Love on the Danube: Kissing Stars works due to the always reliable Hallmark stalwart Brendan Penny and his co-star Sarah Power. When I say “works” I mean it’s watchable. Ms. Power has been in a couple of Hallmarks but was a regular on the Hallmark-produced series The Good Witch. Chemistry is always just a matter of opinion with most movie couples (it’s undeniable only rarely), but I think these two kinda had it. Brendan plays Tripp, a rising film star who made a great impression in his first Romantic Comedy movie and his second film is about to premiere. He is up for a continuing role in a trilogy that is scheduled for production but he has a bad attitude towards anything dealing with publicity or his growing fanbase. Savannah is a recently laid off publicist. Clearly these two are meant to be. Now how can we get them together? How about plopping them on a cruise along the Danube? And what if that cruise is the venue for a Rom-com fan Convention called Kiss-Con where Rom-com fans can buy a ticket for the privilege of meeting and getting selfies with their favorite Rom-com stars? Works for me!
Savannah is hired by the annoying little twerp of an entertainment reporter who has set up the event to make sure Tripp makes nice with the fans and doesn’t come across like a jerk when he is interviewed. The thing is, he is not really a jerk. He’s just a small town guy who is shy and reserved. He does like acting, but not the fame that comes with it. You know the type. Savannah explains to him that he is not going to be hired for that trilogy unless he brings his fair share of fans and good publicity to the table. And if he doesn’t get that trilogy, he can’t afford to hire a manager for his aging parents’ Montana ranch. Under Savannah’s expert guidance, Tripp is soon taking selfies like a boss and not saying embarrassing things during interviews. They fall in love against the Viennese backdrop (but it could have been Budapest.) Unfortunately, their falling in love activities cause Tripp to miss a fan event and Savannah gets fired by “annoying little twerp.”
After adding insult to injury by publicly denying his feelings for Savannah while on stage in front of everyone (encouraged by “annoying little twerp”), it looks like the romance is doomed and Savannah will not be meeting the parents in Montana after all. **Spoiler Alert** Needless to say Tripp makes it all OK by the famous Rom-com “grand gesture” with about a minute to go.
This movie was OK, but could have been a lot better. Given that Hallmark holds its own Meet the Stars events like Christmas Con, The Hallmark Christmas Experience, and even hosts a cruise similar to this movie’s Kiss Con, they could have had a lot of fun with this concept and gone a lot more meta than they did. I would have loved to see some cameo appearances by some real life Hallmark actors in this, as they have done so cutely in past movies. References to Captain Stubing and Julie McCoy didn’t cut it.
I’m giving this one an almost 7, which is fairly typical for a travelogue Hallmark movie. The story was one of the “Royal in Disguise” ones and does not miss a square on the bingo card. So, as usual, the plot wasn’t much, but it was saved somewhat by the scenery along the Danube and the lead actress, Jessica Sipos. Sipos is not new to Hallmark, but this is her first time in a lead role. I hope not the last, because she was appealing, convincing, pretty, and well-cast (casting being a frequent stumbling block for Hallmark.) Dan Jeannotte was also well cast and together they made a good couple with decent chemistry. Unfortunately, although I usually like him pretty well, in this one, Jeannotte’s over-the-top posh British accent got between his role and his performance. It was very distracting. Maybe he should have gone with an Eastern European accent? You know, because he was supposed to be from Baldonia(?), which everyone knows is on the Danube River which flows through Eastern Europe. However, his facial expressions matched what he was supposed to be conveying.
