Il ritratto dell'amore

I need to say up front that you have to accept the fantasy portion of the film where William dreams of Lily throughout his life and paints her, including birth marks. Once you you get past that, the movie is beautiful. The acting is exceptional. The scenery of western Ireland was beautiful. The Irish characters were wonderful with their friendliness, accents and sayings. I've been to Ireland four times and found the characters to be real. The only thing unusual was the lack of Gaelic.

Overall, a beautiful movie where the main characters find love and heal from previous loses. Highly recommend.

In this Hallmark movie we first see a group of ladies who work at a museum. They receive a painting of a lovely lady and it looks exactly, not similar, yes exactly like one of the curators. They are all puzzled and dumbfounded when she tells the others that she has never posed for such a portrait. Is it really "Love's Portrait?"

They manage to find the shipping receipt and figure out it came from Ireland. So the lady who is boss really tries to convince her that it might be fate, she should go to Ireland and figure it out. At first very reluctant, when she relents her boss presents her with the travel itinerary, airline tickets and all.

Fortunately most of the movie is filmed in Ireland with Irish actors. They make excellent use of the beautiful Irish scenery.

Though, I must remark that they cheat a bit. Hallmark movies are noted for waiting until one minute from the end for what my wife and I call "The Hallmark Kiss." Well there is one, right at one minute from the end, but that is the second one. The first one comes at about 15 minutes before the end.

Oh, well, we will forgive them. It is a suitably entertaining movie. At home, streaming on Peacock.

I enjoyed this film very much. The accents were real and not faked as in many Hallmark movies. I recognized many places they visited as sites we traveled to on our tours in Ireland. The scenery and music made me feel as if I was back there again. The story was sweet and fanciful without need to be realistic - it was like an Irish story being told where you don't know how much is real and how much is fantasy but it doesn't really matter in the end. All that matters is the love and connections made. I think the main characters had chemistry and were believable. I don't understand why the female lead carried an umbrella while the male lead did not since it didn't look like it was raining at the time that they were visiting each O'Brien in the area.

One annoyance was the friend/boss Michelle who acted wooden and unrealistically pushy.

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie with it's quest to answer a question to which we already know the answer. The real point is when will Lily discover who the painter is and will William get up the courage to tell her the truth. How the painting travelled to Lily's museum in the U. S. is also a sweet story and Gerry Herbert as Jonathan O'Brien plays an important piece of the puzzle. I thought the acting was good and really enjoyed the interaction between Aubrey Reynolds as Lilly and Richard McWilliams as William. However, my favorite character was Saoirse played wonderfully by Kathryn McKiernan. While everyone else is searching for answers or true love, Saoirse is comfortable in her own skin and her lot in life. McKiernan plays this role with such joy and sincerity that it's hard not to fall in love with Saoirse and her small life, which is not small at all. Her dedication to the Post, her parents legacy, and the joy of her little village is very compelling and Kathryn McKiernan brings this character to life wonderfully. Unlike most Hallmark movies, this one was actually filmed in Ireland, not Canada which would have been a stretch. The scenery was beautiful and it was filmed beautifully as well. I truly loved this movie and it took me back to my visits to the Emerald Isle.

This is a fairly standard quest story with some romantic fantasy thrown in. The quest is for the source and history of the painting. Lily and William spend much of the movie on a leisurely paced quest. I found it a little too leisurely.

There is a bit of obsession with a cross between finding/having a soulmate and destiny. That's the romantic fantasy part because the story seems to prove one or the other or both.

I had trouble finding much chemistry between Aubrey Reynolds and Richard McWilliams. McWilliams was restrained and William's secret (which we learn very early) keeps an invisible barrier between them.

The boss, Michelle, was over the top annoying in the beginning but quieted down at least a little after that.

This movie was mostly a miss for me. It wasn't because of Aubrey Reynolds who held her own and her looks are attractive and mysterious at the same time. My main impression of the movie is a slow shallow story which wasn't helped by the obsession with the idea of a soulmate.

But I think many, especially less right brained people than me, will love this.