L'amour sous le citronnier

This is not a Hallmark movie but was made just like one, even with what my wife and I call the "Hallmark Kiss" near the very end of the movie. The resort island scenes are shot on Santa Catalina Island just off the coast near Los Angeles.

She is a up-and-coming photographer that gets unfortunate news as the story begins. They can't afford to keep her on staff. At the same time she gets interested in the annual "destination" photo contest and decides to try to win it. She goes back to the resort island that she used to visit with her family when she was much younger.

As fate (and script) would have it the only hotel has a broken water pipe problem so they set her up in a cabin about one mile away at the local Lemon farm. There she encounters the dad, his son, and the son's young daughter. They all seem to bond easily, but the trouble is in the form of financial difficulties, many past-due bills and a checking account about exhausted.

The photographer right away begins to post photos on her popular website, people all over get interested, the publicity might just be what the Lemon Farm needs to survive and thrive. Plus dad starts to sell his paintings and the young girl her special formula lemonade.

Very nice family type of movie, my wife and I enjoyed it on Amazon streaming movies.

For some reason, I expected this to be set in Italy and that I would enjoy some Italian scenery and a light romance. It is entirely set in the US where we are continually told 'what a fantastic place this is' although neither photos nor background truly confirmed these statements. The script is weak but the actors do try to sound believable. However, their characters were too thin and they had little to work with then tell their back story.

I found this film on Amazon Prime and they give little information about the content of their films I only left it running as I'm unwell at the moment.

After it finished, I put on a DVD of a film I've had for ages, set in Italy, a divorced American buys a villa which is renovated by Polish workers, it made me feel better.

The fountain in the plazza , the lemon groves, the airplai, the lemonade of young Alice, the small houses are keys of seduction for this nice Hallmark film, mixing familiar ingredients and well known crumbs of stories.

Provocative remains the opinion about Madison Bullock. Her effort to convince the public seems too high and the reactions of character exagerated. But she propose a good work and this is important thing.

Elyse Mirto and James Hyde are, for many motives, the real stars of film, the love of their characters, the steps of relation and , sure, the dialogue , being the fair motif for write this.

Not the last,Casey O 'Keefe proposes a sort of gentle poetry to story, grace the way to explore the sides of her character. Mia Sandler is just inspired option for the role of Alice.

So, a correct Hallmark film.

I like to see strong, positive female characters. First, the story for the female lead was reasonable but the actress and acting terrible. First her silly awestruck stuttering act when speaking to the other photographer was just annoying, fast forward please, present yourself as a professional and still show excitement at the encounter. The character also needs to show some maturity, especially in her appearance - she wants to be taken seriously as a photographer well then present her as more than 15 years old. Now Andrew. Much better. Responsible farm manager, presents in that way both in looks and in speaking. I can see how he could not muster up chemistry with Bullock. Alice is a cutey and like June and Michael roles and actors. Filming location lovely.

The movie starts out with a common premise - young woman loses her job and wants to enter a contest to relaunch her career. She goes to Serenity Island where her parents took her as a child and she learned to love photography. Meanwhile Josh's lemon farm is in trouble, so they team together to save it. The story follows some of the same old formulas through to a predictable ending.

I'm not a fan of the big secret trope and in this case, it's more of an outright lie and continued deception by Beck. The misunderstanding balloons creating the usual conflict. The reconciliation has an interesting twist though.

Maddison Bullock is very full of positive energy as Beck, but she seems a little unpolished. She seems to be trying too hard. This actress bears watching though. Anthony Coons just doesn't seem comfortable in the role. Coons and Bullock manage some decent chemistry probably thanks mostly to Bullock.