Tag: Kevin Joy

Take 3: Sugarcreek Amish Mysteries: Blessings in Disguise Review

On By 18cinemalaneLeave a comment

It’s been a little while since I reviewed a made-for-TV mystery film, as my article for Reality Bites: A Hannah Swensen Mystery was published two months ago. I cover UP Network movies so infrequently and UP Network doesn’t often create mystery titles. These are the reasons why I chose to review Sugarcreek Amish Mysteries: Blessings in Disguise! This is not the first time a mystery story has featured Amish characters. Hallmark released An Uncommon Grace back in 2017 and Harvest of Fire from Hallmark Hall of Fame. Meanwhile, it’s not the first time Galadriel Stineman has appeared in a movie incorporating the Amish culture. In 2020, she starred in a Hallmark production called Follow Your Heart.Looking back on the films I referenced, I liked Follow Your Heart and An Uncommon Grace. However, I thought Harvest of Fire was just fine. Where does Sugarcreek Amish Mysteries: Blessings in Disguise rank among these movies? Let’s solve this mystery by beginning my review!

Sugarcreek Amish Mysteries: Blessings in Disguise poster created by American Cinema Inspires

Things I liked about the film:

The incorporation of Amish culture: In the introduction of this review, I mentioned seeing the Hallmark Hall of Fame film, Harvest of Fire. The 1996 presentation places so much emphasis on introducing the audience to Amish culture, the story’s mystery becomes overshadowed. With Sugarcreek Amish Mysteries: Blessings in Disguise, the creative team finds a nice balance between prioritizing the mysteries and introducing Amish culture to their audience. Throughout the 2025 film, elements of Amish culture are woven into the dialogue and interactions of the characters. When Cheryl meets Naomi for the first time, Cheryl admits she knows very little about the Amish. She then asks Naomi how Amish people greet one another. Naomi playfully teases Cheryl’s lack of knowledge by telling her Amish people shake their feet. However, this teasing is in good humor, never intending to shame Cheryl for not knowing the appropriate greetings among the Amish. Naomi and Cheryl’s interaction feels like a natural conversation between two people. The way the creative team wrote Amish culture into their project actually encourages the audience to learn through communication.

The messages and themes: During her time in Sugarcreek, Cheryl agrees to work at her aunt’s Swiss Miss country store. On her first day as a cashier, everything seems to go wrong. The next day, Cheryl tells Naomi about her first day at the Swiss Miss. To encourage Cheryl to not give up, Naomi reminds her how the previous day’s blunders could be seen as lessons to learn. Not only is Naomi’s advice a good message to share with the audience, this piece of advice plays an important role in other parts of the story. This aspect of Sugarcreek Amish Mysteries: Blessings in Disguise kind of reminded me of Hallmark’s Signed, Sealed, Delivered series.

Avoiding clichés and tropes: If someone has seen many made-for-TV mystery movies, there are certain tropes and clichés they would come to expect. One of these tropes is having the female and male protagonist working together to solve the mystery, with these characters eventually forming a romantic relationship. The female protagonist, Cheryl, gets involved in solving the story’s mysteries in Sugarcreek Amish Mysteries: Blessings in Disguise. But the movie’s male protagonist, Levi, did not help in the amateur investigation. Instead, Naomi worked alongside Cheryl on one of the story’s cases. Having Cheryl and Naomi work together in Sugarcreek Amish Mysteries: Blessings in Disguise was a creative way to avoid some of the tropes and clichés of made-for-TV mystery films. If this movie becomes the first chapter in a series, I’d be curious to see what other clichés and tropes the creative team chooses to avoid?

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What I didn’t like about the film:

A mystery that was solved too quickly: There are two mysteries in Sugarcreek Amish Mysteries: Blessings in Disguise: who is leaving unpriced stuffed animals in the Swiss Miss country store and the kidnapping of a baby. When it comes to the first mystery, I actually liked its creativity. But I was taken by surprise by how quickly that mystery was solved. After the stuffed animals’ origin was discovered, the subject was dropped from the script. Because of how this mystery connected to the story, I thought it could have created a domino effect for the characters and the world of Sugarcreek. But that did not happen. I think the mystery of the stuffed animals should have been drawn out for a longer period of time, to keep the audience invested in that part of the story.

