A Pinch of Portugal

This movie is all about Heather Hemmens and her character Anna. I was impressed that Hemmens had incredible chemistry with both the rivals opposite her, Luke Mitchell and Duarte Gomes. And I think that most of what chemistry there was came from Hemmens. Eventually it is cut short with one of them, but the movie was made more interesting by the fact that it wasn't obvious which it would be until shortly before the one was eliminated. And then, the conflict wasn't about the romance. How that developed surprised me. It's true that it was obvious that the shoe was going to drop on Anna somehow, but I didn't see it coming from that direction. The climax and ending are interesting and I found it to be nice.

I love underdog stories and that's what this is with Anna at the center. I loved that she wasn't arrogant and that her personality was all about enjoying life and welcoming other people in. Something along the lines of a crowded table is the best.

We see some good scenery from Portugal which is a common Hallmark fixture. The acting is good and so is the dialogue. I will definitely watch this again.

40-something Heather Hemmens plays Anna, a prep cook for a noted chef, they have a TV show, the chef believes strongly that only what actually goes on in the kitchen is important and interesting. He seems a bit difficult to work with.

It is contract renewal time and they are all scheduled to take the crew to Portugal for the next shoot. But the chef has not agreed yet and to stay on schedule they go anyway, without him, presuming he will join them in a few days.

What all this does is give Anna and the crew an opportunity to try something different, to take the show to different places, the origins of the food. The market, the fishing boat, etc. When the chef does return this causes friction.

Heather Hemmens has such a good, natural, authentic acting style that it never seems like "acting" and that is what makes this movie rise above the ordinary. My wife and I enjoyed it, streaming on Peacock.

And of course it includes lots of nice scenery of Portugal. Plus I learned of a new drink, Ginja, which is a sweet liqueur made from sour cherries soaked in a distilled spirit called aguardente. The mixture is flavored with sugar and spices like cinnamon.

At first i was curious to see what they would show from Portugal, being an American production. We all know americans are not that good in Geography.

As the movie progressed it became more and more apparent that the producers did a very poor research job.

The first image shown of Portugal is in Porto not Lisbon, or even Cascais or Sintra where the whole movie is staged.

Also, why did they producers choose Brazilian music for the generic scenes? There are so many talented singers in Portugal.

Utterly disrespectful for the Portuguese musical heritage.

The plot is ok, in line with movies of this genre.

The usual Hallmark stuff. Boring characters in an uninspired story. At least this one has nice scenery.

Middle-aged woman who works as a "prep cook" on the TV cooking show whines and whimpers when she gets a chance to take the spotlight when the show's star "quits."

I've never seen a prep cook or food stylist actually get air time on a cooking show other than IRON CHEF.

Anyway, she's "pursued" by two overly-groomed young men (enough with the 2-day beards already) while she dithers. We also get to see some shots of cheeses and breads in a fake market place.

Supporting cast is uniformly bad and all attempts at humor flop. That doesn't leave much. The dead fish wins the acting honors.

Another reviewer stole my thunder. It is true, they showed generic shots of Lisbon at the beginning and once in the middle to make you think that they were in Lisbon. As someone who knows Lisbon well, I could tell where they were most of the time-Cascais and Sintra. I was looking forward to something in Lisbon but I was happy to see some other familiar places. The story was typical Hallmark stuff and I thought Lucas' character changed really abruptly. Maybe that was the point. He was always like that and we just discovered it around the midpoint of the movie. I enjoyed it more than anything because it was filmed in Portugal (if not in Lisbon per se) and the nostalgia factor made me give it an 8/10.