Ava is a curator in an Art Gallery who is a little burned out and still hurting from breaking up with her fiancé a year ago. Her boss convinces her to go ahead and go on the river cruise that was supposed to be her honeymoon. Hmmmm. That could have gone either way as far as a mood-booster. Josef is a Duke in line for the throne of Baldonia(?). He is on the outs with his dad, The King, because of some minor scandals (a speeding ticket right in front of the palace!) and not taking his royal duties seriously though he does a lot of charity work involving art. His Valet/Butler/P.A./Handler (Yes, one of those. Every royal has one, and this one is of the nice, not sinister, varieties) convinces them to have Josef go on the exact same cruise that Ava is on to have a think about his future and stop by the various palaces that they cruise by to gather art works for the Royal Charity Gala which will top off the movie. Of course he goes incognito as “Joe, just Joe” and strikes up a romance with Ava while montage-ing along the Danube. Despite some close calls, he keeps up the deception until he is outed by a paparazzo.
Ava is betrayed and the Molten Fires of Hell are unleashed. Not really, but when she reads him the riot act about his deception she does it with such conviction that when she ultimately forgives him it did not follow convincingly. Usually the conflict is resolved by some grand gesture but all it took for her to give in was a nice letter from Joe’s sister-in-law, a formal invitation to the Royal Gala, and a selection of ball gowns to choose from should she decide to accept the invitation. Ha Ha. The last 5 or 10 minutes rushed to a close, with Joe’s brother, the future king (Joe decides on another career path) and his nice wife gifting them both together a painting that she has been looking for that was under a sheet in the family palace all the time. This seemed a little presumptuous. They now are co-owners of the valuable painting even though they’ve only been on a few dates and the future of the relationship seemed kind of iffy to say the least before the Royal Gala. But now they have no choice but to get married and live happily ever after because they might as well, right? Wouldn’t want to complicate matters with a custody battle over a piece of art of the “My 4-year-old-could-do-better” variety.
Really, I got nothing. This was a very standard and generic travelogue type romance with nothing much to distinguish it. Good or bad. There was some nice scenery and some good singing, which I actually could have used more of. The actors were fine. Not a major fan of either Nazneen Contractor or Wes Brown, but they were fine. The two older actors who played these late thirty-somethings’ parents were both also fine. Actually a little more than fine.
Jack and Sarah are on a Broadway revival themed river cruise with their widowed parents, Andre and Julia, who are still down in the dumps about the deaths of their spouses. Jack and Andre have never been close because Andre was not very present as a husband and father and has been regretting that. Sarah and Julia have always been close but Julia is not recovering fast enough from her husband’s death for Sarah’s taste. Also Sarah has always felt responsible for holding her mother back from her full potential as a Broadway singer and actress, where, in her opinion, she should have been a star performer and not just in the chorus. Which is dumb. Because of this Sarah is a workaholic and determined that nothing will stand in her way career-wise. She has a slave-driver of a boss who will not let her alone and is constantly pressuring her to do this, that, or the other even on her vacation or she will not get that all-important promotion. This is the second rude threatening boss in as many weeks and I am really over this annoying convention. No boss would ever be so mean and demanding with a valued employee. Anyway, Jack and Sarah get together to pull a Parent Trap-type Matchmaking scheme on their parents and of course end up falling in love themselves. While cruising, running, sightseeing, and wine-drinking along the banks of the Danube, Julia learns the usual life lessons and Jack already has it all together so learns nothing. After giving him the brushoff, Julia changes her mind and decides to ease off on her career and let love into her life in the form of Jack. Then she quits her job to start her own company which will not exactly lead to more work-life balance, but will get her boss off her back. Probably being promoted would have done that too (she gets the promotion), but whatever. Andre and Julia remain “just friends.”
At one point, Julia sings snippets from “The Trolley Song” from Meet Me in Saint Louis and “Somewhere” from West Side Story. For me, these were highlights and had they been more than just snippets, I probably would have given this movie another star. This is the first part of a trilogy based on cruising The Danube. Apparently the second one is a Royal in Disguise. Thank you very little, Hallmark.
