Romance à tribord

When "grandma" showed up and looked almost as young as Alex PenaVega, I was done. Nothing up to that point captured my attention. For the most part, I don't think husband and wife teams are good together in romantic movies. Probably a thing in the back of my head that is saying there is no anticipation for first love/romance. That's what I love in romantic movies. First romance/love. You can skip this one in my opinion.

I would call this movie more of a 2 hour commercial for Royal Caribbean than an actual movie. The storyline was annoyingly choppy and felt over after the first hour. According to an interview I read the lead actors were asked their dream movie and said one on a cruise ship, meaning this whole movie was a workcation for the stars. Unless you are looking to sail Royal Caribbean or huge fans of the PenaVegas just pass.

How can two people married in real life have no chemistry on the screen? It's probably bad acting as so many reviewers have said.

Did the writers know anything about how things work? 1- New aspiring Cruise Director must do everything right so what does he do, he changes up the event planner's schedule without asking. True he made a good recovery, but before that, he compounded his error with an arrogant attitude. 2- If you are counting on a celebrity for a guest spot as central to your whole event, then you have a contract with huge penalties. Since she is supposedly a rich heiress, she knows about lawyers and can get good ones. Better, and especially if you are a no-risk person, you don't bank on anyone as unstable as Preston. 3 - She has no self-confidence. She is hung up, compulsively, on her ex's opinion. She repeatedly gives up. This is not a self-starting lone business woman. In fact, she gives independent women a bad name. 4 - Neither of them should have time for anything but their jobs. And if they are the driven people they are supposed to be, nothing interferes with that. Combined, 3&4 mean these are not authentic driven people. 5- Cruise personal have NO free time. They work two or three jobs and 15-18 hour days, with no breaks They don't wonder the deck chit-chatting and talking about "getting back out there" or play mini-golf. (Despite what we saw on Love Boat.)

One thing I think was accurate is that Cruise Directors are very talented in their own right. Olivia is unlikable and partly because she is so uptight. Her insecurities got tiring. Tony is trying to hard (or is it the actor Carlos trying to hard.

Yes, the movie is a 2 hour commercial for Royal Caribbean. It is a beautiful and impressive ship. {Wow, Olivia's cabin was amazing.) So it didn't bother me.

The basic virtue of this film, for me, was rediscover Audrey Landers. And the impressive ship.

The story is modest and forced in too many aspects , the feeling about a sort of improvisation is not absent and the chemistry between Alexa and Carlos PenaVega can be defined as artificial, the regret about option of Olivia being a good clue in this sense.

In short, nothing new , not only the familiar recipe but the old cliches without any innovative sparkle. But, sure, Hallmark in ordinary terms.

Only regret - the potential of development of characters, ignored for conventional sketches and for improvisations solved by two final kisses.

I think the other reviewers pretty much covered all the problems with this movie, so I'm not going to waste your time with a lengthy review. I do think that because this movie got off to such a weak start, it became difficult to stay committed to it. The acting was not strong enough, and for the most part, it disappoints. Still, there was enough substance in it for me to watch it until the end, perhaps because it took part on a cruise ship, and not in the usual Hallmark venues, although I did truly fall asleep in the middle. I suspect a stronger cast along with a better script might have made a substantial difference.