'Summer Nights' movie review: 'The Baker's Son'

A bread maker transforms his bread from bland to brilliant to bland again in the romance 'The Baker's Son' (premiering June 12 as part of The Hallmark Channel's Summer Nights event)

In short: Small-town bread baker Matt (Brant Daugherty) becomes frustrated when his bread loses its magic - he turns to his childhood friend and true love Annie (Eloise Mumford) to inspire him.

A script tips its lack of confidence in its core story when it clogs up the plot with more and more b-plots. The best films are singularly focused on its protagonists and their conflict. Unless managed with precision, cluttering up a movie with competing subplots is distracting and annoying. Enter 'The Baker's Son' - a movie so needlessly messy that it trips over itself.

Matt and Annie are life-long friends who have a regular movie night and they seem like a perfect fit - but for some reason, neither has taken their relationship beyond a platonic friendship. If anything, they really do seem more like just old friends, or even siblings (which is admittedly a weird vibe for a romantic flick). This alone could have been a solid movie - but 'The Baker's Son' decided more subplots were needed. This wasn't a great decision.

Apparently tourism is down in their small island town of Windward - and the cloying mayor is desperately trying to brainstorm some scheme to attract more guests. Meanwhile, one of the island's residents has invited a ballet company to create a recital for Windward. Matt is instantly smitten with Nicole (Maude Green), one of the ballerinas - it's love at first sight. And, for reasons that are just baffling, the story randomly posits that anything created is exponentially improved when its creator is inspired. So Matt's bread becomes better as he instantly falls for Nicole - and Nicole's dancing is infused with passion once she starts dating Matt. (Or so the audience is told - the movie makes little to no attempt to actually show the difference between a dancer going through the motions versus a dancer inspired by passion.) For her part, Annie starts to date the ballet choreographer. Matt's father (the titular 'Baker') seems to exist just to drop platitudes about inspiration - and wrangle a resident's dog.

Yes Matt and Annie are the co-leads - but honestly Matt and Nicole are the cuter couple. Meanwhile, Annie just gets visibly upset seeing her best friend fall for another woman. But it's difficult to totally empathize with Annie because she just comes off as irritable, bratty and jealous. The movie starts with Matt coming out of a relationship, and Annie just keeps treating him like a good old buddy and a swell pal. The script tries to rationalize Annie's impulsive third act decision as some attempt to realize her aspirations as a painter - but at no point in the movie does she genuinely treat her art as anything more than a hobby.

Honestly, there's a way to execute this movie's basic ideas without so many contrived and forced turns. Friends who can't see what's right in front of them is literally the basis for dozens of Hallmark Channel movies. And the idea that inspired creation is artistically romantic. 'The Baker's Son' is a Frankenstein of better movies that just doesn't add up to anything resembling a sincere romance.

All the disparate plot threads finally come together ... about two-thirds into the movie, when a larger crisis finally emerges. The best Hallmark movies set everything up before the first commercial break. So much time is wasted as the script stumbles and forces its clunky third act. Oh, and the mayor's proposal to re-inspire Matt, to save the town, is preposterous and somewhat insulting.

Final verdict: It's never a good sign when it's easier to root for the guy to chase the other girl instead of the one he's "supposed" to end up with.

Score: 2-out-of-5 summer nights

'The Baker's Son' premieres June 12 on The Hallmark Channel. The movie is rated TV-G and has a running time of 90 minutes.