I’ll keep this fairly short since it’s been 4 days since I saw this movie and have no desire to see it again to refresh my memory. There was nothing there to elevate it above the usual hackneyed TV romance playbook. It was a long string of oft-used cliches starting with a mean bully of a (female) boss and ending with one half of the couple flying off the handle after hearing one side of a conversation and not letting the other half explain. The whole premise of our heroine being sent across the country to Albuquerque to do a 5 minute piece on the annual balloon fiesta and then pressured into getting some dirt on an obscure balloon wrangler made no sense. Who in the world would care about him or his past unhappy love affair and business troubles? Knocking it down further was my pet peeve of miscasting middle aged actors in roles more appropriate for 20 or early 30-somethings. Highlighting this age un-appropriateness was casting actors as their parents who could well be their siblings, age-wise. To make it worse, I did not have access to my DVR so I was forced to watch it in real time when it was replayed the next day. I was literally pacing the floor waiting for it to end through the last half hour. Never have I missed my fast forward button more.
And now for the elephant in the room. The majority of commenters on this movie had something uncomplimentary to say about the lead actress, Mckenzie Westmore’s, face, which has seen some noticeable nipping, tucking, and injecting. There’s actually a sad story behind all that work. As a young woman, barely out of her teens, she won a main role in the daytime soap opera, Passions. Like so many aspiring actresses of that time she was told she was too fat even though her dress size was a 6 or lower. As a result she lost a lot of weight and developed an eating disorder. Sound familiar? As a result of her weight loss, her face became too thin and gaunt looking which she fixed by injecting fillers. Since she started this so young and did it so frequently, the fillers started to sag under her skin, migrate, and form lumps on her face. A couple of years ago, she went to a renowned plastic surgeon to dissolve the fillers and do a deep plane facelift to remedy all of the damage. So to my mind, she doesn’t deserve to be criticized on that front. Unfortunately the hair and makeup department for this movie did not do this attractive woman any favors. Which is weird because Ms. Westmore is founder and creative director of her own cosmetics company and is descended from a long line of Hollywood Makeup artists who are legends in the industry. She is the last person I would think could fall victim to bad movie makeup and hair. Which to me, is make-up and hair you notice before you notice the person underneath.
The balloon shots were impressive but the green screens when the actors were supposed to be in the air were not. Paul Greene was as reliable as usual, but unfortunately the make-up department got their hands on him as well. Definitely an orange tint in some scenes. The way she was “fixed up”, Gail O’Grady looked like she thought she was cast as Paul Greene’s sister, not his mother. And who could blame her with an only 11 year age difference? There were a lot of distractions in this movie, including 67 year old Lorenzo Lamas who looked great.
Monica Gets a Pebble in Her Shoe and Falls off a Log
I’m sure this one will get a lot of criticism regarding its slow pace and many references to God and faith. But maybe not. Because honestly what would anyone expect from a Hallmark that was based on a workaholic nurse who goes on a Christian pilgrimage to learn to slow down and find balance in her life? The evening before Easter? Wouldn’t anyone guess what was in store for them with this movie and give it a pass if this kind of thing did not appeal to them? Those that stick with this past the first 15 minutes are those that are either masochists or appreciate more contemplative leisurely paced entertainment packed with lots of talk, walking, praying, nice scenery, life lessons, and inspirational religious stuff. At least the Hallmark version of all of the above.
Popular Hallmark actress Erin Cahill stars as Monica who is a Nurse Practitioner who has just been passed over for a long yearned for promotion to Practice Manager. This is very odd because she is a very hard worker and has been working very hard making herself indispensable to everyone, patients and colleagues alike, for a long time. She hasn’t been on vacation in 4 years, because, as she tells her new boss, “This place depends on me. I wouldn’t want to leave my patients high and dry.” Wow and Yikes. This to the woman who the higher ups hired instead of promoting her. And one who appreciates the value of teamwork. Maybe not so odd she got passed over, after all. After a talk with her mother and a visit to the chapel, Monica has a glimmer of self-awareness and decides to take up her mother’s suggestion that she would benefit from walking one of the routes of the Camino de Santiago. This is a Christian Pilgrimage through France and Spain that people take for many reasons: physical challenge, spiritual enlightenment, a break from modern life, renewal of their Christian faith, and in Monica’s case, to get a grip. Actor and famous devout Catholic Martin Sheen made a movie about this with his son Emilio Esteves called The Way.
