Hallmark has finally delivered something lovely, charming, amusing that embodies all the best of what Hallmark can deliver. _A Little Park Music_ begins with a wonderful screenplay by Rick Garman and Heather Taylor that really captures the essence of Hallmark’s Smalltown America without making it too precious, while at the same time showing us how important a sense of community can be. Prior to the appearances of the pianos, the people of Springville simply passed by or through the park, most never giving it a second thought which made the location for the fountain ideal. Something else for people to ignore, not taking anything vital away from the town. But the piano, and more importantly, the music was key in uniting the community. It makes you wonder if something like that could ever happen in real life in other small towns across the country (without the pianos being vandalized). My own small town has a park with a gazebo, where people only gather during the 4th of July festival, but I doubt a piano would survive in that space very long. It would be nice though to see more people enjoying the park. The story also shows the value of both slowing things down in life, and not always setting rigid schedules for ourselves. Both Allie and Ryan are highly organized, both focused more on their careers and getting their jobs done by the numbers, and the pianos and other residents of the town help them see that not everything needs to be done on a deadline. Interestingly, while the romance develops naturally between Allie and Ryan, it’s not the most important part of the story because we know from the beginning they will get together by the end and Ryan won’t go to Seattle, it’s the journey of getting to that end point that is important. We could all probably learn to relax a bit and enjoy what our communities have to offer … or even get involved in our communities to see what we can do to make them better. Director Peter Benson, who has helmed a couple of Hallmark mystery movies, does a great job of making everything feel lighthearted — no one dies — and keeps us totally engaged with the town and the characters, and even after the mystery is solved well before the end of the story, it still keeps our attention as Allie works her way to finding a solution for the piano and the fountain (and it is a nicely clever solution the writers have cooked up). One of my favorite moments in the movie comes when Allie and Ryan are questioning the locals after the third piano appears, and the culprit of the first two admits they would have told them what they did but they didn’t ask the right question at that time. That is some smart writing.

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