Welcome to Mama's

This is a sweet heartwarming story about the origin of an Italian American restaurant in New Jersey. The restaurant is called Mama's and as you can imagine the story starts with Mama and Papa. The contemporary story is about Frank and Amy...Amy who Mama thought of as a granddaughter inherits the restaurant when Mama dies and that is when she meets Frank the current chef at Mama's.

The story is a bit about taking in strays, creating a family, about trust, compromise and taking a chance on someone as a way to spread the love.

My favorite nugget is about writing a letter to someone and how precious that can really be.

This was a little different for a hallmark film, less emphasis on the wooing and more emphasis an the living, just being...and on friendship.

The commercials didn't seem very exciting and that should have warned me not to bother watching it. No chemistry, boring story, a lot of blah blah blah that went on and on and on. It didn't have a clear storyline. It's over saturated with flash backs and the main characters just didn't capture my attention. There wasn't much cooking, not that much food, a lot of very short overly dramatic problems that were resolved before you even understood the problem! Fine to play in the background while doing other things but not worth watching with your full attention.

The movie has its quirks and inconsistencies, as pointed out in previous reviews. As almost always, premises and elements of the plot are not original. Yet, they get a different, fresh spin and the story acquires a dignity of its own. The psychology of the lead characters, Amy and Frank, is more sound than it appears at first look. Here, we have two young people that, confronted with career disillusions and big life choices, react with stubborn attitudes and rush decisions. I do not believe this makes them unlikable or that they "have no chemistry". They are just human, hiding their insecurities, in need to learn from their mistakes.

I find it credible that their initial reciprocal attraction helps them, through necessary skirmishes, find how much they have in common and to like each other. Actually, this makes the story sweet.

The acting is simple, no hamming, no frills. The frequent flash-backs to Mama and Papa life, are, perhaps overused, but do add to understanding the theme of the story and to the content of the movie, rich in values of hard work, tenacity, family and friendship.

One special tribute is owed to the producers for a diligent effort to maintain authenticity. After myriads of movies where the actors totally butcher the pronunciation of the Italian language or substitute it with "Italican"or Spanish, here, finally they have cast actors, Scrofano, Di Tomasso, Babis, and Montesi, who speak the language naturally and correctly.

Overall, a charming movie and a better production than many Hallmark films of late.

Films centered around food and the culinary world is not a new thing for Hallmark, but there are plenty of their films that did this setting and concept really well in an entertaining and easy to relate to manner. Despite not being novel, the idea for 'Welcome to Mama's' was a lovely one and had real potential to be light hearted and heart-warming. Which has been the case with most of the previous 2022 Hallmark films (though there have already been stinkers), even with the serious-themed ones.

'Welcome to Mama's' just didn't come together properly for me. It was not the light hearted and heart-warming film it intended to be, or at least certainly to begin with it wasn't, and was a case of having the right ingredients but not using them very well and not doing enough with them. There are good things and it is not the worst 2022 Hallmark film up to this point, that's between 'Cut, Color and Murder' and 'Butlers in Love' with 'Where the Heart Belongs' not far off. But it is no 'North to Home', 'The Wedding Veil' or 'Presence of Love'. Of the three Loveuary films, 'Welcome to Mama's' is the weakest.

Am going to begin with the good. Lorraine Bracco brings some welcome zest whenever she appears and, while not liking his character to begin, Daniel DiTomasso does easy going charm very well and always looked natural.

The production values also look lovely, loved the look of the setting and it is a nicely shot film. The momentum does pick up a little going into the final third and it was nice seeing some Italian culture.

Melanie Scrofano however didn't do it for me, she is very stiff throughout and it didn't look as though her heart was in it. She and DiTomasso agreed do not have any spark together and come over as too antagonistic towards each other and both characters are sketchily developed. While disliking his character at first, coming over as a jerk, his character at least grew and relaxed, but Scrofano's did not making her a lot more difficult to warm to. The cast chemistry is disconnected and the direction feels very routine throughout.

Did find the dialogue very awkward sounding and cheesy throughout and the banter is overused and goes too far on the hostility that it becomes mean spirited. The story is dull (especially the first act which was a slog in almost every way) and predictable and the charm and heart are not there. Also found that it took itself too seriously for any light hearted-ness to come through and the conflict is very contrived and phony. The ending felt too pat.

Overall, lacklustre. 4/10.

When ambition and tradition don't mix, the flavor of Mama's Ristorante is lost. But with the help of Mama's recipe for love, a partnership is born, and her legacy lives on.