French Romance

This is a Hallmark romantic comedy about Terry Russell who is a famous romance novelist, but since her divorce is struggling to write. She lets her friend and publicist fix her up a blind date with said friend's brother. The date starts very badly when he thinks the woman next to her is his date...and then proceeds to royally put his foot in his mouth. Terry pulls the plug on their date and leaves...but the friend's brother, Matthew Everston, ends up more concerned about the bad review his restaurant receives from a critic.

Under a harsh deadline, Terry agrees to use her friend's summer villa in France to try to get some inspiration for writing...only when her and her daughter arrive...they aren't alone at the villa, Matthew is there. The two eventually agree to coexist at the villa...but it is not long before tempers are riding again, you see Matthew not only restaurant owning, but he is a bit of a celebrity chef known as "chef Cupid".

The real glue that holds this rom-com together however is Abby, Terry's daughter who at first was very unhappy about being pulled away from her friends and home...but eventually loosens up and finds her passion by way of cooking!

The film starts a little choppy, but warms up if you let it, into a sweet romantic comedy. I recommend this to all you romantics and hallmark fans out there.

The combining of literature and romance is a very common combination in film, but it is one that has often worked really well. Hallmark have revisited this type of story quite a lot and the success has varied (better faring though than most of their commonly visited scenarios). Hilarie Burton does good work when in the right role and Victor Webster, who is more familiar to me and has the more consistent filmography, is always watchable. The 2016 Summer Nights output was hit and miss.

'Summer Villa' is one of the hits and, even with its shortcomings, it is one of the better 2016 Summer Nights films. It is not perfect or even great, but it is charming and well done in a lot of areas and is a lot more interesting than the uninspired title suggests. As far as Hallmark's 2016 output goes, which was expectedly very up and down like the previous and subsequent years for them, 'Summer Villa' is somewhere around high middle. Not one of the best, also not one of the worst.

Admittedly it is formulaic, with a final act that has been seen frequently in Hallmark's Summer Nights films while the ending, while sweet, is on the too pat side. While there is chemistry between Burton and Webster, there could have been more spark in the early portions.

Will agree that the whining is overdone initially and it takes time for Burton to properly relax and tone down.

Once she does though, it is a much better performance. One that has real perky charm. Webster has great likeability and is subtly charismatic and easy going. While there have been spark and development to their relationship, they do gel and did like how it was genuine and wasn't forced or melodramatic. The supporting cast are fine, no real issues there. The characters are typical but are mostly engaging and not too hard to connect with, Burton's character at first being the only real reservation.

Furthermore, the production values are very strong. The scenery, which is the real location, is breathtaking and captured in its full beauty. Did appreciate that it wasn't used in too much of a travelogue-like way that has been obvious in too many Hallmark films set abroad. The music isn't too constant or loud, the script is suitably light hearted and flows well and even with it being predictable the story doesn't try to do more than necessary and is very charming and not cheesy or over sentimental.

Concluding, good but not great. 7/10.

Is it super original? No. But it's quite good in the romcom genre en therefor very enjoyable. The actors can actually act, they feel relatable even though the male lead is muscular and the female very skinny (too skinny for my taste).

Their characters are not over the top, not clownish, as we quite often see in this kind of movies. The writer and cook scenario is most unoriginal, but it didn't bother me too much this time. I can't really put my finger on it, but I liked them. They weren't too smooth, they felt quite real.

I am usually not charmed with a child character. They are always too wise, too cute and perfect. But in this movie the teenage daughter really added something, eventhough in the beginning she was too flat and predictable.

So: enjoyable and definitely above average for a romcom.

Loved it. Everyone played their role beautifully. Storyline awesome. Hilarie is beautiful. Loved it. The music was awesome. Made me feel I was really in France. I hope there will be. Sequel to this movie soon.hallmark thank you for all the good movies. Watched it several times. All actors were perfect for the roles they had. Beautifu movie.

This movie was actually decent, the acting was really good and the leads have chemistry and the story was good for hallmark standing