I sapori del Portogallo

The usual Hallmark stuff. Boring characters in an uninspired story. At least this one has nice scenery.

Middle-aged woman who works as a "prep cook" on the TV cooking show whines and whimpers when she gets a chance to take the spotlight when the show's star "quits."

I've never seen a prep cook or food stylist actually get air time on a cooking show other than IRON CHEF.

Anyway, she's "pursued" by two overly-groomed young men (enough with the 2-day beards already) while she dithers. We also get to see some shots of cheeses and breads in a fake market place.

Supporting cast is uniformly bad and all attempts at humor flop. That doesn't leave much. The dead fish wins the acting honors.

Honestly, the only reason I chose to watch A Pinch of Portugal among the multitude of generic Hallmark Channel romantic movies is because I lived in Portugal for a couple years. And the truth is that this is just a generic Hallmark Channel romantic movie, it's just set in Portugal. There's not anything particularly amazing or terrible about it. It's what you'd expect it to be. Heather Hemmens does fine in the lead role, but most of the other characters are one-dimensional or half-baked. I also expected to get hungrier during a movie about cooking shows. Este é um bom filme para passar o tempo.

7.2 stars.

The whole food theme is overdone, however it's not been done exactly like this one yet, so that's the only fresh thing about this film. The setting of Portugal is cool, but the whole scene is too polished, too much Hallmark, not quite enough foreign feeling to it. I didn't get the full zest of Portugal, it's too Western-Canadian-British-Aussie feeling and not enough of the grit and grime of the actual country they are attempting to capture. The man who runs the market is a sleeze, which was actually off-putting, I wanted to root for him. The lead female has been in several Hallmarks. She has charisma, the only saving grace of this movie.

Anna (Heather Hemmens) is the prep cook working in the background on a TV cooking show. While the arrogant host is away, she leads a team including hot Australian cameraman Russ (Luke Mitchell) to Portugal to prepare for an upcoming episode. She is guided by local grocer Lucas (Duarte Gomes).

Normally, Hallmark doesn't do love triangles. They usually go much more simplistic and undramatic. With Portugal as the exotic backdrop, I expected Anna to go off with the exotic man in the European locations. I can honestly say that I wasn't sure about the resolution during the first half of the movie. It does become obvious soon enough. It's not really that much of a triangle after all. Hallmark is still not actually doing dramas.

40-something Heather Hemmens plays Anna, a prep cook for a noted chef, they have a TV show, the chef believes strongly that only what actually goes on in the kitchen is important and interesting. He seems a bit difficult to work with.

It is contract renewal time and they are all scheduled to take the crew to Portugal for the next shoot. But the chef has not agreed yet and to stay on schedule they go anyway, without him, presuming he will join them in a few days.

What all this does is give Anna and the crew an opportunity to try something different, to take the show to different places, the origins of the food. The market, the fishing boat, etc. When the chef does return this causes friction.

Heather Hemmens has such a good, natural, authentic acting style that it never seems like "acting" and that is what makes this movie rise above the ordinary. My wife and I enjoyed it, streaming on Peacock.

And of course it includes lots of nice scenery of Portugal. Plus I learned of a new drink, Ginja, which is a sweet liqueur made from sour cherries soaked in a distilled spirit called aguardente. The mixture is flavored with sugar and spices like cinnamon.