Love on the Danube: Love Song

I wanted to like this movie. Having done a river cruise and recognised the locations. But I ended up wondering if I should get off at the next city.

The two main characters had about as much chemistry as a fizzled firecracker. Wasn't sure if I was to wait for the excursion to finish or fast forward to the next one.

If you do a movie using a river cruise on the Danube, at least try to add some sort of passion and romance. It felt like the characters had just met two minutes ago throughout the whole movie even when they were more than halfway through the cruise.

However, I give it five for filming on the Danube. But please, Love on the Danube it isn't. I wanted so much to like this movie.

(The first of a trilogy of films set on European cruise boats to launch the Hallmark + streaming service)

To be honest, "Love on the Danube - Love Song" moved along at what could charitably be called a gentle pace and there really wasn't a whole lot of drama. It's a feel-good story with a spectacular European backdrop.

Wes Brown is a reliable Hallmark star. I could name a half-dozen of his appearances, and he's always very good. I'd not seen Nazneen Contractor before, but she does a good job in this movie. However, the scenery is arguably the real star of the show. Good to see Hallmark filming on location. It makes a huge difference and more often than not results in a much better movie, from an atmospheric standpoint.

"Love Song" benefits from an on-location shoot and two well-cast leads. Brown and Contractor have good chemistry, which is 80% of the battle won with these Hallmark movies.

This was not Hallmark's best. Dare I say, it was its top 10 worst. First, the makeup artist chose to give all the women dark smokey eyes, with a dreaded wing eyeliner. It managed to make the mother look older and tired. I mean her WHOLE eyelid was black. Come on! The makeup artist managed to give the daughter turned down eyes which in turn made her look sad all the time. I love Wes Brown and his comedic timing is superb, but how y'all managed to make him boring is a special kind of talent. They had no absolutely chemistry to me. I couldnt buy into their story. The storyline did not do it for me either. This was snoozefest.

The quality of this movie left so much to be desired starting with a poor script and lack of cohesiveness and chemistry. Some of the wardrobe was lacking and makeup in some cases was the worst I've ever seen, especially for one character (who was also the victim of the poor wardrobe choices).

The scenery was phenomenal but that's because actual historical sites in Europe were used. That's the only reason I stayed with this movie until the end, having personally visited these sites in the past. Still, I could just as easily (and should have) looked at my own videos and photos for the memory factor.

Catherine Disher was the saving grace.

What a boring movie, I kept nodding off. The locations in Hungary were beautiful, especially Budapest. Wes Brown is always a reliable actor in Hallmark's rom-coms, the rest of the cast was ok. Catherine Disher was a stand out, she has stage presence.

A bad script and dialog are what made it a very boring movie. The same topics were regurgitated over and over again along with Julia's performance anxiety. I was to the point of who cares if they ever get together or if Julia ever sings. . A first time screenwriter could probably have written a better script. If you're going to spend the money filming in Europe, get a decent script. Or just save the money and film it in Montreal or Quebec City and call it Paris.