Holly Whitman (LeAnn Rimes; Good Intentions) left the small quaint fishing town of her youth behind her the day she graduated from High School and headed to the big city. Now a big city lawyer Holly is called back home when her Father Wade (Burt Reynolds; The Longest Yard) has a heart attack and her brother Everett (Christian Potenza; Moon Point) calls her to let her know. Holly rediscovers family, love, and her small town roots.

This made for TV movie has all the trademark failures of a Made For TV event. Holly just so happens to have a boyfriend whose conveniently horrible enough that she can slip from one bad romance into the open arms of the next. The townies are a quirky group made to look like idiots and Holly rediscovers a couple of bullies from High School who are written and executed like some horrible Disney background annoyances. The story itself is pretty shallow piecing together bits and pieces from other films that have come before it. Really the only saving grace about the film is a few select characters that manage to balance out the horrendous acting chops of LeAnn Rimes, a few humbling spots in the script that are well executed by the cast members who can act, and of course Burt Reynolds. Reynolds is hilarious in a dry sort of way. Other then that Reel Love is a paint by numbers story we’ve seen a hundred times before both for better and for worse. It can be stomached but it’s far from required viewing.