Leslie Bibb Looks for Love After Loss – Variety
There are worse issues one might do than bask in a comfortable little romance lately, after we are all cooped up at dwelling craving some significant human contact. If solely writer-director Vicky Wight’s on-demand drama “The Misplaced Husband” might have stuffed that void by audaciously embracing a few of the extra syrupy, possibly even steamy components of an typically unfairly slighted style.
As an alternative, Wight delivers a sedated Hallmark-y effort that simply hints at heightened feelings — the very form of rush underserved romance viewers come to this fare searching for — solely to repeatedly interrupt and abandon them in puzzling methods. Equally complicated is that misleading title. Suffice it to say that Wight’s predictable fish-out-of-water story, tailored from bestselling creator Katherine Middle’s 2013 novel of the identical title, isn’t a couple of husband in any respect, however the widowed spouse he leaves behind in his wake.
She is Libby Moran (Leslie Bibb), a good-natured mom of two who appears no much less misplaced than her lately deceased husband Danny (Kevin Alejandro) we solely get to satisfy throughout a pair of by-the-book flashbacks. (In essentially the most cringe-inducing one, Libby will be heard foreshadowing a tragedy with, “One thing unhealthy goes to occur!”) Once we meet Libby within the opening moments of the movie, one thing unhealthy has already occurred, forcing the younger girl and her children to dwell with Libby’s self-centered mom Marsha (Sharon Lawrence). Fed up together with her egotistical dad or mum’s hardened indifference, Libby walks out on her, heading to her lengthy estranged aunt Jean’s (Nora Dunn) Texan goat farm to make a brand new begin.
Main a satisfying and calm nation life with strenuous calls for the suburban Libby is unfamiliar with, the no-nonsense Jean takes Libby below her protecting wing directly, guiding her until-then convenience-minded niece with an uncompromising sense of self-discipline. In her farm, everybody, together with animals, has an important job to do, she frequently stresses. And earlier than Libby will get to trend herself with quaint braids and alter into farm-appropriate denim overalls and cowboy boots, she meets Josh Duhamel’s blunt, handsomely rugged farm supervisor James, who supervises the workflow and shortly dismisses Libby’s aspirations to open a “hipster cheese store” with the dairy the farm produces.
When you’re rubbing your keen palms collectively in anticipation, enable me to substantiate that nonetheless underdeveloped, a love affair does spark between Libby and James. The pair skip over a meet-cute, however the materials nonetheless delivers some style charms through different means, particularly when the duo unintentionally finds itself locked in a cooler room for hours, bantering and attending to know one another consequently. What’s irritating is, Wight does little or no with that setup, deserting the 2 and their undercooked chemistry for lengthy stretches of time to search for juicy twists in several avenues. However these regrettable departures don’t precisely land.
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The script spends a substantial period of time with, however then sadly misjudges a extreme incident of college bullying involving Libby’s younger daughter — no college administrator could be that apathetic towards a brand new scholar who’s been harassed as a consequence of her limp. Elsewhere, a long-buried household secret lastly will get revealed, incomes not far more than a shrug from the viewers who’d slightly witness the subsequent transfer between the lovers-to-be. In the meantime, a pair of paper-thin supporting characters get shamelessly sidelined — the dedicated Herizen Guardiola’s bubbly townie Sunshine serves no objective apart from assist Libby understand hers. Enjoying Sunshine’s father, Isiah Whitlock Jr.’s welcome presence goes to waste, together with his character merely diminished to comedian aid.
Lit by cinematographer Aaron Kovalchik’s palatably sun-dappled however daytime-TV-esque aesthetic, “The Misplaced Husband” is at its most agreeable when it invests in Libby’s adjustment course of in acquainted however endearing montages. In a single scene, she learns the rewarding mysteries of cheese-making; in one other, the lastly savvy employee finds herself singing to goats. However these temporary grace notes get shortchanged by different miscalculated steps. Wight’s units seldom handle to rise above a sure distracting superficiality — Jean’s supposedly well-worn nation kitchen, the place we spend an honest chunk of time, appears prefer it’s lately been outfitted by a procuring spree at Williams-Sonoma, with brand-new pots and pans which have by no means met a burner earlier than. And it’s not simply the manufacturing design that doesn’t really feel lived in. Speeding by an emotional journey with an uneven tempo and clumsy dialogue, “The Misplaced Husband” goals for acquainted sentiments round loyalty, household and sacrifice, however bypasses sincerity, essentially the most essential ingredient.