Monica’s companions on her journey include a handsome divorced father, his teenage son, and his handsome not all that elderly father who is the same age as their wise and friendly guide, Consuela. It turns out that Monica’s glimmer of self-awareness was just the tiniest of glimmers. Her control freak ways have followed her to Spain. All of them have a lot to learn and no prizes for guessing that we will have two successful romances by journey’s end.
Even though the movie was not actually filmed along the Camino, it was filmed in Spain, and the scenery was a real plus. The characters were all likable, despite their flaws and weaknesses, especially Consuela who was an oasis of calm and wisdom. Even though the morals of the stories were nothing new and ones that Hallmark belabors on a regular basis, I liked the not too subtle suggestion that Monica’s journey was guided by a force greater than herself. Some of the coincidences turn out not to be coincidences. I liked it pretty well, but again, if you can’t tolerate talky faith-based leisurely movies stay far far away.
If It’s Saturday Night on the Hallmark Channel, It Must Be Belgium
In the last of Hallmark’s Winter Escape movies, we follow aspiring jewelry designer Abby and Hallmark to Beautiful Antwerp, Belgium, on a mission to save her grandfather’s jewelry store. I rather enjoyed this one for several reasons. Of course the glimpses we got of beautiful Belgium didn’t hurt. The city sites and snippets of history and culture were folded organically into the movie rather than Hallmark putting the couple of destiny on some awkward sightseeing trip to take in the beauty and tourist traps of country and city. The scenery in these jaunts is always nice but plot and character-wise, it’s often just filler. I liked the glimpses into the jewelry designing and making profession as well. It was something a little off the beaten path for Hallmark. The interior set decoration was better than usual. Grandpa’s shop was cute and quaint like something out of a Disney movie. At one point I was afraid that a baking montage was going to be shoehorned in, but they wisely managed to fit in Belgian waffles without resorting to the bone-tired “Flirting with Flour” scene. Huge sigh of relief on my part.
The movie hit most of the usual beats that Hallmark is seemingly addicted to: Spousal death resulting in business struggles, big city heroine dissatisfied in love and career coming home to save the family legacy, a nemesis of some sort to amp up the tension, big gala/dance/ball, a competition for prize money that is the answer to all prayers: all were included and then some. There were even some “What the Heck!” moments to ponder. Abby helping Alexander, the love interest but also a chief competitor for the prize money, with his entry? Very nice but really? She has to win or lose the family business! Come on! Grandfather’s 30 carat uncut top quality diamond just sitting around his back room and not in a safe? And I could be wrong, but think her ex-fiance was referred to by two different names. There were others, but I won’t pile on.
Despite all of this, the show was saved by the romance and the talented cast. Both of the leads have previously appeared in one Hallmark movie each. Unfortunately the character Laci J. Maily played in her first effort was super annoying. The main character in this one was not annoying and her portrayal was very likable. I hope she is cast in more movies. Dutch actor David Elsendoorn was the best thing about his previous foray as a Hallmark hero. He was adorable and he was even more adorable and charming in this one. And I liked his character as well: He was a very good guy. And when faced with an ethical dilemma he took a strong stance and did the right thing. The two together had a supportive, friendly relationship which led to a believable romance with no eye-rolling silliness. Abby’s grandfather was a sweetheart and very lovable. Despite being lacking as a business owner, he was not annoying about it. He owned his weaknesses, and let his granddaughter save the day with no stubborn resistance or other stupid behavior whatsoever. Very unusual. Alexander’s father was a nasty piece of work and the actor who played him really nailed both his nastiness and his eventual reclamation. I wasn’t a fan of Suzanne McKenney’s eccentric portrayal of Nadia, Abby’s Chicago boss, who won’t give her a chance and who turns up for the Antwerp competition. But it worked OK in context. She played it for laughs, two menacing characters perhaps being one too many. Plot-wise, I liked the happy resolution, and Abby’s wise career decision at the end. Her happy future in life and love seems set. Abby and Alexander’s movie ending kiss was way above average despite the height difference (1 foot, 2 inches), and little graphic hearts flew across the final scene. A fitting harbinger of Hallmark’s Loveuary movies coming right up.
