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‘Loveuary’ continues on the Hallmark Channel with a star-crossed romance in which the leads only spend about ten minutes together even though they constantly appear in several scenes.
The Stars Between Us — which perhaps refers more to the astrology of the story than the astronomy — stars Sarah Drew as Kim, an enthusiast of all things related to the stars and planets, though she is a novice. But she is in Carbondale, Illinois to see the eclipse of the century with her fiance … who is late and has the eclipse glasses. She stumbles upon a man with a really fancy telescope and asks if she can take a look, and she impresses him with her knowledge of the instrument. They go for a walk and chat and find a real connection over astronomy and astrology and how the two connected originally and when they became two different things but Kim’s fiance calls as he has arrived just in time with the glasses. She and the man part ways but neither has thought to ask the other’s name. Seven years later, Kim is a single mom of a five-year-old girl and struggling at her job at a local TV station after so many years away raising her daughter, mad at herself for not returning sooner because she could have been an on-air reporter by this point instead of a production assistant. As luck would have it through some confluence of fate, there is going to be another total eclipse directly over Carbondale in a few days, and the assigned reporter is unavailable due to her sick child. Kim quickly steps up and offers herself to do the remotes from the location, and the producer reluctantly agrees to Kim’s ask that her pal Claire is the cameraperson. The producer counters that his nephew will be the segment producer, to which Kim agrees but when she and Claire get to the oldest broadcast van the station owns, they discover the nephew is the youngest employee … and this is his first producing assignment. And his first order of business is to lock the keys in the van, so they are off to an inauspicious start.
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Kim is plagued by self-doubt and totally botches her opening segment once they get to the resort where they will be reporting from. Luckily it isn’t live, but young gun Reed says out loud that he now understands the station nickname for Kim — Freezer Burn, due to her freezing on camera during a previous attempt at becoming on-air talent. Her flubbing is irritating the other reporters waiting their turn to do their intros, one in particular named Steve, who takes great pleasure in putting down Kim any chance he gets. That gets him into some trouble as he reveals he has an exclusive interview locked in with a popular astronomer, Dr. Longford, who would be a great get for Kim, especially after she learns that the national network news division forgot to send someone to cover the event so Kim’s station manager offered to let them use her live news feed, putting even more pressure on her to perform. Reed knows this is major for Kim, and for himself and the station, so he steps up and manages to snag Dr. Longford from Steve because they will be going national and Longford can promote his podcast to millions of viewers. It’s a win-win, but Steve is royally pissed. While all this is going on, the man Kim met seven years earlier is there again, hoping to meet Dr. Longford, who was a professor of his. The man, Malcolm, has written a book and is desperate to get Longford to take a look at it and perhaps help him get it published, but locking down Longford is nearly impossible due to his schedule and the brick wall that is his assistant, Samantha. As Kim and Malcolm keep passing each other like ships in the night, Claire has connected with Malcolm’s pal Travis, a professor of film, and the two hit it off immediately over their shared interests, but neither of them have a clue that the people they are with know each other, and events keep conspiring to make sure Kim and Malcolm don’t meet, but perhaps the stars are awaiting just the right moment. As the big celestial event approaches, Dr. Longford gets lost while looking for the rest room before his interview, so Travis steps up and offers his friend as an interview subject, but when he tells Malcolm that he will be doing the interview he tries to turn it down. A former student of Malcolm’s who is also there and helping get his telescope set up reminds him that he was her favorite teacher because he connected with the class so well and made the subject of the stars entertaining, so he can certainly do that in an interview. Funny thing is, his meeting with the mystery woman seven years earlier pushed him into teaching after she told him he would be great at it. As the seconds approach and Kim goes live, she is stunned to see her new interview subject is her mystery man, and while the sky begins to darken sparks begin to fly — on live TV coast-to-coast.
