Mary (Lauren German, HOSTEL: PART II) is a young woman whose life seems to be going reasonably well.  She owns her own business and is engaged to be married to a schoolteacher.  But everything isn’t quite as candy-coated as it seems.

The pastry shop she runs is being run into the ground.  Those high-falutin’ French doodads she went off to learn how to bake aren’t flying off the shelves, and no customers means she’s two months behind on the rent and on the verge of being kicked out by the Italian opera belting landlord who’s got a major crush on her French-accented assistant.  Then, Mary receives a letter from her grandpappy (who sounds an awful lot like the narrator from THE DUKES OF HAZZARD in his voiceover), and she strikes a bargain with her landlord.  Mary is confident that the special present Pappy hints at in his letter is going to be the money she needs to keep the bakery going.  Pappy’s only condition is that he meet’s Mary’s fiancé, Brent (Gabriel Mann, THE BOURNE SUPREMACY) first.  Brent – who is allergic to the sweets that Mary spends her life creating – comes down with a horrible outbreak of hives, and arranges for his twin brother Jake (also Gabriel Mann) to take the trip in his place.  Hilarity ensues, complete with embarrassing stories, uncomfortable sex talks with the parents, and totally unexpected jealousy.  And if you can’t already guess the outcome, I really don’t know what to tell you.

LOVE AND MARY is a paint-by-numbers approach to romantic comedy.  Not always necessarily a bad thing, but female lead German just doesn’t have that little something extra to make it worthwhile.  Mann is suitably charming as Jake, and thankfully almost never present as Brent.  It’s never quite clear why the twin charade had to take place, except as pure plot device.  But even if the film settled on being less than clever, there could have been a few extra points awarded for a more interesting title for the film.  Although it may try to parade as a funfetti-filled confection, LOVE AND MARY is simply bland vanilla.

Picture and sound seem average, although it’s difficult to make a true judgment from a screener copy that arrives in a paper sleeve. There was one weird pop in the sound and a strange skip in the picture, but perhaps the actual DVD release will be corrected.

The screener copy came with just the feature and an option to view the film’s trailer. No idea what the actual DVD release might contain. I would suggest some recipes, extended versions of Pappy's home videos of Mary, a music video for Mary's brother's band, and maybe a gag reel.