I got so caught up in the financial complications of this one that I didn’t pay full attention to the more important parts, namely the romance, the scenery, and our heroine Abril’s Boston/career v. Argentina/man dilemma.
Abril, Julie Gonzalo, is a business consultant whose reputation in the industry was ruined by almost driving a multi-billion dollar company into bankruptcy. She’s actually famous as a cautionary tale and is unemployable in her field. When her cousin calls her from Argentina, she tells her she has gotten an offer to buy their ranch they inherited from their grandparents. Belinda is tired of trying to run it on her own and wants to pursue her dream of owning a restaurant. Abril prefers to have the ranch in her hip pocket as a possible vacation or retirement home, even though she hasn’t visited in years and years since she was 18. She hotfoots it to Argentina to see if there is a way to keep the ranch and still allow Belinda to achieve her restaurant dream. If she can work some financial wizardry, maybe she can punch up her resume and get a job again. When she arrives, she finds out it is her former boyfriend who has made the below-market but fair offer for the ranch. She is having none of that. Diego has given up his finance career in Mexico City to return to the soil and find his soul by owning the ranch that his ancestors have been caretakers of for generations. While going over the financials, Abril discovers an old loan which has never been repaid. Belinda explains that the loan had been sold and then resold and she doesn’t even know who owns the loan now and that whoever owns it has never asked for payment. She was advised to just forget about it. Rest assured that this will eventually come back to bite them. Abril looks for investors so she and Belinda can retain ownership and keep from selling it to Diego. She discloses the loan to an interested party, as she is legally and ethically bound to do, and he ends up finding the loan, buying it, and asking for immediate payment or else he will take over the ranch and they will get nothing. Now faced with a common enemy, Diego and Abril end their hostilities and start working together, etc., etc. She wishes she had just sold the ranch to Diego especially since Belinda really and truly wants nothing to do with it anymore.
So many questions. First off could a bank do that? The answer is yes, depending on the original terms of the loan. But they cannot demand late payment penalties like they are doing. Belinda and Abril’s lawyer, a very handsome guy and really nice and Belinda’s love interest, threatens to tie the whole thing up in court. To avoid that, the bank offers to forgive the loan if they sell them the ranch for a fraction of its worth, much below Diego’s offer. At no time are we told the amounts of Diego’s offer, the size of the loan, the income from the ranch, its fair market value, or what the bank offered for the ranch. So it was all very murky. Abril contacts a former colleague in America who owes her a solid about investing in the ranch. He doesn’t want to do that, but offers Abril a position in his company with a high salary because he feels partially responsible for Abril’s reputation being ruined and being a pariah in the industry. Abril is ecstatic because that “solves everything.” Diego and Belinda are confused, as was I, but Abril explains that now that she has a steady income, she does not have to rely on her savings to keep body and soul together while she is unemployed. Along with her savings, if she sells her condo, she can personally pay off the loan, and then she and Belinda can accept Diego’s offer to buy the ranch. Belinda and Diego point out to this double MBA in Finance that the loan is twice as much as Abril would get back from the sale. But Abril assures them that it is “not about the money”. I thought Belinda should have at least offered her a share in her restaurant-to-be but she doesn’t. On the other hand, has poor Belinda ever been compensated by Abril for doing all the work running the ranch? Just a random thought. Later Abril suggests to Diego that maybe they could be partners and run the ranch together (she, remotely, from Boston) and she gets a big “No”. He does not want to share.
