Some Like It Hot

June 24, 2013
Andersen returns to the seaside resort town of Razor Bay, Wash. (That Thing Called Love), with a story full of small-town community warmth but sorely lacking in romantic heat. Well-traveled Harper Summerville is ostensibly in town as the local inn’s summer activities director, but is actually working undercover for her mother’s philanthropic organization to determine whether Cedar Village, a group home for troubled boys, deserves a grant. She catches the eye of taciturn Max Bradshaw—local police deputy, half-brother of the inn owner’s fiancé, and core volunteer at Cedar Village—who must get over his shyness and fear of rejection by “silver-spoon girls” to approach Harper. But all the key players are so well intentioned that the relationship conflict and tension feels utterly artificial. The troubled teens who populate the background are kept in line with stern looks and field trips, while the supposedly mature adults get mired in the kinds of family conflict and dating angst generally reserved for the adolescent crowd.