Romance à la Carte

Hearts Down Under or Romance on the menu, either way this was a formulaic Hallmark Romantic film...light and breezy with a Happy Ending.

Stubborn control freak New York Laboratoire restaurant owner and chef Caroline inherits a quaint Australian restaurant named The Seagull from her deceased aunt Doreen. Caroline goes to Australia to sell the restaurant quickly and get back to New York for an important critic review. While in Australia she stays in a cottage owned by Simon Cook, who turns out to be the cook at The Seagull. As the staff rally together to convince Caroline not to sell, Simon and Caroline spar and one up each other over their differences in cooking. Desperate to make repairs quickly in order to sell the restaurant Caroline strikes up a deal to cook for Simon while he does the needed repairs on the restaurant for the building inspector which is required for her quick sale.

Caroline gets to know the staff and loosens up a bit in the process. There is a ridiculous looking dog named Spatch (short for spatula) and sunny beach scenes...but the best part is really the actor who plays Simon Cook. He looks a bit like an Australian version of Ben Affleck and he really wins you over with his smile.

A typical Hallmark movie but even more cheesy than normal and with lots and lots of plot holes. As another reviewer said "Busby is awful, she plays the same character in all of her films". There is absolutely zero chemistry between the leads (and it feels like we missed something because all of the sudden there's love when just moments ago the characters hated each other). The plot is obviously predictable from the first minutes. The argument is lousy and the "final conflict" part is just too rushed and just strange. The cooking, ocean and the Australians are nice though. Really liked the girl playing Beth.

I normally like Hallmark romances but this one was too boring and weird (like, all was too unbelievable). Would not recommend nor watch again.

Expectations were very mixed to not particularly excited. This sort of film can be charming if done right and Australia is absolutely wonderful in terms of scenery and culture, not to mention food. A large part of me knew that 'Hearts Down Under' (aka 'Romance on the Menu') would be very predictable and nothing special, and with a few exceptions Cindy Busby is not my cup of tea as an actress and has a fairly limited and samey range (even for somebody typecast/pigeon holed in these roles).

My mixed to not particularly excited expectations were not improved upon in the execution. This could have been much better than expected and there are many films that sound nothing special and very basic that turn out to be at least above average and even pretty decent. 'Hearts Down Under'/'Romance on the Menu' is not one of those films and actually turned out to be worse than expected. It has a few good things but also a lot of major bad things.

The good things shall be begun with. The scenery is absolutely magical and the photography does nothing to cheapen it and even enhances, clearly in love with it without being self-indulgent. The food looks amazing and makes the mouth water.

Also thought that Tim Ross did very well with what he was given, the character is underwritten but he has a natural charisma and is easy going.

Busby unfortunately is another story, she never looks comfortable and can be hammy. She also provides no variation on a type of role she contiually played in in a similar way each time for Hallmark. The supporting cast are stuck with cliched ciphers and are forgettable. So is the music, which is also intrusive. Busby and Ross have no chemistry together in a romance that doesn't develop very well and everything about it has a seen it all before vibe.

Something that is true with the story throughout, a well worn formula with all the typical Hallmark plot and character cliches executed in a mundane and more of the same formulaic way. The final third is especially predictable and is contrived and too convenient. Not to mention that it is paper thin and often moves at too slow a pace. The script is full of cheese and schmaltz and never flows naturally.

Overall, weak. 3/10.

...please note this was a Netflix film. Hallmark just bought and retooled it a year later to fill out the schedule.

Great movie without setting the world on fire. Definitely worth a watch. Not an action packed movie but really enjoyable story line