Lack of urgency: As I just mentioned in this review, there are two mysteries in Sugarcreek Amish Mysteries: Blessings in Disguise. One of those mysteries was the kidnapping of a baby. When a mystery movie includes a kidnapping in its script, that story will usually contain a strong sense of urgency. This is because the characters are racing against the clock to rescue the victim. But in Sugarcreek Amish Mysteries: Blessings in Disguise, there was no sense of urgency. That flaw caused the story to change its focus from the kidnapped baby to proving a character’s innocence. The lack of urgency also made the film feel drawn out a bit longer than its run-time.

The underutilization of Kathy: Portrayed by Andi Anderson, Kathy is one of the residents of Sugarcreek. Cheryl first meets Kathy when she goes to Kathy’s café. I was hoping a friendship would be formed between Kathy and Cheryl, with Kathy even helping Cheryl solve the film’s mysteries. Unfortunately, Kathy appeared in only two scenes throughout the entire movie. Giving Kathy such an extremely limited involvement in the story was, in my opinion, a missed opportunity. If Sugarcreek Amish Mysteries: Blessings in Disguise lends itself to a movie series, I hope Kathy receives a larger role in the story.

Tiger stuffed animal image created by alesia17 at freeimages.com. “FreeImages.com/alesia17.”

My overall impression:

Even though it’s not the halfway point of 2025 yet, most of the movies I’ve seen this year, so far, have been mid-tier. These titles have either been ok or decent. Sugarcreek Amish Mysteries: Blessings in Disguise is contributing to that perspective. If UP Network is serious about creating a series out of this movie, they need to fix the lack of urgency. I would also like to see UP Network give Kathy a greater role in the story and not solve mysteries too quickly. Looking back on the 2025 presentation, however, I think there is potential for Sugarcreek Amish Mysteries: Blessings in Disguise to lead a series. Out of the films I brought up in this review’s introduction; Follow Your Heart, An Uncommon Grace, and Harvest of Fire, these titles were stand-alone films. In fact, the only movie series I can think of that features the Amish culture is Hallmark’s Beverly Lewis trilogy, consisting of The Shunning, The Reckoning, and The Confession. UP Network has an opportunity to bring something new to the table of made-for-TV mystery films. But as of the publication of this review, there have been no official plans announced for Sugarcreek Amish Mysteries.

Overall score: 6 out of 10

Have you seen Sugarcreek Amish Mysteries: Blessings in Disguise? Would you like to see this movie start a new series? Tell me in the comment section!

Have fun in Sugarcreek!

Sally Silverscreen

Take 3: Follow Your Heart Review

On By 18cinemalane4 Comments

Last week, I reviewed JL Family Ranch: The Wedding Gift. While my Hallmark related content, especially from Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, has been well-received, my review of the 2020 sequel became more popular than I expected. As of early October, that post has acquired 6 likes and over 200 views! Because of this, I decided to review Follow Your Heart! Hallmark hasn’t released a movie about an Amish community since 2017’s An Uncommon Grace. When Follow Your Heart was added to Hallmark Movies & Mysteries’ Fall schedule, I found it to be a big deal, especially since a three-year creative void was being filled. On multiple occasions, I’ve said that I wished Hallmark would try new things when it came to their story-telling. From the looks of it, Follow Your Heart may be a step in that direction!

Follow Your Heart poster created by Crown Media Family Networks and Hallmark Movies & Mysteries.

Things I liked about the film:

The acting: I am familiar with Galadriel Stineman, as an actress, through her work on The Middle. It seems like her acting experiences on that show have paid off! A strength in Galadriel’s portrayal of Kathy Yoder was her transitions between different emotions. After Kathy and her boyfriend, Jack, leave the spa, Kathy received a voice message on her phone about her father’s passing. Galadriel’s facial expression and emotions quickly change from happily care-free to sadly guilty about missing the call. Madison Lawlor did a really good job with her portrayal of Kathy’s sister, Miriam! The consistency in her performance is what made it stand out. In Follow Your Heart, Miriam was upset at her sister for leaving the Amish community. Whenever she interacted with Kathy, the tension between these two characters could be felt. Another character that interacts with Kathy often is Isaac Mast, who was portrayed by Kevin Joy! Throughout the film, Isaac had a more easy-going personality. It also helped that Kevin and Galadriel shared good on-screen chemistry. These factors, along with quality acting talents, assisted Kevin in partially carrying this film!

