Even though this trip is urgent, it still requires an overnight stay on the way, and when they leave the next morning the bellboy puts Amy’s briefcase with the contracts in the wrong car … which she doesn’t discover until she gets to her appointment. She finds out the briefcase is an hour away, so she and Mark take off, crash an engagement party, retrieve the briefcase and head back to the home of Mr. Vespertine. While she is in the house, Vivien calls Mark to let him know Sue fainted and they are at the hospital getting her checked out. Mark puts the blame on himself because he wasn’t there to remind her to take her pill, and when Amy comes out to tell him the client has many questions and she isn’t going to make it to Vivien in time to be with her when she meets Teddy again — which her boss insists she stay and answer because there are others seeking to sign the man — Mark has no choice but to leave her and go to Sue. Both Mark and Amy have major decisions weighing on them now as Sue must decide if she’s going to put her career — which has no certainty even though Phyllis has promised this time the promotion will go through — ahead of her personal life, and Mark has to decide if he’s going to accept the permanent job as the Activities Director at the senior facility. Mark is really a free spirit who doesn’t want to be tied down, or who uses his ‘free spirit’ to avoid commitment, but Amy can clearly see how much he loves his job and the people he works with, so why give that all up for a life of uncertainty? As they both face their own big decisions, Vivien must also gather up her own nerve to see if there is still a spark between her and Teddy (once she finally finds his cabin in the woods). Will everyone make the right decisions and live happily ever after?
I’ll Be Seeing You is a real charmer of a story, from Joey Elkins and Blake Silver, that appeals to a wide variety of viewers. It’s got the possible romance between the two younger leads, and a potential one for one of the senior leads. It also has a wonderful friendship between Vivien and Sue, and also gives them a playful relationship with Mark. There is also a rather urgent situation that drives the story forward, but in typical Hallmark fashion, the lead character spends more time meandering around than attending to the urgent matter. Time really is just a suggestion here, but it doesn’t seem to be as noticeable in this movie as it has been in others (if the group was leaving from near Seattle to get to Eureka, the trip would take about 11 hours with no stops, and with at least one overnight stay and two hours lost due to the misplaced briefcase, the sense of urgency isn’t as pressing as it should be). In reality, the appointment isn’t really the important part of the story, it’s the journey and what Amy, Mark and Vivien, and to a lesser extent Sue, have to learn along the way. Director Jessica Harmon does a nice job of keeping the story’s pace from dragging while giving it no real sense of time. The locations — apparently all in British Columbia doubling (tripling) for Washington state, Oregon and California — are lovely and really help sell the illusion that these four are traveling down the West Coast. It all just adds up to a lovely, charming, light-hearted journey of discovery, and it even places less weight on the romance to the point that we aren’t even really sure if Mark and Amy are going to forge ahead together but, if not, they will certainly remain good friends.
Hallmark Channel
The cast is a delight. Stacey Farber’s Amy is driven by her career aspirations, but Farber at least makes her likable because Amy does want a personal life, she just lets it get interrupted by her job (and her boss always seems to be on the edge of a nervous breakdown, so is that really what Amy wants?). Farber has great chemistry with Ebersole, Harrison and Hynes, just making the performance feel completely natural. Tyler Hynes is perfect for the role of Mark, like the part was written for him, playing up on his ability to casually toss off one-liners and apply his patented snark to any situation. He really isn’t in the mold of the stereotypical Hallmark leading man, but his humor and sardonic charm just make him so appealing. He does not make any overtly romantic moves on Amy, using more words of wisdom to guide her into making the decision best for her, while allowing himself to be open to hearing what Amy has to say about his own life choices. He gets a particularly emotional moment near the end, not with Amy but with Sue, that melts the heart more than any romantic moments with Amy, and it entirely humanizes Mark in that moment. Hynes also brings his playful banter to the relationship Mark has with Vivien and Sue, while also demonstrating how much he cares for them and the other residents of the community. Hynes’ Mark is a guy anyone would want as a friend.
If you cast Christine Ebersole in something, I am there. I’ve been a huge fan of hers going back 40 years to her sitcom, The Cavanaughs. Ebersole can do everything from drama to musicals to comedy, and here she gets to do it all. She gives Vivien a sparkle in her eye and gives her a real joy of living, not one to act her age simply because of where she lives. Ebersole shows that Vivien has a great, deep and respectful friendship with Vivien, while also being active and open to going on a spontaneous road trip and tracking down an old flame from 50 years ago. The movie even gives her an opportunity to sing a couple of bars of the standard, I’ll Be Seeing You by Irving Kahal and Sammy Fain, as she reminisces about Teddy while having a dance in a music store with Mark. She also brings out some mischievous behavior in Vivien, like when she and Sue hop on a train just to leave Mark with Amy, and her face lights up when she finally finds Teddy. Ebersole makes Vivien a wonderful character that anyone would want in their life, and I can only hope the actress herself is just as lovely in person. BJ Harrison is also wonderful as Sue, more of a sidekick to Vivien in this story, but when the two of them are together they are a force to be reckoned with — in the most subtle way possible. Harrison can deliver some snappy comebacks just as skillfully as Hynes, and she brings so much emotion and pure love to that final scene with him that you can feel that these two people have known each other, and have cared for and respected each other, for some time. These four actors are simply wonderful, and make the entire journey — however pressing it is, or not — worth the time.
The supporting cast also do some great work, notably April Amber Telek as Amy’s boss Phyllis, John Prowse as the client, Mr. Vespertine, and Tom Pickett and Pete Graham as musicians Clyde and Pepper, who provide the musical accompaniment to Vivien and turn up at a crucial moment to save the day for Amy. Now I can’t say I’ll Be Seeing You is the most exciting, original Hallmark romance ever produced, but it is lovely, and charming and comfortable, with wonderful characters and actors who just draw you into their stories, leaving you with a feeling of contentment by the time the story ends, perhaps even leaving you wanting more. I doubt Hallmark would turn this into a series of films, but I would happily board Mable again for the further adventures of this quartet.
I’ll Be Seeing You has a run time of 1 hour 24 minutes, is rated TV-G, and is streaming on Hallmark+. Try Hallmark+ free for seven days on Apple TV.
Preview | I’ll Be Seeing You
Hallmark Channel
Listen to I’ll Be Seeing You by Frank Sinatra featured in I’ll Be Seeing You