Back to You & Me is an entertaining Hallmark Entertainment story about a dedicated doctor who happens to be a beautiful woman. Dr. Sydney Ludwick (Lisa Hartman Black) is very good at her job, is liked by her patients and the nurses, but isn’t doing too well in her personal life, dating another doctor who some may think of as a jerk. Syd’s nurse friend, Brenda (Jennifer Echols), tells her to get away from the hospital hustle and go to her 20th high school reunion which she hadn’t planned to attend. One reason for her lack of interest in going back to the small town of Bloomfield is that Syd doesn’t like her rather outgoing and controlling mother. But she goes. As we visit Bloomfield we quickly see it’s a typical small town where everyone knows everyone else’s comings, goings, and business. This is somewhat exaggerated in the story and some of the sequences are predictable, but the story is good enough to stick with it even thought Syd’s flamboyant mom (Rue McClanahan) and her former classmate, lawyer, Nelson Henricks (Larry Manetti) are somewhat irritating. Besides the strong acting by Lisa Hartman Black as Syd, Dale Midkiff (two time CAMIE winner) plays the part of Syd’s former boyfriend, Gus Martin, most believably. Gus is now a widower and has a cute young son, Jake, played very well by Blake Woodruff. Another interesting character is Ed Jenkins (Don Harvey), who has made the unlikely transition from party-loving teen to town pastor. Ed invites Sydney to an afternoon barbecue and, when Syd arrives the next day, she discovers it’s a fix-up for her and Gus. After the barbecue, Gus and Syd drive the long way home with a stop at a lake, which brings back happy memories of a wholesome relationship. Of course there has to be a little romantic competition, which is provided by Barbara Niven, playing Connie who has gone through some husbands and now has her sites on catching and adding Gus to her list. If you think this is a chick-flick, you may be right—but in spite of the predictability of some of the sequences, guys can get into this film too. In the midst of escaping from some of the reunion events, Gus gets an emergency call from Jake’s sitter, that he is having an episode of severe recurring stomach pains. Now Syd switches to her doctor role, even though she isn’t on the staff of the local hospital. Brilliantly, she figures out that Jake has an abdominal mass—a Neuroblastoma, which for some reason the local docs have completely missed. The medical input on Syd’s diagnostic skills was pretty good—but the race to surgery was a little quick—and someone forgot that post operatively a kid who has had major surgery would need an IV and doesn’t bounce back quite as quickly as seemed to happen in this story. Of course, Syd is the town hero. You’ll need to watch the film to see what happens. Again we congratulate Hallmark Entertainment, the Hallmark Channel, and all those involved in creating a good made-for-television family movie. There is no offensive language. None of the characters are involved in inappropriate sexual relationships. However, we wish that a few lines had been cut from the script—what was supposed to be a funny story about Ed, now the pastor, who had run the principal’s pants up the flag-pole when he was a student. Ed answered the question as to how he was able to pull that off, saying “Let’s just say, you had to know the right time to break into the principal’s office.” Even though it takes reading between the lines to get the probable implications, we hope our good friends at Hallmark Entertainment won’t include this kind of so-called humor in their future films. On the other hand, this film does a good job of showing how misunderstandings can ruin relationships—and how to fix them. And this line of Pastor Ed is priceless: “I’ve learned there are two important things in life—love and forgiveness, and you can’t have one without the other.” The wisdom in this line is far more typical of Hallmark Entertainment films than the unfunny story about the principal’s pants. Now, as you enjoy this fine show, sit back, relax, watch the fun, the drama, the stretches, and some of the characters who may be like some of the interesting people you know, some of whom may be a little strange.
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