Harmony in Paradise

I've never been to this island paradise, but I'm living to go. If you're interested in an escape for just over an hour, this film will provide innocent chuckles, a wave of calm between the serene landscapes, a good Latin music soundtrack, and of course the delight of birdsongs, and the laughing water.

Beautiful Puerto Rico, beautiful folks, some awkward moments acting by the lead even at the end, but a pleasant and relaxing film, all I need at week's end. The male hunk was charming eye candy, a natural, and I enjoyed seeing Brian Kruse. The lovely mature leading lady is seasoned and sure to land more roles.

This movie is just plain bad. The acting is terrible. The story is stupid. Not impressed at all. Just bad. This is the second movie I've seen with the lead actress - and also writer. She really needs to give up both. I guess someone must like het since she's made two absolute bombs. At least her other movie had a couple of name actors. This one - ZILCH. Just bad story, bad acting - but the scenery was nice.. Don't waste your time on this one ...

Insanity-inducing bore of a movie. Good gravy what a trainwreck of a "lead" actress. Cannot act. Annoying and condescending character. Struggled to get through the first half hour and well, I have far better ways to spend my time.

Waste your time at your own risk.

One can only hope that the lead actress and writer of this dull film - apparently it's her second, which seems to be even worse than her first - is working on a 3rd and more interesting one in which she will reveal how to get funding to produce not one but two glossy shows in exotic locations when you have little discernible aptitude either in scriptwriting or acting (even when you're mouthing your own words!) You'd think there'd be some nuance, yes? An awareness of what layers the character was meant to have (to make her interesting to at least the love interest,, let alone the viewer) - layers which are absent from the script.

Unless she's privately wealthy, then her real talent is selling her projects and persuading the affluent to believe that investing in Paradise will be rewarding in some way- an act of charity, perhaps? She must be the envy of cash-strapped film school graduates the world over.

I hope her next film reveals all.

But I wouldn't put it in the really bad category.

The acting is fair and maybe poor in some cases. There is little of no chemistry between Thony Mena and Liliana Tandon. I didn't realize until I read another review than Tandon not only starred and wrote this, but also her previous Hallmark-like movie. In the other movie, I said she was trying too hard. I didn't really see as much of that here, but she still isn't quite as smooth as actors with more experience in this type of movie.

The story is just as rough. For starters this is a common trope with a writer on assignment who has to prove herself. She gets involved with the man at the center of the story. And some wrench is thrown in to disrupt her story. But it is not just that it is a common formula, but there are little things that don't make sense. With one major exception (see below), the dialogue is flat, when there is dialogue. I lost count of musical sequences with no dialogue including the climax.

Despite all this I didn't find myself always grinding my teeth in frustration or itching to fast forward. Maybe some, but not entirely.

There is a narrative of some of Amelia's writing near the end which turns out to be educational. I found it interesting. A lot of times I'm turned off by the wordiness this entails, but not this time. Also I liked the Amazon joke.