Love's Greek to Me

I am used to parents manipulating their children using phrases like "we are a family", "only mommy will love you so much", so the mother in law did not leave a bad impression on me as a character. I have met worse.

The actress playing her, Marina Sirtis, did a pretty good job. So did. Torrey DeVitto. As for Yiannis Tsimitselis who played the boyfriend, he is as expressionless as always.

His character though was the real cringe, trying to manipulate his girlfriend using "you don't love me" and "you don't know what you want" in order to get his way with her. No, this is not love ,nor romance. This is pure gaslighting.

I really like Torrey Devito and she was ok in this one. She usually Carrie's her emotions better. Her acting was better in. RIP but I didn't really like that movie until I saw it twice. The mother in law to be was quite good. She played the part well. She seemed like a demanding mom.

The Greek male lead was so unbelievable and missed the mark. He had little chemistry.

The movie drama, always drama In hallmark, was extremely week. The movie seemed forced in parts. Tortes mom was good and future sister in-law but the rest were so so.

I hoped for better but there wasn't chemistry and many parts forced. I will adjust my review after I watch again. Hopefully for the better.

Some of the acting here is super-cringey - I'm looking at you, Marina Sirtis - but, setting that aside, Hallmark has done a sensational job of showcasing the beauty of Greek.

This might be their best on-location movie ever, at least as far as the setting goes. You almost forget about the plot - a cliched one, where Sirtis is the comically overbearing mother in law wanting to control every single facet of her son's wedding, bridezilla in this case is mother-in-law-zilla! - because of the scenery.

Plus, Torrey DeVitto is a delight. Not sure she's looked more radiant in a Hallmark movie. The costume department had her looking spectacular in every single scene.

I was impressed by scenery in this movie as much or more than any other movie I can remember. It is so exotic and beautiful. There are a lot of opportunities to enjoy it.

The story is a little different than a lot of the boy-meet-girl-etc romances because the central couple is already together and their romance is only nominally central to the story. Torrey DeVitto's Ilana is the center of the story and all of her relationships. Her relationships with Athena and with Mike are the most dominant, but also her mother and Mike's sister.

The story is also simple and very predictable. You can see the ending developing a little at a time from early on. But the heart of this movie is just that- the heart and much of that goes back to Ilana. The tension in this movie is more emotional than dramatic.

For half the movie, Athena is beyond annoying as a Momzilla. Actually monster-in-law. Like so many of these movies a character has a major personality change towards the end and actually becomes interesting.

The acting is mostly good. I won't say either way about Marina Sirtis because I was so annoyed by Athena for so long, but the rest of the cast did a good job. DeVitto carries the emotional heart of the story quite well The dialog is ok. It is not terribly witty, but there are some moments that it delves into deeper emotions.

I'll keep it short and sweet.

This is not your usual girl meets boy and the story of how they fall in love movie. This is about what happens after. And I just love that. I personally haven't seen much of that on Hallmark so it was a refreshing change.

It's a movie about love, family, and particularly about learning to trust and to adjust for the sake of the ones you love. For someone around the age of the main cast it deeply resonated with me and taught me so much. The sites were also really beautiful and had me wanting to go to Greece. Sigh...

All in all a lovely summer watch with some nice life lessons. I thoroughly recommend it.