Un mariage sous les tropiques

The movie has so much potential with the magnificent scenery and the backdrop of a wedding on the horizon, but the main actress was so annoying it got in the way of the movie taking on a more romantic special feel. It would have been better if they fell in love scene by scene as opposed to her pricking at the actor every 3 minutes for most of the movie. WOW, this was an annoying movie. It was hard to watch and certainly re-watch. Is this a Hallmark movie plot recipe where the woman nags the guy until they magically fall in love? How unrealistic. If this wasn't filmed in Hawaii, I'd probably drop the movie rating to 3 stars.

This new Hallmark production offers a beautiful actress, Taylor Cole, playing Sara, a conservationist hell-bent to save the world, who finds romance in a tropical paradise. So, what could go wrong? One gets the first hint at the beginning, when Sara first reaches her luscious resort destination and is kindly welcomed by the handsome manager with a lei of flowers. In a thoughtful display of good manners, her first words are to inquire what kind of recycling they have in place. Soon after, when Manu, the manager, offers to take her outside the resort to find a venue for her friend's wedding rehearsal, she thanks him complaining that the vehicle uses a lot of gas, further wondering if they own a large fleet. The movie does not specify whether Sara, to avoid using fuel, has reached the Hawaii by windsurf or swimming through the ocean. Unfortunately, these are most of the spice in the entire film, if one excludes the overplayed conflict between Manu and his overbearing, unpleasant parents. The rest of the story has no drama, very lukewarm romantic or emotional content, and questionable chemistry between the lead characters. Essentially, it feels that somebody at Hallmark has decided that an inane script of overused banalities can be salvaged by a superficial "save the planet" message and the background of a tropical island.

The players have been miscast. Kanoa Goo appears, and likely is, much younger than Taylor Cole. The rest are unimportant, as all play roles with no substance or depth. By age and personality, Greta Thunberg would have made a better match for the main role. As a peeve of my own, I regret that Taylor Cole, whom I have always liked, seems to get less significant roles each year that goes by. I may be wrong, yet I feel she could manage more mature and deep characters and a chance to work in more intelligent productions.

Next time Hallmark plans another such exotic adventure, they should devote more space to views of the nature. At least, when the viewers get bored and fall asleep, they may be lulled by tropical dreams.

6.5 stars.

It's not a bad film really. The plot is good enough to keep an audience around and the scenery is breathtaking. It's about an ecologist who is of course very very adamant about the environment and all that good stuff. There are some glaring inconsistencies. First of all, she is complaining about the gas powered automobiles, but then again she flies all around the world throughout the year. If she was truly an environmentalist, she would take a rowboat. Let's face it, you cannot be an eco-activist without hypocrisizing everything. The male actor does a good job and I liked his acting style. There are some pretty mundane scenes and it doesn't take much intelligence to follow 'Aloha Heart', but somehow there is an entertaining aspect to it. The acting is not bad. Who knows, but it was enough to raise my rating from a dismal 5.5 up to a 6.5.

Hallmark movies are never exciting. I get that. I know what I signed up for with this movie, but this one was especially dull. The friend's wedding sequence was way too long. It was a big "Who cares?" moment. The rest of the movie didn't have much happen either. What should they have done instead? How about showing us how this lead couple falls for each other? That would have been so much more interesting. A couple looks here and there isn't enough.

The lead characters seemed like a ridiculous match, and not just because of the obvious age gap. I can accept age gaps as a thing that happens. What doesn't happen, though, is someone on vacation from the mainland US trying to date someone from Hawaii. Get real! In the real world, this would end up being a fling at best.

Yes, the scenery was excellent, but that's not enough to carry a movie. Realistic situations and better writing is what is needed. This movie looks like they spent about 3 days making it, and it just wasn't good enough.

Taylor Coles Acting in this movie -excellent!

Kanoa Goo good performance.

Scenery of Hawaii- beautiful.

The pairing of the leads, not believable.

The story? It did not even come close to piecing together in a way that made real sense. You need to review the movie before you publish it. Honest, unbiased reviewers would tell you the movie is lacking. This review is asking for 600 words, but sometimes less is more, and often extra words are just wasted time and effort. So I apologize in advance for the following wasted words" El gato es! El gato es efuego!" El gato es enfuego! El gato es enfuego!