It’s Toast
**Spoilers**
A perfectly pleasant Torrey DeVitto and Will Kemp star in this agreeable but bland “quest” movie set in the small towns and countryside of the Umbria region of Italy. The scenery was indeed a big plus and was nicely photographed and presented as the background to the story, such as it was. Let’s just say the scenery did the heavy lifting in this movie.
Torrey plays Jenny, one of two sisters who are planning the wedding of their youngest third sister. Unfortunately, 5 days before the ceremony the two discover that the bottle of wine they have been saving to toast the marriage at the reception has been drunk. It has been a long standing tradition that the brides of the family have had their official toast using one these bottles that their grandfather brought with him when he emigrated from Italy. Thanks to one rogue bride who chose a white over this particular vintage of red and whose marriage ended in divorce, it is considered a curse on the marriage if a bottle of this wine is not used. A curtain is drawn over the story behind how that last bottle was drunk despite its importance to the happy marriages in the family. It must have been a hell of a reception.
It turns out that the wine (a 1968 Farrazelli Rosso) is very rare and has reached legendary status in the old country. It is known as “The Love Wine,” and a couple that drinks it together will be blessed with true love. Or something like that. As it happens, the only bottle around is set to be auctioned off and Jenny is dispatched to Italy to snag it. On the way to the auction, Jenny meets Arrigo (Will) who is actually English despite his name, but his mother was Italian and he speaks the language fluently. He is a journalist who is also after the bottle because he is writing an article about it for his magazine’s “Love Issue” and it will be the grand prize in a contest. Their dueling bids for the bottle are trumped by a guy in the back of the room who outbids both of them. It ends up going for 4000 euros which is about 4600 dollars. Not unreasonable for a rare bottle of almost 60-year-old wine with a legend attached but certainly more than Jenny was hoping to spend to replace that final bottle that was so carelessly drunk at the last family wedding. They squabble over who was to blame for the eminent and famous wine collector outbidding them. Clearly, it was neither one’s fault, but that is irrelevant: squabble they must, to start the pair off on their romantic journey. They team up to track down another bottle. Enter the beautiful scenery of Umbria. Arrigo assures Jenny that if it turns out they only find one bottle, she can have it because ladies first. One senses that he really doesn’t care that much and the same could be said for Jenny. I didn’t get the idea that she really believed her sister’s marriage would be cursed because of that traditional bottle of wine. As is demonstrated throughout their journey, she knows next to nothing about her grandfather-who-raised-her’s sad history. Even Arrigo knows more about her family than she does. Her ignorance did not endear me to her. As she and Arrigo follow the trail to the last of the wine, which is rumored to be a whole cache, Jenny meets and communes with various members of her Italian family, which is nice. The couple’s relationship progresses, even surviving the dreaded misunderstanding-due-to-hearing-half-a-conversation. At last, the trail leads to the owner of what turns out to be the last bottle. The rest were destroyed by a warehouse fire. We learn that the last guy was in love with Jenny’s great aunt she had met previously and was saving the bottle to drink with her if they were ever re-united. She tells the older man that her aunt is now widowed and still loves him. She refuses to accept the gift of the bottle in return for his promise that he will go to her. I would have liked to leave Jenny and Arrigo by the wayside and followed that story, TBH. Arrigo and Jenny part in Rome because they live in two different time zones. But don’t worry, yadda yadda yadda. Spoiler alert: It wasn’t the last bottle after all.
Will Kemp is a very popular Hallmark leading man and I have a feeling that people will probably really like this one mainly because of his presence, as well as the on location filming in beautiful Italy. Especially compared to the disaster that was this year’s “Christmas in July.” Hallmark movie watchers haven’t seen Torrey DeVitto in quite some time, but as always, she fills the bill. There just was not a whole lot for her to work with in the role she was playing. Both Will and Torrey’s characters just seemed to be going through the motions. The stakes seemed low in their relationship and their search for the bottle. At one point at the door of the last hope to secure a bottle, Jenny just starts to walk away, afraid of perhaps missing her flight, not even waiting for him to answer the knock on the door. As it turns out, she actually had plenty of time to spare. So I guess it turns out whole thing was worthy of just one big shrug from her, as was the movie, for me. I did welcome the return of Hallmark’s magical suitcase, which contained at least 5 beautiful ensembles complete with matching shoes, 2 different jackets, and 4 bags. No traipsing about Rome and Umbria in a pair of jeans, nice wash and wear tops, and a backpack for Jenny.