Coup de foudre au lagon bleu

It's that this should not be a character Lacey is still playing. Give it to one of the newbies where a younger or more unknown actress (NOT a slam, Lacey is only a couple years older than me) could be more believable with responding to life drama this way. How many times have we seen Lacey in a role close enough to this? In fact, it might have been smarter to let the character be a divorcee (since HM is doing that now) like the book. Again, Lacey is 40/41? It would fit what is not uncommon in the lives of women in our age group. Let the story be told from that POV and develop it from there, instead of this grown woman running away from a boyfriend. I actually have the same issue with a few of Nikki DeLoach's romcoms.

I do like Lacey, (although not all of her movies), but I got bored with this one. The scenery was great. I'm hoping to vacation in Hawaii next year, so I loved it. I love any beautiful shots of the beach. Speaking of which, the beach/tropical movie with Hunter King was better. Sorry Lacey.

Chef breaks up with her boyfriend/boss who has basically been using her and gives her no respect. Very familiar. She retreats to visit family, in Hawaii. Even more familiar. One slight difference is that her ex shows up as formal advisor at the cooking contest she enters.

Meanwhile she is trying to learn to surf. A fair amount of time is spent on this thread and it allows her to interact with her romantic interest. Lacey Chabert and Ektor Rivera have some chemistry but not a lot. The acting is decent enough. It is a very common theme in these movies that each lead inspires the other to get out of their individual rut in life. Nothing surprising here and it leads to a predictable conclusion.

Overall this movie is pretty much the same old thing which puts the pressure on the relationships and actors. As I mentioned, I didn't find anything exceptional here.

Waste of Lacey Chabert's talent and status. Listless and dull dialog, entirely predictable which fails to utilize Lacey's skills.

The silly body double scenes were cheesy and did not appear to be deliberately do, in order to join the audience into an inside Hallmark joke.

Several cringe like moments cemented this onto a movie that will not be watched more than once, as so many good Hallmark movies are watched year after year.

We watched only the first 15 minutes and then turned it off. A few weeks later we went back to it and watched it through the end. We were reminded why we bailed out earlier.

When the most suspenseful aspect of the movie is when Lacey is going to put on a swimsuit, you know you're in trouble. I mean there's Hawaii, and a beach, and an ocean. There is a very fit guy as a love interest with many abs and everything. So of course he's in a swimsuit. He's giving her surfing lessons. They are in the ocean together throughout the movie. But I guess if Lacey Chabert doesn't want to wear a swimsuit (not expecting a bikini here) she doesn't wear a swimsuit! You can tell it was an issue because it looks so odd that they have to make a joke about it at the beginning.

Other than Lacey's strange swimwear, and the nice scenery there is not much to see here. She dumps her "boyfriend" because he is a user and disrespects her and flees to Hawaii to be with her Aunt June. And I don't blame her! Aunt June has a house right on the beach and must have cost a billion dollars. By the end, she gets the hot guy, learns to surf, wins a contest, and gets her own restaurant. But (spoiler alert) she never puts on a swimsuit.

Lots of food eye candy and flavor combinations in this tropical Hallmark romance between a chef and a professional surfer.

Lacey Chabert plays Emma, a professional chef whose famous "bachelor" chef boyfriend keeps taking credit for her work. Emma quits from his restaurant and his life and goes to visit her aunt in Hawaii to regroup and figure out what she wants to do next. There she meets Ben a professional surfer who after the loss of his wife has stopped doing things that bring him joy (like surfing) and his brother a restaurant owner and professional chef specializing in Puerto Rican cuisine. Emma getting surf lessons from Ben and entering an island cooking contest with his brother. Surprise! Her ex-boyfriend shows up as the celebrity chef consultant for the cooking contest.

This romance was a little predictable, but it was set in a lush local and did give a little history lesson on the Puerto Rican population in Hawaii. My favorite part was Ben's backstory with his wife being his pen pal first and that after they married they still wrote letters and hid them for one another to find. (Sweet, romantic and really a lost art!)

I didn't hate it and if you are looking for a "find yourself" romance Hallmark style...this could be the film for you.