 |
Genie Francis searches for the intended recipient of a message she finds. (Hallmark Channel / Christos Kalohordis) |
Television Review
If you've ever dabbled in "General Hospital," you probably have a soft spot for Genie Francis, the actress who has played Laura Vining Webber Baldwin Spencer Spencer through thick and thin, through the Cassadines and the Quartermaines, through clarity and, alas, most recently, catatonia.
And if you're fond of Francis, then you'll probably be able to enjoy "The Note," a Hallmark Channel holiday movie that is hokey, a little pokey, and completely emotionally manipulative. With her charming glamourlessness, and a glow that emanates "good person," Francis makes all the contrivance feel OK.
In "The Note," tonight at 9, Francis plays Peyton MacGruder, a newspaper writer who's about to lose her column, which is called - oh gag - "The Heart Healer." " 'The Heart Healer' has no heart," her editor tells her. "You're not touching your readers." How convenient, then, that a plane crashes nearby, and Peyton happens to be at the beach when a note in a sealed plastic bag washes up. Convinced the note was written as the plane was going down, Peyton begins a search for its intended recipient. She simultaneously chronicles her search in "The Heart Healer," and the column comes to life.
The movie, based on the novel by Angela Hunt, makes it clear that Peyton is not a crass, opportunistic journalist. While the local TV reporter invades the privacy of grieving relatives of the crash victims, and he competes ruthlessly for a scoop, Peyton finds the prospect of interviewing mourners nauseating. She's more focused on exploring what people might say if they knew they were about to die - an interest that recalls our fascination with those phone messages left by victims of 9/11. For Peyton, the idea of writing one final missive triggers Big Feelings having to do with her own history, which is slowly revealed in the course of "The Note."
While the country buzzes about her columns, Peyton connects with a sportswriter, played by Ted McGinley. "Morbid much?" he says to her about her fixation on last writes. But their bond is sweet, and the movie spares us relationship histrionics as it moves toward a tearful resolution. The pair develop a rapport and loyalty that is both slow-growing and believable. Hard as it may be to imagine Francis forming a convincing screen attachment to anyone other than Anthony Geary's Luke on "General Hospital," Francis and McGinley pull it off effortlessly.
"The Note" is about finding love - not just romantic love but a love for life, and a love of oneself. And of course there are themes of forgiveness along the way, as Peyton and the grievers she talks to all seem to be carrying shadows around with them. This is a holiday movie, after all, and it's on the Hallmark Channel. The themes are required to be mushy and gushy, and the final plot twists have to be highly improbable.
Matthew Gilbert can be reached at gilbert@globe.com. For more on TV, visit boston.com/ae/tv/blog.
© Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.
