Droned On and On

**Spoilers**

This totally by-the-books bland plot had nothing going for it at all except that it was filmed on location in South Africa. It had great photography and Nature scenes, but we already knew this from the previews. I can only surmise from the lack of spark in the script or the romance that Andrew signed on to this one for the trip to Africa. There wasn’t even a big misunderstanding coming out of nowhere for no reason 15 minutes to the end to make fun of. It was like the powers that be did not want anything interesting to distract from the cool setting.

Andrew is a successful and sought-after theme park designer who lands on Brittany’s turf to film and experience the atmosphere and wildlife of Africa to insure the new African theme park he is designing is as authentic as possible. Brittany is a Ph.D. candidate who is also working as a park ranger. As soon as they meet, they get along great and really like and admire each other. On their trips into the wild, they bond and have a great time. Andrew is surprised and disappointed to learn that using a drone on the preserve is illegal due to it being a tool of poachers. But he’s cool with it. Meanwhile, his assistant photographer is having a little flirtation with Brittany’s assistant. They all have a lot of fun together drinking wine, doing parties, shopping at markets, and doing safari-stuff. They are always on their best behavior with no unpleasantness. Andrew and Brittany almost kiss, but they are interrupted by a leopard jumping on their Jeep. We know they are not in any danger, though, because they laugh and smile. No more kisses, though, until the end.

 An old girlfriend of Andrew’s shows up and it turns out she is now his boss since her Daddy bought the company Andrew has contracted with. Needless to say, she is not nice and entices Andrew’s assistant to use a drone. But again, nothing much comes of it as Andrew has her number from the get-go and there is not even a whisper of a chance that she will be able to entice him away from wholesome, smiley, and smart Brittany. It was all really boring. The whole vibe between the two supposed lovers was very friendly and fun. I didn’t sense any tension, deep feelings, or passion between them. There was some drone drama but it was resolved pretty quickly and painlessly. They part at the end agreeing that their careers and dreams preclude a long-term relationship. Two months later  Andrew shows up and surprises her with a creative IMAX-type video guaranteed to knock the doctoral dissertation (which Brittany persists in calling a “thesis”, poor kid) committee dead. He now owns his own company and can now work anywhere she goes, so now they can continue their relationship. They kiss. One month later she defends her dissertation to the panel to cheers and applause, so I assume she passed since they didn’t ask her any questions. Plus, her mom is there and Andrew kisses her at the end. Pretty sure this is not the way these doctoral defenses go, but hey, it’s Hallmark.