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The Stars Between Us is a charmingly amusing Hallmark romance that takes the somewhat novel approach of keeping its protagonists separated for about 95% of the movie’s run time. They spend about five minutes together at the top of the movie, and just another few minutes together at the end but even at that the kiss still manages to feel earned. Hallmark’s 2025 Christmas movie, We Met In December, had a similar concept but was not quite as successful in making it all play out in an entertaining way. This story, by Tim Huddleston, does a great job of putting Kim and Malcolm in many of the same places at the same time, but just far enough apart that they never see each other. There is one clever moment at a masked ball where they do come face-to-face, or mask-to-mask, and some words are exchanged that make Kim feel that there was something familiar about that man but she can’t put her finger on it. The story also works well because there is a lot of humor with all of the missed connections, and Reed’s and Kim’s ineptitude early on, while Claire gets to be the ‘straightman’ and roll her eyes at them. It’s also fun because while we know Malcolm and Kim are the main couple of the story, it’s the developing romance between Claire and Travis that takes center stage, and even though things are great with them, the fates can’t keep their hands off of that relationship, constantly pulling Claire away every time she gets just a bit closer to Travis. And for even more fun, there is a hint of a third romance between Reed and Meredith, the former student helping Malcolm. Love is definitely all around in this movie. Director Michael Robison does a great job of juggling all the storylines and keeping things as plausible as they can be, although the scenes of the eclipse are a bit more fanciful than a real eclipse, which takes hours to reach totality instead of seconds. That moon just zooms into place in this movie, but we’ll forgive that because everything else is so charming.
Sarah Drew is wonderful as Kim, able to balance the more grounded aspects of the character while expertly pulling off the more comedic moments. She makes her friendship with Claire feel completely lived-in, and she is not shy about showing her disdain for the kid the station manager stuck her with, but when she warms up to him and the two start working together for the common goal, it all feels authentic. On the other side of the coin, Matt Long (making his return to the Hallmark Channel after eight years) is the perhaps obsessively focused Malcolm, with one purpose in mind to meet up with Dr. Longford. Even as Travis tries to get him to loosen up a bit, he stays in his lane, constantly fretting over possibly missing out on this opportunity. But in the opening of the movie, his connection with Kim feels totally natural and it’s a bit heartbreaking that they got separated and didn’t even get a name. When they are reunited finally for the interview, Long shows that all of Malcolm’s worries about Longford and his book just melt away when he lays eyes on Kim. As they behave like lovesick teens on national television, there are some very funny bits with Kim’s daughter and mother watching, the daughter mentioning how funny her mother is behaving. Even though Drew and Long only share the screen as a pair for a few moments, it’s rewarding when they finally connect, literally and physically.
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Donna Benedicto is terrific as Claire, the one person of the news team who is keeping it all together, always professional, trying to act as a buffer between Kim and Reed, but also not allowing her professional life bleed over into her personal life, able to put work aside as she quickly falls for the man who she can actually relate to. Noah Paul is also very good as Travis, more prone to making jokes to try to get Malcolm to lighten up, but showing how instantly smitten he is with Claire. The two actors really make us root for them to find that connection and figure out how to make it work as Claire is in Chicago and Travis is in Arizona. Grayson Gurnsey is also wonderful as Reed, completely out of his element at first, but giving enough humanity to the role so that we actually feel bad for Reed after Kim snaps at him about how useless he is as a producer (granted, he has no clue of what a producer is supposed to do, and after locking the keys in the van earlier, he also forgets to turn off the headlights, draining the battery, which means they can’t edit what they’ve shot until they can get the battery jumped). But we get to watch him find his footing and take charge, impressing Kim, Claire and the rest of us with his skill. All of these actors just give terrific performances and they all mesh will with each other.
In smaller roles, Benjamin Wilkinson is the perfect villain as rival reporter Steve (though he surprisingly does not do anything to sabotage Kim’s interview), Greg Rogers plays Dr. Langford as a bit of a scatterbrain for comic effect, Katherine Evans is his strict assistant Samantha, Kevin O’Grady is the put-upon station manager tired of Kim begging to go on air but willing to give her one last chance, and Iris Quinn is Kim’s mother Beth, always ready to let Kim know what her horoscope predicts for her day … and there may be something to it after all. Everyone is a delight and help carry the story along.
You don’t have to be an astronomy buff to enjoy The Stars Between Us, but it helps to know that these types of viewing events are a big deal that do draw crowds, and a total eclipse like this does not come around often (so the seven year time span is pure fiction but is the linchpin of the story). The story is clever and fun, not overly dramatic, full of romance and wonderful performances from the leads and supporting cast. The stars truly did align to make this production practically perfect.
The Stars Between Us has a run time of 1 hour 24 minutes, is rated TV-G, and is streaming on Hallmark+.
Preview | The Stars Between Us
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Listen to songs featured in The Stars Between Us – Dreaming by Apollo LTD and Pedestals by The Tourist Company