As Luck Would Have It

When you review the movie before it's over.

What a great salute to Ireland!

Hallmark needs to add JoAnna Garcia Swisher to their rotation of actors because she's such a natural on screen. Actually the whole cast are amazing-they give a real feel of the place.

Hope there's a sequel.

This is a beautiful movie, and deserves sequels! Like other Hallmark movies filmed in Rome, Paris and Africa, location authenticity raises the bar. There is beautiful scenery, quaint locales, pub music, brogue, and whiskey. Sláinte!

"Luck" isn't your typical Hallmark movie, but in the best of ways. It has a "Leap Year" (2010) charm. 'Lindsay' favors Amy Adams, and 'Brennan' has Matthew Goode's wry humor and touch of melancholy.

Hallmark truly redeemed itself from what my disappointment in "Forever in My Heart" (2019). Ok, "Luck" has another hotel development project intersecting local Ireland, but it shows us more of Ireland, including the majestic Cliffs of Moher. JoAnna Swisher is utterly charming. Allen Leach is a native Irishman, and his accent and use of the old Irish language are second nature, not coached.

As attractive and welcome the fresh faces of the two leads were, this one did not impress. I loved the authentic setting in Ireland as well, but the plot was totally forced. The whole premise was based on a hotel chain wanting to tear down a historic and beautiful castle in order to replace it with a glass, steel, and concrete monstrosity. That is totally bizarre. What traveler to rural Ireland would prefer such an accommodation over a beautiful castle? Not one sane one with any sense or taste. Why would they be visiting Ireland in the first place if not to soak in it's atmosphere, beauty, and history? If you want modern, stay in Dublin. And to think that any representative of the Hotel could lobby for such a notion and still be considered a sympathetic heroine does not fly. Nope. This one did not pass the smell test. If they wanted to copy Leap Year with Amy Adams and Matthew Goode, they should have gone all the way and copied the story line as well.

I confess that I may be biased because I have enjoyed everything I have seen JoAnna Garcia Swisher do (and this isn't the first time I have seen her kiss a handsome Irish lad in Ireland). She is beautiful, funny and engaging. Together with her fellow lead, Allen Leech, she captured your attention and then together they made the romance believable. It wasn't over acted which was refreshing...and came across as natural.

JoAnna plays a character who goes to Ireland to talk a town council in to selling their castle to be demolished and redeveloped by her development firm into a modern resort to draw tourists to the town. The town, as luck would have it, has a matchmaking festival which she enters because the council doesn't even listen to her pitch due to her not being familiar with their community. As it turns out she is thoughtful, engaged and hard working...she earns the respect of the head of the council...and a shot at a new pitch.

Sweet film, worth watching...especially for JoAnna.

Being a Hallmark movie my wife and I knew what to expect. They are all clean and follow the Hallmark formula. Attractive single woman and attractive single man are attracted to each other but some big differences need to be worked out before they can find real love.

In this story she is a USA based negotiator for a big company that buys properties and builds hotels and resorts. She is sent to a quaint village on the Irish coast to do a deal but the locals don't want to sell unless the old, run-down castle can be preserved. The village badly needs money.

He (a real Irishman) seems to be the local jack of all trades. He runs the pub, he makes his own Irish whiskey, he is involved in the yearly matchmaking festival, and a few other things. Including having played Tom Branson on Downton Abbey.

All in all a nicely entertaining movie, beautifully filmed, viewed at home on DVD from our public library.