What I Did for Love (2006)

I watch this one every year because there are enough charming moments to suffer through the nastiness of Sadie's family. I can't believe some of the other reviewers on here call this a "family friendly" movie, given that the family is nasty, antagonistic and entirely unfriendly to Sadie's boyfriend. A family friendly group would have, uh, i don't know, not judged a book by its cover? Do unto others as they do unto you? Treat your neighbor with kindness? And despite what other reviewers say, I think the boyfriend acts about as reasonably pleasant as one could act in those horrible circumstances. If i was suffering for a week with that family, i'd probably find myself doing stupid things under pressure, too. And Sadie was a nasty jerk, criticizing her boyfriend instead of backing him up against her family. Ugh, they stress me out so much. That said, i enjoy her boyfriend whipping up a frittata and calling out the family for their total ignorance of Shakespeare. Seriously. Jeremy London was pretty hilarious in this movie.

If you like sappy romantic movies with shallow plots and bad acting you will probably like this one. But I'm a country boy and I can tell you that nothing the rancher family did was realistic in the least little bit. Allowing a clearly antagonistic, hateful and spiteful ex-boyfriend to hang around after he deliberately let the cattle herd out to roam the desert with predators around all because he wanted to frame the current boyfriend? He should have been arrested. The father who treats his daughter's boyfriend like a criminal? It was beyond crude and rude, I would run away from that family as fast as my legs could carry me. The whole movie was filled with improbable sub-plots like this.Every time a new scene appeared, I found myself shaking my head incredulously. That just isn't how real people act, especially not ranchers. Farmers and ranchers are real people with real values and don't engage in the kinds of petty big-city actions prevalent throughout this movie. Another Hallmark stinker clearly written by clueless Hollywood writers who don't know how the real world works.At least the girl was very pretty.

One thing nice about watching a Hallmark movie on TV, you know there won't be any bad language and very little, if any, violence. This one holds true to that expectation.Jeremy London is James, a Los Angeles attorney. Pretty, young Dorie Barton is his girlfriend, Sadie Ryder, who is a doctor in L.A. They go to her small town home, to meet the family. It doesn't say where they actually are, but it looks like the mountains and high plains of Colorado, Wyoming, or Montana. That probably means it was filmed in Canada!Veteran actor James Gammon is Karl Ryder, Sadie's dad. He hasn't quite been the same since his wife of 30+ years died, and he doesn't take very kindly to the prospects of this city slicker wanting to take his little girl away. He is one of the local ranchers who don't like change. Sadie also has three brothers.The movie is about James trying to fit in, and to win over the Ryder family so that he and Sadie can get married with their blessings. Things happen, James is challenged a number of times, but he always lands on his feet, eventually.Good family movie.SPOILERS: James finally wins Karl over when, some distance away from home, James shoots and kills a wolf that is threatening the injured Karl. Back home for Christmas time (no snow on the ground) James announces he and Sadie are getting married, have Karl's blessing, and they both will make that small community their home instead of going back to the big city.

I enjoyed this movie very much. I believe it to be very realistic. Many city people really do act like this guy when they go to the country. I found it to be a nice clean movie that the whole family can enjoy! There needs to be more movies like this one made. If you like a good clean romantic comedy, this is a must see. I would recommend it to anyone.I think the actors and actresses do a great job of portraying their parts. You do not see to many movies that are based on reality. This one has hard times and good times. It also has some good morals brought out in it. For instance, the father didn't see the boyfriend's inner self--all he could see was a big city lawyer that he didn't like. He thought the guy was dumb and did all he could to make his life miserable. His daughter, however, remained very loyal to her father and waited for her father's blessing on her marriage. It also shows that crimes don't pay. The ex-boyfriend was out to get her current boyfriend and blamed him for things that he had not done. In the end, the truth came out.The movie doesn't end there though. Everyone that was at odds with each other reconciled at the end. It has a very happy ending. I think that most people would enjoy this movie a lot. It is worth seeing at least once. I myself have watched it several times.