I'm a bit of a sucker for these types of films - something that will just let you shut off for a bit and relax. It doesn't make it a great movie, but it does mean that it is not a bad one. And actually with a few changes in a couple places it could even have been pretty good.
The interesting thing about the protagonist is that she is likeable. She's a shopaholic 'it' girl simply because she had never been asked to grow up. But when things get tough she steps up to do her part. In many ways this is a bit of a coming of age story for her.
But the rest of the characters are a bit oddly written. There's not much likeable about any of them. The main guy is mean and almost completely devoid of personality. I mean he has a banging body and all, but in almost every scene he is dead inside. No insult to the actor who was given nothing to work with. Instead we're meant to bond with him simply because he has had a tragedy in his life. I think they could have done a bit better. The rest of the farm crew are a little better, but I can't get over what age the daughter is supposed to be - she looks about 12 but in the film seems to be portraying someone about 8. It doesn't work.
But the really curious thing is the ending. We have the typical late 'break up' between the two main characters (the predictability of this film should mean that comes nowhere close to a spoiler), so that we can get the resolution to end the film on a high. Now normally this part comes with about 20 minutes or so of the film left so that there is time for some growth or character arc. In Harvest Moon this happens with about 7 minutes to go. And then... well we cut forward a year and they are together and everything is great. It's like 10 minutes of the film just got chopped out.
I'd like to see films of this sort start to subvert these endings a little. One of the characters definitely needs to go through some sort of arc, but it would be nice if it was some other daemon or task they achieved rather than a breakup makeup scenario. This film had the potential to do that.
Still if you are looking to kill a couple hours to zone out you could do much worse.
The interesting thing about the protagonist is that she is likeable. She's a shopaholic 'it' girl simply because she had never been asked to grow up. But when things get tough she steps up to do her part. In many ways this is a bit of a coming of age story for her.
But the rest of the characters are a bit oddly written. There's not much likeable about any of them. The main guy is mean and almost completely devoid of personality. I mean he has a banging body and all, but in almost every scene he is dead inside. No insult to the actor who was given nothing to work with. Instead we're meant to bond with him simply because he has had a tragedy in his life. I think they could have done a bit better. The rest of the farm crew are a little better, but I can't get over what age the daughter is supposed to be - she looks about 12 but in the film seems to be portraying someone about 8. It doesn't work.
But the really curious thing is the ending. We have the typical late 'break up' between the two main characters (the predictability of this film should mean that comes nowhere close to a spoiler), so that we can get the resolution to end the film on a high. Now normally this part comes with about 20 minutes or so of the film left so that there is time for some growth or character arc. In Harvest Moon this happens with about 7 minutes to go. And then... well we cut forward a year and they are together and everything is great. It's like 10 minutes of the film just got chopped out.
I'd like to see films of this sort start to subvert these endings a little. One of the characters definitely needs to go through some sort of arc, but it would be nice if it was some other daemon or task they achieved rather than a breakup makeup scenario. This film had the potential to do that.
Still if you are looking to kill a couple hours to zone out you could do much worse.