Fiancés malgré eux

I'm glad I didn't listen to the other snarky reviewer who hated this movie. I absolutely loved this movie. Lately, many of the Hallmark movies seem to have cookie-cutter plots (and I still like those most of the time), but this was fresh. The actors had great chemistry, the music fit the movie very well (I kept Shazaming the songs... they will make a great Parisian playlist), and the scenery in Paris was amazing. I'm sure I'll watch it again soon, I liked it that much! Was it perfect? Of course not, what movie is. But for Hallmark, this was one of their best yet! If you enjoy music, romance, and beautiful scenery, you'll love it! It reminded me of an old fashioned romance.

We have here the start of a classic antipathetic romance, and unlike most antipathetic romances in these Hallmark movies, the writers had the courage to carry the tense relationship deep into the movie ... almost to the end, in fact.

The man (a Frenchman with a disaster in his family's business) develops exorbitantly expensive ideas for ad campaigns. The woman (with a one year disaster of a marriage in her past) is practical and keeps her ad campaign ideas sensible.

Together they're assigned to travel to Paris to secure the account of a French diamond jewelry house who wants to expand into the USA.

The story of their conflicting ideas for the ad campaign needed to win the account drives the movie, and in the end they come to an mutual idea surprisingly easily.

However, the movie is charming, in my mind more because of the older French couple who own the diamond house than the stars.

The uncomfortable plot really doesn't suit Paris - if the leads had simply been straightforward colleagues that fell in love whilst interviewing couples at romantic locations for the ad campaign, it would have made better use of the city. Instead the frequent bickering and stressful interactions the two have with each other and secondary characters, is just irritating and spoils memories of the place for those of us who've been. It doesn't make me want to go again, and nor see this production through, and definitely not rewatch. It's a missed opportunity really, as there could have been a great movie produced with this team if the script had been more uplifting.

Anna Bowman (Alexa PenaVega) and Sebastian Laurent (Nicholas Bishop) are co-workers in an advertising agency and they don't get along. She's a by-the-numbers account manager and he's the creative kind. They are forced to team up for a pitch in Paris. A misunderstanding leads the clients to assume that they are married.

This is a Hallmark romance. It is a little funny when he's insulting her. This is a fine standard fire-and-ice coupling. They need to fight more. I don't get her outfit with the big front flower. She should be dressed like an accountant. That's the premise. They need to stick to it. All in all, this is fine for Hallmark and we get a Paris vacation on top of it.

7.4 stars.

We are very familiar with this plot, two people are acquainted, co-workers, or friends etc... they pretend to be dating, engaged, or married etc... "A Paris Proposal" happens to take place in a city in France, can't quite remember the name....the two subjects are co-workers with polar opposite personalities. They work for an American company, although he is French, artistic and worldly, whereas she is American, analytical and perfectionistic. Match made in heaven. He has a very strong accent, but it's polished enough that he is understandable.

They fly to Paris and are in the middle of a sales pitch with a major jeweler, when a slight coincidence leads them down a rabbit hole of lies. In the spur of the moment they make the best of a difficult situation, but are now stuck pretending to be married in order to score the deal. Are they capable of fooling everyone, including the antagonist? As the stakes get higher, the ruse begins to unravel.

The leads have sufficient chemistry to make this an interesting film. It is somewhat entertaining, and the background is picturesque with the incomparable cityscape of Paris. Some of the dialogue is lost in translation; you can detect many innuendos and interactions being studded with French influence. That aside, "A Paris Proposal" is charming and delightful. The allure of PenaVega wearing a $23 Million dollar pink diamond and a fashionable dress was reason enough to stick around. Unfortunately, something intangible is missing.