Candles on Bay Street (2006)
DeeDee returns to her hometown with her 11 year old son, Trooper, 13 years after she ran off with her boyfriend. Her childhood best friend, Sam, is now married and he and his wife, Lydia, are the town's veterinarians. Lydia is a little wary about DeeDee after Sam tells her that they were best friends growing up and DeeDee was his first crush. But DeeDee and Trooper find their way into many hearts of the townspeople with their sweet helpfulness and friendships. DeeDee sets up a candle making business in town square and invites many of the ladies of the town to weekly candle making parties, and through these parties she and Lydia become good friends. One evening after dinner with Lydia and Sam, DeeDee tells Sam she's very sick and she doesn't have much longer to live and she needs his help to find a good family in town to adopt Trooper. Sam later tells Lydia everything and they decide to adopt Trooper themselves if/when something happens to DeeDee.
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Such a frustrating disappointment
Don't listen to the negative reviews
I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.
It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.
The only reason I watched the first half-hour or so was because it was filmed in beautiful Nova Scotia. This site only mentions Halifax as a filming site, but the scene with the ferry at the beginning was the very striking Mahone Bay, with its three waterfront churches. Otherwise, it did seem pretty formulaic, and though I like Alicia Silverstone, she was just a little TOO self-consciously upbeat and there wasn't enough to hold my interest longer. So I'm guessing that her big secret was that she had a terminal illness. It's too bad, Hallmark Hall of Fame used to signify a special TV event, one that would be memorable and moving with great acting. But too often in the last few years, many of them have been very predictable pull-on-the-heartstrings productions
Embarrassingly amateurish, despite good actors cast in the film. Therefore, I "watched" while working at the computer since it's a decent enough family holiday film. A pleasure to see Polly Bergen again. She is a class act and enhances any film in which she is featured. Alicia Silverstone is a decent actor, but not that great in this role. Her dramatic range isn't all that great. She's more of a comedic actor. She kept smiling too much, especially in scenes that didn't call for it. Annabeth Gish was quite good (would have been a better choice for the lead), as was Eion Bailey but their dialog, along with the rest of the dialog in the movie, was very poorly written and scene transitions were embarrassingly hokey. I did like Alicia's scenes at the end with her young son. Thoughtfully written, and probably the only truly decent dialog in the movie.The location shots were beautiful, filmed in Nova Scotia. Definitely worth noting is the young actor, Matthew Knight, who was one of the best actors in the film, esp. his solo scene at the very end of the movie. He's going places.
The story centers around four main characters a vet and his wife, and his returning childhood friend and her son.After leaving 13 years ago without warning Dee-Dee, a free spirit who ran off with another boy, returns to her childhood home. She brings he son along, hoping to find magic in the community of her youth. Dee Dee's life how ever intersects with the local vet, who used to be her childhood best friend, and his wife. At first their is hurt feeling, because Dee-Dee ran away 13 years ago, on the same night the vet was to give her his class ring. Soon the vet has other problems and he realizes no amount of planning can protect those he loves from bad things.The vet's wife(also a veterinarian) is at first jealous of the reaction of her husband, since the return of this old friend, but worries are soon put to rest when she too finds magic in the personality of the candle making Dee-Dee. Soon Dee-Dee's son begins to work with the veterinarians and finds a love of animals. He becomes closer to the couple, which may be for the best, because his mother has a secret...Soon the magic of a community is needed to help this returning family. *****************************************************************I expected more twists then I got in this movie, but I will say the story had heart and was well acted. I thought the lesson of how we all need each other as friends, as "family", as a community was nicely told. A Hallmark quality tear jerker...
I have to agree to an extent. It drag in parts but it didn't put me to sleep. I also think that there should be more programs like it-programs that parents can let their children without having to worry about sexual content or explicit language. I think Hallmark would have been wiser to put their Hallmark Channel Movie on network television. Last year critics wondered why Hallmark had The Reading Room with James Earl Jones on the Hallmark Channel instead of network television. On to the ads, did anyone recognize the voice of the narrator in the ad of the little boy delivering the Christmas Card to his neighbor? If I'm not mistaken, it was Gary Sinise of CSI: New York.