Love Under the Olive Tree

Just like the year it was made (2020), this movie was a dud. The characters seemed very likable, but I just could not get into the story at all. I quit watching about 3/4 the way through it. Definitely not one of Hallmark's better showings.

Even though this Hallmark has a relatively high rating all of the reviews seem to be very negative. So I feel like it's my duty to give it a good review. First of all yes, yes, yes, it does incorporate many many many of the hallmark cliches and stock story lines. What a shocker! Alert the media. First of all I liked the Olive Oil making plot line. It was certainly different and I enjoyed the fresh setting other than chocolate and wine. It was interesting unlike blueberries or pumpkins. The two leads had good chemistry. The family conflict and rivalry kept my interest. I liked that the grandfathers who started the feud were actually more reasonable than their offspring. It was realistic. I also loved the secondary romance of her best friend and the coffee shop owner. It was sweet. I was invested in the outcome of the olive oil Judging and wager and happy that there was a clear winner and it was the one I was rooting for.

Am not saying this with any pleasure. Despite not being that excited by the plotline, which sounded very derivative and unengaging, Hallmark did have some good films in 2020 and Tori Anderson has been good in other things, with well written characters and good material making a big difference. Hallmark did two A Little Romance films in 2020, the other being the weak 'Love in the Forecast' and of the two films that film is marginally worse despite trying to do something different.

'Love Under the Olive Tree' just didn't do it for me at all. Hallmark were no stranger to surprisingly decent and more films and no stranger to better than expected execution of very basic concepts. It has a few good things, few Hallmark films are irredeemable and there are very few of those made in 2020. It however has a lot of bad things, all major and the worst of them are executed absolutely terribly. Was really hoping that 'Love Under the Olive Tree' would be one of the better than expected films but alas that was not the case.

It's not without its good things. The scenery is very nice and well shot. There are parts where the music is also pleasant.

Shawn Roberts gives the film's best performance, he was quite charming.

Charming is an adjective that neither of the two leads are. Benjamin Hollingsworth is very bland and too uptight, but Anderson comes off even worse. She can be very appealing in the right role, but her character is too mean-spirited and neurotic and Anderson badly overdoes the neuroses. There is no chemistry between them, which feels disconnected and under-rehearsed. Other than Roberts, the supporting cast are unmemorable and none of the characters are remotely interesting, well developed or endearing. Only Roberts comes close.

Despite some light-hearted-ness later, though it does come too late, 'Love Under the Olive Tree' is dull and has a very mean-spirited edge. Just hated how over-the-top negative a vast majority of the characters were, the arrogance is especially overdone, and how they treated others, which made the first half pretty intolerable. It is thin narratively, which affects the pacing, and the lack of freshness with a done to death type of story makes it very predictable. The script is stilted and could have been a lot lighter and more subtle.

Not a good film at all. 3/10.

This film has a rehashed plot of the 2016 Hallmark Film "Autumn in the Vineyard". The female leads in both films are both neurotic and start off closed off in the beginning until the male lead helps them "open up". In both films the female and male leads have a "History" and are competitive. Both films had competition where the one of the leads gets the land if they win. The only difference this time around is that its olives/olive oil and not wine. The few occasional cutesy moments were not enough to redeem this film. The rehashed plots are getting more and noticeable. Hallmark films are a fun guilty pleasure but not when you can recognized a rehashed plot. "Autumn in the Vineyard" did it better. Hallmark needs to stop taking its audience for granted.

This film wasn't unpleasant to watch, just a little lacking in energy. It also was weird that a film that was obviously created for the channel's Fall Harvest promotion wound up on the air in June.

A lot of these films do the Romeo and Juliet family squabble thing, but this one directly steals almost its entire setup from last year's Fall Harvest entry, Love, Fall, and Order as a it involves a dispute over property lines.