This movie stars two actors, Autumn Reeser and Tyler Hynes, plus a longtime actress that I adore, Patty McCormack ("The Bad Seed").
Patty was a welcome sight, just from the standpoint of adding a well-established person to the cast. Autumn is gaining her experience every day with Hallmark, and she is also a joy to watch. Tyler is a standard, and therefore common Hallmark choice.
I don't know what this movie lacked for me. Maybe it was the very thin romance that didn't seem to do much for me, but I think a lot of it was the disingenuous accent use (Marrrrco) and also: check out Autumn's scene at the beginning when she has a chocolate to eat from her friend. She holds it for God-knows-how-long, then takes a literal micro-nibble, then it disappears. I understand the pressure on actresses to stay thin, but it would have been awesome to see her just eat the chocolate (even if she was eating a freaking chocolate marshmallow with no caloric value). I understand all the complexities of wanting to be cautious about weight; maybe it is possible there was no intention for her to avoid eating it, but everyone else in the scene did. For some people recovering from eating issues, it's so great to see people set a decent example on film.
I didn't love the food setting; this might be a reason the film is either hot or cold for reviewers. The food was boring to me as a plot device; I could easily watch a chef show, but this type of story line is just so tired. I wish they could have focused more on the grief/ loss, for example, as there are a million ways that people deal with it. Food and contests and restaurants are so linear to me.
Another aspect was the daughter, who was beautifully talented and did a fantastic job. Even more scenes with her or her school woes could have been more deep or interesting.
When they brought in the guest chef, who I'm sure is popular outside of this movie, I was thinking this is just a long version of a chef contest show.
I think AR is a great actress, but there is something that strikes me as artificial about her; Lacey Chabert is an amazing role model, someone that I've watched since she was a little one on Party of Five, and her depth has always been there. I don't want to hurt anyone reading these reviews, but I would like to see AR in a movie that isn't depicting her as a beautifully perfect woman. Her entire demeanor is glamorous, but she lacks the grit that makes her more believable. I don't think she needs to do anything drastic, but tone down the perfection a bit (perfect nails, perfect lipstick, perfect outfits, blah blah blah).
Tyler does not seem different in this movie than in most of his movies, but admittedly, I don't study his progress much.
The truffle scene was so funny to me. I kept thinking "I didn't know you could just walk around and find truffles." - glad I'm not insane.
