Two Chefs and a Wedding Cake

Although it was a typical Real One production, I did like it.

Everyone knows you have to reign in your expectations with these thirteen in a dozen movies, but if you take them for what they are, without expecting a cinematic masterpiece, sometimes you can be pleasantly surprised.

This movie had one of the standard storylines we have seen many times over, but for me most of these stories hang or fall with the leads and their chemistry.

In this case that chemistry was there.

I am so glad they FINALLY gave Francesca Bianchi a lead role; I've seen her as a supporting actress in a few movies and I was always stunned at how often she was smarter, funnier and more stunning than the leads of those movies.

Like I said, the story itself was nothing to write home about, but the two leads elevated the movie for me somewhat.

I hope Francesca will be cast in leads more often, she deserves more chances and better scripts to work with.

Real One is a mass producer of content, some movies are really bad, some more akin to a reasonable Hallmark movie, but never a masterpiece. But that seems to be their business model; have a library of movies in every price range so even smaller stations/businesses/channels can buy from them without breaking the bank.

Another average Reel One Entertainment TV movie in 2023 season. Technically, the most of the movie is fine. I really didn't like F. Bianchi makeup in many scenes, she really looked awful :/. It was completely unnecessary as she is natural beatiful. The major issue with this movie, like with many ROE TV movies is the fake location. Supposedly movie takes places in San Francisco except it was clearly shot in Kelowna, CA like so many their other TV movies because if you watch ROE TV movie you recognize the same or similar locations again and again. Consequently in Act I they excessively used SF stock footage to fool viewers. In Act II and almost always untill the end (except few short scenes) movie takes place at a beautiful manor on Okanagan Lake in Kelowna, so they switched to showing Kelowna stock footage in between scenes. Just sad...

This is the first TV movie in which Francesca Bianchi and Matt Hamilton are leads and not supporting cast, and right of the bat, they were preety good and convincing. M. Hamilton is a veteran Hallmark TV supporting actor who switched to ROE, he almost always played somehow goofy person, but this time he was mostly serious which is a big difference and he didn't fail.

Directing was mostly all right, but writing... How many times we are going to see bridezilla trope? The good thing is that movie is centered around Halle and Jamie, and the rest of cast is mostly limited. I admit that I several times skipped bridezilla parts and whole guessing quiz because I watched it so many times, don't have time to waste. On another hand, dialogue between Halle and Jamie was written really good.

Overall, average. With properly written supporting cast and no excessive usage of stock footage, I would rate it easily 7*. And obligatory don't watch trailer as like every other ROE TV movie trailer, it shows everything.