Coup de cœur sauvage

I'm a big fan of Hallmark movies and Lacey Chabert is one of my favorites, but this film just didn't grab me. The best aspect of Love on Safari is the absolutely gorgeous location and scenery, and I appreciate the underlying messages about conservation, honoring the past, and being a part of something that is bigger than ourselves. The overall story however is mediocre and not terribly compelling. Lacey is worth watching, and the other actors are competent, but the romance between the lead characters lacks chemistry and just isn't convincing. I gave it 7 stars only because of the beautiful location and photography. Worth the time for the stunning scenery, but not much else.

Kira Slater (Lacey Chabert) is busy making websites from a Chicago office. She goes to South Africa to the reading of his beloved uncle's will although she hadn't seen him for a long while. To the shock of everybody, he left his safari reserve to her even though she hadn't been there since childhood. Tom Anderson is the head ranger and Ally Botsman is a ranger. Lwazi is the manager. Kira immediately gets an offer from a cookie cutter resort corporation. Tom is desperate to keep Kira from selling and decides to make her fall in love with him. It doesn't help that she has a boyfriend back in Chicago and she only wants to go home.

The only cool thing is the location. The scheme is very high school. The romance is nothing special. I love Lacey but the guy is a dud. He's more background actor than leading man. There is no heat and it fails in all the rom-com tropes. I don't understand the advantage of holding back the stepsiblings relationship. This movie is best on safari. I want the animals. I want more animals. I want the actors with the animals although they don't get much interactions. It's great to see the safari although it's not the level of a modern nature film. The romance isn't much. This is location, location, location.

If this were a travel documentary it would be worthy of all the praise other reviewers have given it. South Africa was wonderful. Casting was great. I was happy to see Britanny Bristow getting bigger parts. She is really good. The only problem is this was NOT a travel movie but was supposed to be a Romance. The romantic leads were well paired, but the love scenes were void of emotion or "fireworks". It had the potential for 10 stars but without the romance it only earned 5.

She said at the beginning of the movie that she visited the reserve when she was five and then again when she was fourteen. Later on in the movie she said she fed the elephant when she was there at 10 years old.

I will watch any Hallmark film with Lacey Chabert in it! It is always guaranteed to be a keeper. :) I really enjoyed the scenery which surprisingly (or not, lol) over-shadowed the storyline because it was so beautiful. The animals were so cool to see too! The storyline was cute, as I have said in my other Hallmark reviews, I prefer the storylines where two people meet for the first time versus old flames. This was an adventurous ride. It is best watched with a soft blankie (preferably with an animal print) a roaring fire (or video on your Ipad of said fire), and a lovely cup of iced lemonade! *Get it: heat because of safari but lemonade for cooling off! Enjoy :)