Duck: Friends, we’ve been watching a duck of a lot of Hallmark movies recently, and you could argue that a few of them were activist! We love activist romance because our flippers are tickled by stories that build a better world. And Romance in Style does that in spades.
Star: Romance in Style is a Hallmark movie that firmly points its beak-holes towards inclusive fashion. As the story goes, publishing mogul Derek (Ben Hollingsworth) is so inspired by Ella’s (Jaicy Elliot) unique designs that he decides to feature plus-sized fashion in his magazine. Pretty soon, Ella’s passion, talent, smarts, and general fabulousness sweep Derek off his flippers. But the course of super-ducking awesome romance-filled activism doesn’t always run smooth ….
Duck: The movie centers the bravery of a plus-size woman promoting plus-size fashion in an arena that so often—what the duck?—excludes plus-sized fashion. (Smoke my kipper backwards if there aren’t some silly humans who want everyone to look exactly the same.) And Jaicy Elliot, who plays the courageous, talented, and determined Ella, gives a performance that brings us the whole ducking pond in its shimmering worthiness!
Star: In other words, a GREAT performance.
Duck: Super-ducking awesome! It’s lovely to see a fiery activist fighting oppression at every turn! We enjoyed Ben Hollingsworth very much in this movie too.
Star: The activist storyline certainly made for a powerful connection between the two leads. This one ran deep.
Duck: Duck, yes! The chemistry between Hollingsworth and Elliot POPS LIKE A SPICY GOLDFISH FRITTER! We were rapt. Impossible to tear our beak-holes from the screen!
Star: We almost slipped to four flippers up though because the plot turn at the end of the film didn’t quite seem believable to us. No major spoilers, we promise, but to provide a very small one, it had to do with who we think Ella would and wouldn’t believe.
Duck: But we kept it at five flippers because of the the activism, passion, and chemistry in here, not to mention Jaicy Elliot’s SUPER-DUCKING AWESOME performance.
Star: But what about diversity ducks, Duck? How many of those would you award?
Duck: I’d have loved to see more diversity in terms of plus-size performers. That felt like a missed opportunity.
Star: Me too! Although I was super-ducking impressed with Candice Huffine being featured on the movie—and in such an inspiring way. Casting a famous LGBTQIA+ plus-size model of color to play herself really put the spring in my flipper-slippers.
Duck: Duck, yes! Thank you, Candice Huffine (see image below)! You SHONE in this movie! Also, you’re stunning and I WANT THAT DRESS.
Star: Stay romancey until next time, friends.
At the time of writing, you can watch Romance In Style here:
YouTube (subscription)
Featured image and images of cast courtesy of Hallmark. All images designed by Star Tavares.
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