7.4 stars.
In the first act I was thinking the producers were testing to see how dumb the audience would be, released upon the masses just to watch our collective response. First of all, there are so many inconsistencies and outrageous liberties taken with the details of this story that I just shook my head. Do they expect this to be based on anything remotely possible? I thought to myself. Where do I begin? Hallmark takes a potentially interesting premise and flattens it into a potpourri of discordant gibberish and unrelatable sentiments. What is with the company she works with - Blossom? There is no way in this day and age that a corporate entity such as this would be anywhere near an Italian chef's approval - ever. And that's the sentiment expressed here, however...there is so much more I could say. That was my initial gut feeling. But things improved...
In the first 30-45 minutes of the film, the lead female doesn't fit this role. She is too opinionated and difficult to get along with, not her character per se, but the actress does not translate to the performance whatever sensibilities we are supposed to see within her. But as we get to know her, I see a spark of potential.
She happens to coincidentally run into the one person she came to see as she is disembarking from the boat in Venice? What are the odds? I'll tell you the odds: chances are one in 261,000 (population of Venice) that he is the one person at that very moment. Ok, so it's fate? Fine, I'll let it slide just in case the story gets better.
This chef's class in Venice has four, let me count that again...yes only four students, and three of them are American? And this is an advanced Italian cooking class? She is not an experienced chef at all, so she would be a fish out of water, totally lost. So far fetched I almost stopped the movie in its tracks right then and there. But I've nothing better to do than binge watch Hallmark films through Christmas, so why not finish up the fall films? So I'll stay the course for now.
I thought I'd have nothing left to say about this film. It's got all the Hallmark usual stuff, including some entertainment value in the fluff and the scenery and the city of Venice. I did not like the first 45 minutes, but something strange happened. The lead female becomes softer, more attractive, more interesting and lively. The male lead has the exact same transformation. Dare I presume this was deliberate? Risky move, because I almost shut this off at minute 30...
This eventually morphs into a very nice venice romance. The two mesh very nicely and their personalities come to the surface. By the end they become very likeable characters. Whew. I was a bit concerned this would be one of the worst of the year.
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