So if I figure correctly, Abril loses her share of the ranch plus half of all her savings and the sale price of her condo. “You’re investing $10 to get back $5!” She has to find a new and cheaper place while working for a company which offered her a job out of guilt. But that’s OK because she has the satisfaction of helping her cousin achieve her dream and knowing that her family ranch will be in the hands of someone who will preserve its legacy and not in the hands of a greedy bank. Methinks Abril got the short end of the stick, and I really wouldn’t encourage her to put this on her resume. On her way back to Boston, in a considerably worse financial situation than when she left, Diego enters stage left at the Iguazú Falls, to save the day. He has had a think, and decides that he has been too proud and will now let Abril be his partner in the ranch instead of paying her the cash as long as she stays there with him in Argentina. He loves her, she loves him, and Abril decides that is a fine idea and they kiss.
Juan Pablo Di Pace, who played Diego, was very handsome and charismatic and Julie Gonzalo has never looked lovelier. They were both born in Argentina and were pretty good together. The rest of the cast were all local actors, and they were all great. The Argentinian setting was interesting and beautiful. It all looked pretty authentic to me, except their gaucho clothes looked a little costume-y. But I felt like Abril thoughtlessly discounted Belinda’s desire to sell the Ranch and Diego rubbed me the wrong way as well. He was inflexible and stubborn off and on throughout most of the movie in addition to that chip of class warfare on his shoulder. At the end of the day, the things that bugged me outweighed what I liked.
I guess it’s not that I’m not particularly a fan of the actress, Rhiannon Fish, I think it’s more the roles she seems to gravitate to. Or is put in. She does “hapless” really well. I did like her in one movie, but generally I find her acting a little too self conscious and stagey. “Look at me, I’m so quirky and cute.” I’m in the minority, however, in seeing the appeal. I actually just saw her in one of her early roles for Hallmark where she played “the sister”, and she was just fine.
Sometimes in order to get past the first 15 minutes of Hallmark movies, you have to ignore the absurd setups which serve to throw the hero and the heroine together. I have to say the one in this movie was one of the most preposterous ever. One day, Emma (Rhiannon Fish) gets a phone call from her father who is in the Antarctic researching penguins with which he is obsessed. The satellite phone keeps going in and out but Emma hears “Real Problem” “Ice sheet breaking up” “Real Danger” “all alone”, and “Killer Whale”. Combined with the chest pains he has lately been experiencing, concerned Emma concludes her father must be in grave danger and is calling for help. She decides she must hot foot it to the South Pole to rescue him from the killer whale, or avalanche or heart attack. A task she is uniquely qualified for as she is a courtroom artist. It doesn’t occur to her to question why he would call his daughter 1000s of miles away in America instead of the team at the substation a short snowmobile drive away from his outpost. The situation only gets muddier as Emma tells her friend that there was no luck getting through to anyone at the nearby research base, but then informs her that his satellite phone isn’t working and no one’s seen him for weeks. Kind of contradictory. It was noticed, screenwriter. Because I didn’t believe for a second that she did not talk to someone at the base, why didn’t Emma just ask the team at the substation to go check on her Dad and rescue him from whatever kerfuffle he has gotten himself into? As we find out later, it wouldn’t have been that big a deal. Because she is kind of a wackadoodle and it turns out the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
She finds out that another research team is catching a cruise ship from Buenos Aires to the base that her Dad drops in on from time to time. To her dismay, she is turned away from boarding the ship since she doesn’t have a ticket or any of the required permits and permissions. Since the Chief Officer turns down both cash and her credit card (because, you know, international law and safety) she decides to sneak on board pretending to be part of the research team. The handsome head of the team, smitten by Rhiannon Fish’s prettiness, puts his whole career on the line, not to mention risking possible arrest, to hide her away and help her.
