I'm only half watching this as I work from home today, but it's pretty bad and very annoying. The characters are superficially stereotyped: rich guy is selfish and bad, and needs to be saved by the poor girl, who is beautiful and good. Given the title of the movie, Class, and the reality that there are very different social and other behavioral differences between the various classes in this country (not to say that one is worse than the other, but it's a reality), i've never seen a poor single mom act more like they were raised in a wasp-y upper middle class home in the NE or west coasts. The actress seems like a rich person who is acting like an idealized version of a poor single mom. Not much like a poor single mom, though. Also, I had to point out the glaring casting of the lead female, who the lead male initially deems so gross, sloppy, etc that she wasn't even a viable candidate for a secretarial job, until she gets a haircut and puts on a suit jacket, and he's like "wowzers, you be hot!" The lead female, not lost on me, is the same actress who played the super hot ex-girlfriend of Freddie Prinze Jr. in She's All That -- a movie with a remarkably similar premise. The fact that she was the super hot girl that the ugly-duckling-soon-to-be-made-hot new girlfriend was compared against, but now plays the too-ugly-to-be-a-secretary character here -- this is a painful irony that was not lost on me.

Hallmark gives its audience what it wants by repackaging its single-mom- meets-guy-who-she-thinks-is-a-jerk-but-he-turns-out-to-be Mr.-Right patented approach in as many different ways as they can think of. They please their audiences even if the leads are generally plug-and-play, the plots predictable, and the production values threadbare. Class qualifies for all of the above. But it's one of the best applications of the formula. The writing and dialog are a bit tighter and sharper than usual. The supporting acting including wonderful performances by Catherine Mary Stewart and Eric Roberts as the male lead's parents. The sick son is quite good as is the actress playing the Law School Professor (I remember her from My Family and Tortilla Soup) and the actor playing the male lead's best friend also give excellent performances elevating their characters above the norm. Ms. O'Rourke's sister is also well played. But what elevates this the most is the eye-opening performance by Jody Lyn O'Keefe. Her interpretation of the very unglamorous and emotionally damaged underprivileged single Mom who never caught a break in life seemed totally and completely real. She was so good she could have been such a person in a documentary. Her transformation is never too easy or forced by the script. We feel her painfully and reluctantly experiencing rejection, then having to mask her scars and learn to hope and expect, then demand, better for herself. In most Hallmark movies, it's just part of the back story, here it actually seems real. Her eyes tell the saga of a woman who has experienced more than a more merciful God would allow. And when her son's needs make her put aside her skepticism to anyone willing to help even though she doubts at first his sincerity (with good reason), then later his ability to stand up to his father (with better reason), you feel these hard trade-offs and what they are doing to her.Class is a classy effort by all and gets an A from me on the basis of a stellar performance by Jody Lyn O'Keefe.

Can someone tell me why Hallmark and Lifetime movies don't allow a single second of film time without that intrusive background music overwhelming the best lines?! If it weren't for that irritating score drowning out all the best lines, especially when Kylie Burch (Jodi Lyn O'Keefe) lowers her voice, I'd give this film a 9, at least.Some people might call the plot by-the-numbers, and it does cover all the bases: single mom can't keep a job because of asthmatic kid and hair-trigger temper developed over years of frustration with heartless system meets spoiled wealthy law student forced to help her find a job just to get a grade so he can graduate and join dad's high-powered law firm. Add alcoholic mother and son's frustrations with his father's plans for his future, and the inevitable happens.What makes this story work is the excellent script and believable performances by O'Keefe, Justin Bruening (as Whit Sheffield), and Eric Roberts and Catherine Mary Stewart as the elder Sheffields. Even Maxwell Perry Cotton plays young Shane Burch as a normal kid, instead of the stereotypical self-conscious child role.My take-away from this flick is that the hopeful ending leaves the characters with more story to tell. Almost all of them have learned and grown, but I felt they had more to do together and separately, perhaps in a series about the Burch-Sheffield clan. The characters and their potential for story-telling are some of the strongest I've seen in this genre.

Very contrived plot. Almost the entire plot can be sketched after watching the first few minutes. Every character is a stereotype, even their names, and their actions and attitudes are entirely predictable from the first minute you meet them. I remember just one single surprise, and it wasn't much.And everybody is just too gorgeous. The story might have have been halfway believable if two or three of the female characters had even average looks.BUT ... for some reason I enjoyed it, despite all of the above. Maybe because it was late at night and my brain didn't want to work too hard. But the main characters are likable, and the right things happen, as Hollywood likes to do.