The Town That Came A-Courtin' (2014)

Excellent but underrated film

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Horrendous fake accents and phony people. Lauren Holly had too many facelifts or too much Botox. Just another made for TV crappy chick flick.

I'll be honest, the lead character's voice was so annoying I almost couldn't handle it! But I'm glad I did as the turned out to be a pretty good movie! Clean & funny, but with an unexpected plot twist. I'd watch it again.

Abby (Lauren Holly) is a very famous author of romances set in the South. Personally, though, she has been burned in the game of love and resists her mother's constant efforts to find a match for her child. Often, Abby is out on book tours, anyway, so she is away from her parent's influence. Fans flock to her appearances at bookstores and libraries; one male fan in particular, Walter (Toby Hargrave) seems to follow her from stop to stop. But, once Abby steps into small but beautiful Bliss, Mississippi, she is met with more enthusiasm than usual. This is because the whole town thinks she would make a great match for their widowed mayor. Everyone from the bed and breakfast owner (Valerie Harper), to the tallest and the smallest is going to try to encourage Abby to lose her heart. At first, she resists, for she spies a good looking man, Spencer (Cameron Bancroft) in a coffee shop and likes what she sees, even when he steps on her open-toed shoes. Ouch! But, soon, she learns that Spencer IS THE MAYOR and, hey, this matchmaking business may be the right item. However, there are complications with Spencer's children, the town's wannabe belle, Lorraine, and also with Walter. Even with the force of a whole community behind you, will true love run smoothly? This loveable movie has the beauty of Holly, the charm of Bancroft, and the great supporting cast. Also enfused with the lovely scenery, costumes, nice script, and talented direction, what's really a cause for complaint? You won't hear it from the romcom crowd, no indeed!

This was an easy movie to watch while multi-tasking. I don't usually watch these Hallmark Channel type movies, but made an exception for this one because it was set in fictional Bliss, Mississippi, my home state. So I am pretty critical about the fake Southern accents. Do movie and TV people realize that no Southerner of my generation or younger drops their r's anymore? They apparently listen to audio of Eudora Welty or Shelby Foote and think that's how we still speak here. Unfortunately, we don't. The town, especially the B&B, featured in the movie was beautiful, but there are no towns or buildings in Mississippi that even remotely look like them. As I suspected, the credits revealed the movie was filmed in Canada. Could they not even take a half-hour to go online and look at a few photos of Southern small towns?