Good audio: In my JL Family Ranch: The Wedding Gift review, I talked about Hallmark’s recent issue with poor audio. This was, fortunately, not the case for Follow Your Heart! All of the dialogue could be understood and heard clearly. Various sounds and music played in the background, making their existence known without overpowering scenes. While watching this film, I never felt the need to adjust the volume on my television. This definitely added to my movie-viewing experience!

New takes on tried-and-true cliches: As I also mentioned in my review of JL Family Ranch: The Wedding Gift, Hallmark loves adding cliches in their movies. What I liked about Follow Your Heart was how there were new takes on these cliches! The most overused one is the “woman from the city coming back to her small hometown”. In Follow Your Heart, Kathy comes back to her Amish community. She’s not only returning to a smaller town, but she’s also returning to a culture. Speaking of culture, a cultural misunderstanding influenced the “it’s not what you think” cliché found in this movie. I won’t spoil the story if you haven’t seen the film yet. But I will say this new creative approach presented a dynamic that isn’t often seen in Hallmark’s projects.

What I didn’t like about the film:

Very few explanations about Amish culture: When an Amish community is presented in a film, the film’s creative team devotes some time to explaining certain aspects of Amish culture. With Follow Your Heart, however, it felt like the movie’s creative team expected their audience to be mostly or completely educated about the lives of the Amish. While Kathy does explain that the Amish from Mountain View, her hometown, don’t believe in artistic expression, this is the only explanation about Amish culture the film provides. During one conversation, Miriam brings up the subject of Rumspringa. This is when teenagers or young adults temporarily leave their Amish communities in order to experience the English world. The short journey is meant to help these young men and women choose the course of their future. Sadly, this explanation was not presented in Follow Your Heart.

Incredibly rude friends: In a movie where a female protagonist has to choose between two male characters, the male protagonist is purposefully designed to appear as a better option. But in Follow Your Heart, Kathy’s boyfriend, Jack, was incredibly rude, even by Hallmark’s standards. While Kathy is mourning over her father’s death, all Jack seems to care about is whether she’ll agree to co-host a reality travel show. Even his views on Amish culture are closed minded, as he calls Isaac a “Renaissance man”. Kathy’s manager, Evelyn, is no better than Jack. She puts more emphasis on Kathy’s career than her client’s wellbeing. Evelyn also calls Isaac “sexy” because she likes his aesthetic and Kathy’s Amish attire a “costume”. The rudeness from Kathy’s manager and boyfriend were very off-putting.

Characters’ perspectives changing too quickly: Follow Your Heart featured a few occasions where characters’ perspectives changed too quickly. Kathy’s sister, Miriam, serves as one example. For most of the movie, Miriam is bitter about Kathy’s return to Mountain View. When Miriam comes across an object from the past, she immediately sees her sister in a new light. To me, this transition of beliefs didn’t feel realistic. What would have worked instead was seeing Miriam change over time.

My overall impression:

No movie featuring any Amish community should be the “end all, be all” when it comes to education about Amish culture. While film can introduce people to certain ideas and beliefs, thorough research needs to be done in one’s spare time. With that said, Follow Your Heart could have included more explanations about Amish customs and beliefs. I don’t think it was a good idea for the film’s creative team to assume their audience knew almost everything about a typical Amish community. Despite this, the movie was solid! The most notable aspect of Follow Your Heart was how tried-and-true cliches were presented in new ways. This gave the overall story a breath of fresh air while allowing unique perspectives to be showcased. I wish Hallmark would use this approach when making their films and tv shows; thinking outside the box and taking creative risks. If they did, maybe we wouldn’t see the same reused narratives that expect a different result.

Overall score: 7.8 out of 10

Did you see Follow Your Heart? If so, what are your thoughts on it? Leave your comments in the comment section below!

Have fun at the movies!

Sally Silverscreen