FIVE DATE RULE

The movie opens with Hattie Fisher, the children’s book author, getting a funny birthday call from her parents. After walking her dog, Utah, and while drinking her morning coffee, Henry, a landscape designer working across the street, drops by to give her an extra potted plant he has on his hands. Hattie kindly refuses the offer.

Hattie then goes to a small birthday lunch with her two best friends, Jill and Arya. Jill has five children, and Arya has one on the way. Like Hattie’s parents, they’re concerned about Hattie’s love life. They think she works too much. So, they give her a three months’ subscription to a dating app, Happily Ever After, along with a devotional book about life balance and a book showing how, with God’s help, you can do anything. Hattie is reluctant, but she lets her friends make a little video for her profile.

Meanwhile, Henry himself is also making a profile for Happily Ever After. His sister, Lisa, comes over with her husband and their two children. The dialogue reveals it’s been five years since Henry’s wife, Astrid, passed away. Lisa informs her husband that Astrid made Henry promise that he would start dating again if he hadn’t found anyone in five years.

After they leave, Henry activates his dating app profile and is amused to find that his first catch is Hattie’s profile. Her cute video featuring her dog and her goldfish amuses Henry, but he stops short of pressing the link that would connect him to Hattie.

Later that week, the movie reveals that Hattie and Henry go to the same church, where the pastor is preaching on finding dating and marriage, but they never meet. During the week, however, Hattie has three disastrous dates with a dentist, a lawyer and a minister.

After church, Hattie’s two friends apologize to her about the Happily Ever After app, but they tell her don’t give up hope. “God’s gonna have to make that connection,” Hattie says.

In the church parking lot, Hattie sees Henry helping direct the crowd and the cars. She also watches as Henry’s sister and her two children kiss him goodbye. Hattie gets the wrong impression, because Henry still wears his wedding ring even though his wife died five years ago. So, when Henry sees Hattie in her car and tries to set up a dinner date with her, he’s perplexed when Hattie angrily yells at him, “You should be ashamed of yourself!” Later, Henry finds out she sent him a nasty note after he tried to connect with her.

All is not lost, however. With help from his sister, Henry is able to show Hattie that she was mistaken that day she saw him with her.

Hattie agrees to go out on a date with Henry, but only if she can take her two friends as chaperones. The date goes really well, despite the two chaperones.

However, this time Henry has a rule for how their relationship should proceed from there. He says they must see each other exclusively for five dates in a row. Hattie agrees, but will Henry’s plan go off without a hitch?

The jeopardy is a little soft in FIVE DATE RULE. After a good beginning, the story drifts too much in the second act until the romance finally hits the final snag in the third act.

That said, FIVE DATE RULE is still an amusing movie that the whole family can enjoy. It has appealing characters and actors, a great musical score and good songs. Only in one scene did the music seem too intrusive. The rest of the music is so well integrated into the movie that this one scene really stands out in contrast.

FIVE DATE RULE has a strong Christian, morally uplifting worldview. For example, it includes multiple positive references to God and the New Testament, one great religious song, and several other catchy songs with faith references.