Sur les pistes de l'amour

Good family movie, however yet again background music forces the viewer to strain to hear the dialogue.

Hallmark movies most of the time are a pleasant timepass but hardly more. This one is one of the exceptions. This one leaves you with its impression. You actually see the development that happens over the course of the movie. The love that blossoms between the leads feels natural instead of forced and manufactured. Their expressive acting breaths life into the story. Overall a commendable job. One of those movies you can watch again.

Alex is a New York copywriter that wants to become a feature writer. Her boss has just introduced a cover story contest that might help her to fulfill that dream, but tells Alex that she'll likely have to step outside of her comfort zone to succeed.

So the city girl heads west to a ski resort where Cole, a reclusive extreme sports photographer she admires, is said to live. She hopes to get an interview, or at least experience the sports which inspire his work.

Of course they meet, she's a fish out of water klutz, but he's a social misfit that wants his foundation (which helps young kids experience the outdoors) to succeed. So they strike a bargain - Cole will help Alex try different outdoor activities on the slopes for her article, and she'll help him with his presence at his gallery.

One things leads to another with both gaining confidence, overcoming their weaknesses while growing personally - especially Alex - until her boyfriend arrives. However, if you know the formula, you can figure out how it will end.

Like most Hallmark romances, the scenery is postcard beautiful, and all the actors are attractive, so it's a carefree couple of hours of harmless fun.

'Love on the Slopes' is not just the first Winterfest film of 2018, it is also the film that started off the 2018 Hallmark batch. Haven't seen all four of the 2018 Winterfest films yet, the other one already seen being 'One Winter Weekend' which for me was rather average. Was not familiar really with the cast, so there was no overall opinion of the actors prior to watching. The premise didn't sound anything special, typical Hallmark really, but the Hallmark formula has worked quite a number of times.

It does have moments where that formula does in 'Love on the Slopes' and of this and 'One Winter Weekend' for me this was the better film. Yet a good deal more could have been done with it and it doesn't completely come together. 'Love on the Slopes' is not a bad film by all means and it has a number of things in its favour. It also though falls short of being great, and has some significant debits that bring it down. Not one of the best 2018 Hallmark films, also not one of the worst.

Am going to begin with the good things. The production values are beautiful, especially the scenery which is magical at its best and the photography does nothing to trivialise it. A big asset as well is Katrina Bowden, who is likeable and acts with charm and spirit like her role needs. Her character was luckily not one of the personality free or overacted ones, coming over as neither too perfect or over negative. The supporting cast are solid with no exception.

There are enough moments of charm and heart and some of the script is not too cheesy or schmaltzy. There is the right amount of light hearted-ness.

Was a lot less keen though on the incredibly uncomfortable looking Thomas Beaudoin, the uptightness is taken to extremes and neither he or his character loosen up enough. A lot more chemistry between him and Bowden was needed, any charm comes in small spurts too late and it just felt bland, too hesitant and under-rehearsed. The romance itself could have been better written, there is not much of one, it takes too long to develop and then it rushes unrealistically.

Despite finding the story not too bad on the whole, it's just too safe and predictable with some draggy pacing here and there and a far too convenient and over sappy ending. The music score is overbearing and is used too much.

Overall, decent but not great. 6/10.

Hallmark is great at making setting an important part of the movie, but this particular film does that in spades. There's incredible snowy mountain scenery here, especially in the scene where Alex and Cole zipline across a canyon above an icy river. Just gorgeous. Seriously, this is worth watching for the scenery alone.

As for the romance, I liked the leads, even if Alex's girly "I'm so not sporty" was a bit ridiculous initially. The premise of having her do a lot of winter-y extreme sports allowed for breathtaking vistas and for her to cling to manly extreme sports guide, Cole. The chemistry was pretty good, especially towards the end. The script was serviceable.

All in all, one I will rewatch. The leads are attractive and appealing enough that the romance was decent. But it's mainly the setting that puts this one over the top for me.