After all kinds of shipboard high jinks, romantic and otherwise, she finally gets to the substation. She is loaned a snowmobile by head honcho Peggy and goes to her Dad’s Cabin where she finds out her Dad is perfectly fine and that it was all just a big misunderstanding. Turns out it was Lola the penguin’s life which was in danger, not his own. Boy, is his face red! What a crazy guy!
By this time, I was pretty much done. But I had to stick around to the bitter end if only to see if Rhiannon ever puts on a warm hat while tramping around or riding a snowmobile in the minus 50 degree weather. She doesn’t. But she does manage to put on a bathing suit. Rest assured, Lola is saved and reunited with her mate, Hugo, Dad and Peggy become a thing, and Emma moves to the South Pole to continue her romance with Andy the engineer. No one is arrested, and we leave Emma sitting outside in the snow illustrating a Children’s book about Penguins. Still hatless, bless her heart. This movie was filmed in Patagonia and has some nice scenery.
I approached this premier of Hallmark’s post-Christmas theme , Winter Escape, with not a lot of enthusiasm. I have had very bad luck with Irish-themed movies, and unlike the girl in this one, the luck of the Irish did not see fit to bestow itself upon me.
Fiona is a ballerina who just cannot get a break. She is always just one more audition away from her big starring role, and let’s face it, she is getting up there, especially for a ballet dancer. In her latest failure, she quit her job to try out for her dream role of Giselle, which of course she didn’t get. Bad news delivered by a red-haired and barely recognizable Ali Liebert, who also directed. While commiserating with her mother Helen, she finds a letter from Helen’s Birth Mother whom Helen not only has never met, but whose attempt to reach out has gone unanswered lo these many years (like around 15!). Helen is played by the elegant and beautiful Moira Kelly, beloved of Rom-Com connoisseurs everywhere for her role as Kate Mosely in The Cutting Edge. Since Helen’s antique shop has to be closed for a couple of weeks due to a plumbing problem, and they are both at temporary loose ends, Fiona plans a trip to the Emerald Isle to look up Helen’s long neglected birth mother. Also, Helen’s spouse is out of town on a business trip instead of being dead, or as good as dead, as they usually are in Hallmark’s parent/child Journeys of the Heart. No, he is a supportive husband and their marriage appears to be a happy one from all we ever hear about him. Which isn’t much.
On their first night in the picturesque Irish seaside town where they are staying, Fiona finds her destiny in the form of a pub owner and widowed father of a little girl whose ballet teacher moved to Vienna to breed ferrets (true story). Oh these quirky little details. For some reason, Fiona is very rude and ornery to him. Very Ugly American. But he seems to like it, as well as her dart throwing acumen, because he agrees to take her on a search for The Luck of the Irish tour of the countryside. While doing that, and following the clues to her mother’s birth mother’s whereabouts, need I say that Fiona and he fall for each other and Fiona also gets close to his ballet dancing daughter? Rhetorical question. Throw in community involvement and a vacant building which was formerly the local dance studio, while you’re at it.
Through all of this, Helen just kind of passively goes where ever Fiona leads. A measure of anticipation is achieved when her Bio-Mom is tracked down and Helen gets to know her through their mutual love of antiques before she finally properly introduces herself as her long lost daughter. “Call me Gigi” is nice enough but their emotional reunion left me largely unaffected because we never really hear any of her (or Helen’s) back story. So she’s kind of boring. Also, Helen is never held accountable for her lame and heartless non-response to nice Gigi’s letter.
The romance is strictly by the book, including the call from New York, luring Fiona back for another shot at Giselle. I won’t divulge the resolution of her dilemma, but she made the correct decision in my opinion. All in all I found this a pretty lackluster story which would have been very lackluster indeed without Moira Kelly, Shenae Grimes-Beech, and the very attractive Irish actor Stephen Hagan.
Lacey Chabert and Sam Page make a good pair. I really liked the rapport they had together. They really matched. This 2019 production is set in Rome and although it had a lot of the usual travelogue elements, there was a lot more plot to this one and it definitely had its moments.
