To Barcelona, with Love

It's too bad if this movie is a rip off of an earlier movie, but it's not that uncommon in this genre. Often I see new movies on this network and similar networks that make me stop to be sure I haven't watched it before. I don't think I ever saw the one this supposedly copies, so I thought the story was clever regardless.

It is also very common for Hallmark to use their older actors in roles that could be filled by younger stars. And they have some great younger stars.

It is also true that if you watch much of Ashley Williams, her smile definitely looks pasted on.

So what? I enjoyed the interplay between these two veteran actresses. It was complicated. At some points maybe too complicated to feel smooth and natural. But real life is not smooth and natural. In this story, we saw too women struggling, at least in part, with their identity.

On this site, I see so many complaints about the stories not being fresh. I even complain myself about the "same old stuff" rehashed with little creativity. A rip-off or not, this story is not the same old stuff. And the two veteran ladies make this movie about more than the story itself.

Many reviews discuss "chemistry" between the leads. In this movie the chemistry is between Sweeney and Williams and it is very good. There is a romance between a man and a woman also, but it is secondary.

6.7 stars.

This appears on the surface to be about an American woman named Erica (Sweeney) who is a translator of English novels into Spanish. She takes liberties in her work, which she isn't necessarily supposed to do; but since she is anonymous and bound by an NDA, it's permissible.

She has been living in Barcelona for about ten years and is obviously infatuated with a Spanish man named Nico. He owns a bookstore in the city. One particular novel she has translated was written by a woman named Anna (Williams). Nico and the rest of the city love the novel, not realizing that they actually love Erica's translation, not the original.

Anna has come to Barcelona to help publicize her novel at Nico's bookstore, and the rest of the story is about how both women are falling for Nico. There is also some drama surrounding the novel and how Erica's Spanish version captures the essence of the story much better than the original English version.

There is more to the story, about how both women learn from each other, because Anna lacks direction and Erica needs courage. And there is the romance (or lack thereof). Who will get the guy?

I'd like to say this is a poignant and romantic adventure, but it doesn't quite arrive at its intended destination. A lot is missing, and I feel it's a bit too silly and lacks soul. Honestly, I'm not sure what is absent, but something just isn't right. It's probably a lack of chemistry all around and I wasn't touched. I don't plan on seeing this again.

Hey, when you watch Hallmark, do not delve into the intricacies of story or plot. Just sit back and enjoy it. Both leads, even though a bit on the older side were both adorable and fit their parts. Even the story was a bit elevated for a Hallmark movie. To Barcelona, With Love is actually a take on Cyrano. One lead wrote beautiful words for the other. While not brilliant it works and the expected outcome does come to fruition. The male lead is fine and up to his European good looking guy part. The cinematography of Barcelona shines through as well. If you are a Hallmark fan, this movie will certainly please you!

I have very mixed feelings about this movie.

Let's start with the good: I adore Alison Sweeney. Ride or die fan since her soap opera days. Her character, Erica, was grounded, relatable, and honestly the only reason I stuck it out to the end. She brought her usual warmth and charm, and I genuinely enjoyed her performance. That said, I did side-eye her for going along with Anna's wild ideas. I expected better decision-making from a woman who clearly has a functioning frontal lobe.

Now onto Anna. Whew. Where do I even begin? Watching her was like biting into what you think is a chocolate chip cookie and realizing it's raisins. Her energy was dialed up to eleven the entire time, and not in a fun, quirky way. Her behavior toward Erica was toe-curling levels of cringe. I'm all for bold female characters, but not when they bulldoze with an endless parade of eye-roll-inducing antics.

As for Ashley Williams-look, I know she has her fans, but I'm not one of them. She's fine, I guess, but every role feels like a copy-paste from the last one. Same facial expressions, same overly peppy delivery, like she's auditioning for a permanent slot on a yogurt commercial.

The chemistry between Erica and Nico had potential. Had. But every time it started to get interesting, the whole Anna hurricane would swoop in and wreck it. It felt unbalanced and forced-like trying to enjoy a quiet dinner while someone keeps clapping loudly in your face.

Now let's talk about the ageism because-oh honey-I have thoughts. I've seen other reviews saying these women were "too old" to be gallivanting around Europe and having adventures. I beg your pardon? Since when did joy and spontaneity come with an expiration date? I'm 45, and let me tell you-I'm not some decrepit cryptkeeper lurching toward early bird specials and orthopedic shoes. Women don't just shrivel into irrelevance past 40, and the suggestion that they should is straight-up offensive. Midlife is not a personality flaw.

So, final verdict: this movie wasn't for me. The storyline felt flat, the romantic chemistry fizzled more than it sizzled, and the whole dynamic was off balance. I won't be rewatching it, but I will be rewatching Alison Sweeney in literally anything else-preferably without being overshadowed by an exhausting sidekick and a script that forgot how to be fun and meaningful.

Hallmark movies run the qualitative spectrum from bombs to masterpieces. One thing they do particularly well is adapting the premises of old literary classics to modern times. (My personal favorites of those are the ones adapted from the works of Jane Austen.)

I agree that the two lead females, Alison Sweeney and Ashley Williams, were a little too long in the tooth for their characters, but I'm not sure any two other actors would've done a better job with the chemistry between themselves and with the other characters. Both are in their 40s; Sweeney's character Erica is supposed to be an American who moved to Barcelona ten years earlier after breaking up with her boyfriend, so is at least in her early 30s and nothing says she can't be a bit older than that. Not a deal-breaker for me. Williams's character Anna is supposed to have just published her second romance novel, which readers and critics say indicate (correctly) that she has neither been to Barcelona nor ever been in love. Not a deal-breaker for me either; speaking of Jane Austen, she was one of the greatest romance novelists of all time and, granted that she lived over two centuries ago under the mores thereof, by all indications she died a 40something virgin; she was a great success remembered to this day while Anna's budding writing career is sinking fast. So age of the characters does not make for implausibility.

The promos for this movie didn't give any hint that there was going to be any kind of adaptation of an old classic. I thought this was going a be a run of the mill Hallmark Rom-Com for the first several minutes of the film. I was pleasantly surprised when the plot twist revealed that adaptation, which I recognized immediately, and was doubly surprised by the fact, since this was a movie set in Spain with two American characters and the remainder of the characters being Spanish, that the old classic was a French literary work about French characters, totally unexpected.

I don't want to have to post a Spoiler Alert, so as an unpublished novelist myself (I've been procrastinating on self-publication of one novel for literally decades) and having read a number books originally written in a foreign language, I've always wondered how accurate the English translations I've been reading were to the original work. Let's just say that the answer to that figures heavily in the plot and leads to the adaptation of the old classic. I can hardly wait for the second half of the story next weekend. Enjoy!