Love Under the Olive Tree

This film wasn't unpleasant to watch, just a little lacking in energy. It also was weird that a film that was obviously created for the channel's Fall Harvest promotion wound up on the air in June.

A lot of these films do the Romeo and Juliet family squabble thing, but this one directly steals almost its entire setup from last year's Fall Harvest entry, Love, Fall, and Order as a it involves a dispute over property lines.

This film has a rehashed plot of the 2016 Hallmark Film "Autumn in the Vineyard". The female leads in both films are both neurotic and start off closed off in the beginning until the male lead helps them "open up". In both films the female and male leads have a "History" and are competitive. Both films had competition where the one of the leads gets the land if they win. The only difference this time around is that its olives/olive oil and not wine. The few occasional cutesy moments were not enough to redeem this film. The rehashed plots are getting more and noticeable. Hallmark films are a fun guilty pleasure but not when you can recognized a rehashed plot. "Autumn in the Vineyard" did it better. Hallmark needs to stop taking its audience for granted.

Even though this Hallmark has a relatively high rating all of the reviews seem to be very negative. So I feel like it's my duty to give it a good review. First of all yes, yes, yes, it does incorporate many many many of the hallmark cliches and stock story lines. What a shocker! Alert the media. First of all I liked the Olive Oil making plot line. It was certainly different and I enjoyed the fresh setting other than chocolate and wine. It was interesting unlike blueberries or pumpkins. The two leads had good chemistry. The family conflict and rivalry kept my interest. I liked that the grandfathers who started the feud were actually more reasonable than their offspring. It was realistic. I also loved the secondary romance of her best friend and the coffee shop owner. It was sweet. I was invested in the outcome of the olive oil Judging and wager and happy that there was a clear winner and it was the one I was rooting for.

Let's be honest, neither Hallmark, Lifetime or UpTv (to name a few) are very creative when it comes to plots. However, this is not a bad movie in general terms.

So, yes, it's another seasonal storyline involving some family feud and inconsecuential competitions. Another reviewer said it was a boring movie because he didn't care much about olive oil. I couldn't help but laugh, because most of these type of films involves things like that: pumpking pies; cranberries; maple syrup and a big etcetera. It's always the biggest and most important competition.... but you end up seing how many contestants? 3 or 4 at most, and less than 15 pleople in the public. But is what we are used to. You take it or leave it. I mean, we have seen way too many films based on small towns with plots like "save christmas", "save the anual celebration", "let's plan the town's dance".... and you end up watching less than 15 people in it.

So, my point: The plot is simple, non creative, but it works for this kind of movies (seasonal romance). The main characters were ok. Chemistry between them was just fine... not amazing, but certainly better than at least 30 other hallmark movies I've seen.

About the gay couple (which as being bashed by some old-dynosaur-school reviewers . Shame on you), I think both actors were great and their chemistry was quite good. Everything about them was very subtle (maybe way too subtle) and it was treated naturally, avoiding stereotypes, just how it should be.

The plot has been over-used, and the acting not very believable. Even the supporting cast left a lot to be desired. I saw no comedy or romance in this movie. Maybe some fresh new talent from the writers on down to the bit players would be able to salvage this wreck.