Lacey plays Angela who is an expatriate American living and working in Rome as a tour guide. She loves Rome, knows every little nook and cranny, and delights in taking her tourists off the beaten path to show them the real heart and soul of her favorite city. Unfortunately, her forays away from the safe well traveled tourist sites have sometimes gotten her and her little ducklings into trouble. Her latest out of the way adventure to a 400-year-old bakery results in one of her clients getting attacked by gluten. It is the last straw for Angela’s boss and he fires her. On her way home she meets a visiting business executive, Oliver, played by Sam Page, who is lost. She gets him to his business meeting successfully despite taking the scenic route, to his impatience. Oliver wants the retiring Luigi, played by Franco Nero, as handsome and charismatic as ever, to sell his high end family ceramics company to his firm. Oliver is all business, all the time. He is all about the bottom line, ignoring the niceties, and cutting right to the chase, which might be okay in some countries, but not in Italy, as Angela tries to tell him. As it happens, Luigi is very rich and doesn’t care how much money he gets for his Christmas ornament and other ceramics manufacturing company as long as its heart, soul, and artistic culture is preserved and nourished. There is lot of talk about “heart” and “soul” in this one. When Angela steps in and saves his bacon with Luigi who was very put off by Oliver’s initial approach, she adds life coach to her tour guide duties. She escorts the culture-shocked American around “the real” Rome showing him its heart and soul while lecturing him to death. There is nothing that Angela does not know about anything Roman. This was a very educational Hallmark. Oliver is won over and encourages her to start her own kind of tour guide company, specializing in tours that are much more than just the top ten tourist must-sees and selfie sites in the Eternal City. Meanwhile, Oliver is fending off his boss’s constant nagging about-When he is going to close the deal? What’s taking so long? Why do you look so relaxed and happy? And what does kneading bread with Lacey Chabert have to do with Luigi’s manufacturing plant? God, she was annoying. And the more she talked, the more I was afraid that Oliver actually would convince Luigi to sell his wonderful company to them as they were the exact opposite of everything that Luigi wanted from its future owner.
There were some really good moments in this one besides the scenery.
Angela refusing her former boss’s pleas to come back to work for him was one high point. Despite the inconvenience, seems Angela was very popular with his clients and frequently mentioned by name in his Trip Advisor reviews. His alarm when she tells him she is starting her own company and is on her way to line up some investors (arranged by Oliver) was very satisfying. A real “Hee-Hee-Hee” moment. I really liked that Oliver really bought into and supported Angela’s business aspirations.
Her pitch to her future investors was well done and the outcome was well managed, with just enough suspense to contribute to the overall effect.
I even liked that big conflict at the end which was well-founded and not silly or cooked up. At a celebratory dinner, Angela and Oliver agree to give their relationship a go despite living in different countries. Oliver tells her he will stay in Rome through New Year’s which signals that he has found balance between work and his personal life. Also, he has refused to take his boss’s calls! Angela is so encouraged that when she rings again, Angela encourages him to talk to her. He does, but he comes back to the table with news that he has been promoted to vice president (good news) but he must leave for New York immediately after all (bad). In an instant, Angela sees the sad reality of their future in front of her versus the dream of making a go of it with the back-sliding Oliver. She calls the whole thing off and is direct, strong, and articulate. It was a great scene, and I was cheering her on all the way. Sam Page perfectly conveyed Oliver’s confusion and heartbreak.
There was a lot to resolve to achieve a satisfactory ending: The romance, Angela’s business venture, Oliver’s work/life balance, and, importantly for me, the future of Luigi’s beautiful little company in the hands of Oliver’s cutthroat employer. All were hanging by a thread. At one point Angela is even contemplating moving back to Seattle, of all places! Sure enough, Hallmark checked them all off and did so right in front of St. Peter’s Basilica during a Christmas concert. Well played.
