Moriah's Lighthouse

Wood worker Moriah (Rachelle Lefevre) dreams of restoring the old lighthouse in her small seaside French town. Ben (Luke Macfarlane) arrives in town with plans of his own. She hits him with her bicycle. I like the French location. The story is fine for a Hallmark romance. This could be a nice romance but one thing keeps bugging me. Lefevre is playing a French girl. She may be well-skilled in French but the audience have seen her speak perfect English. In this, she's speaking English with that fake French accent and it's weird. My brain keeps telling me that she's faking this. The last thing I want from my brain is it telling me that it's all fake. Everything else is secondary.

Aside from the obvious upside of shooting 'Moriah's Lighthouse' on the French coast, the movie also benefits from having a script written by Paul Campbell. When he isn't starring in some of Hallmark's best and most successful movies, he's writing them. One heck of a double act.

Luke Macfarlane is as reliable as ever in the role of Ben McCane and has some genuinely funny scenes. Sometimes "comedy" in Hallmark movies falls awkwardly and embarrassingly flat, but not in 'Moriah's Lighthouse'.

Macfarlane and Rachelle Lefevre, who I've never seen before in a Hallmark movie, are a brilliant couple. Their chemistry works really well.

Throw in the undeniably beautiful scenery, and - despite a few plot holes - you have an above-average Hallmark movie.

The scenery was incredible. I had to check that indeed it was filmed in France, and not somewhere in Canada. I was relieved it was.

I like these two, two of my favorites but they didn't sell this very well. It seemed forced. Her French accent was horrible. At one time she was painting furniture with a brush and I was thinking that should be stained, with a rag. And then in another scene, she WAS staining it with a rag. The production wasn't the best.

But, I enjoyed it, wish I could have rewarded it with higher rating.

Had high hopes for this one. There are some funny moments but the storyline is unrealistic, requiring a stretch of the imagination to make the story remotely believable. The lead actress bouncing between a French accent and English with no accent was distracting. Hallmark movies of late are using the same plot devices over and over. Too formulaic, and lacking in originality despite beautiful locations and some wonderful actors.

I love Luke MacFarland and Rachelle LeFevre. And he was his usual charming self. She was not at all believable. Her fake accent was grating and seeing her "working" on an antique wooden chest wearing a shoulder less blue sweater and a leather apron was laughable. I struggled to stay interested in spite of the beautiful scenery and architecture. They just weren't enough to compensate for the lousy storyline and fake accents.