"In the end, you only regret the chances you didn't take."
Hello everyone!
As I've mentioned last week, there's probably going to be an abundance of Hallmark movie reviews on this blog for a little while.
Summer Nights is WELL on the way to being finished and then we're moving into the first week of September already; you can see it happening outside, the light is slanting down at a very different angle, the weather is slightly chillier and a lot wetter already, so basically summer is drawing to a close here in the Northern hemisphere.
We may get some Indian summer later, but who knows with the weather as it is? Some people are saying we're getting snow in October!
Before any of that happens, though, we should enjoy more summer movies if we can, because there will be too many autumn ones to count eventually.
That's why I watch so many from Hallmark, because they know what it's all about.
There wasn't anything different with A Taste of Summer, either.
Now I'll admit that the trailer itself might not have attracted me to this movie because it seemed like a recipe Hallmark had done before, but what DID attract me was it's lead star.
Roselyn Sanchez has been on my list of favourite actresses ever since the days of Without a Trace, and I've sort of kept tabs on her since. When her name popped up for a Hallmark channel movie, you can bet I wanted to see what happened!
The added bonus was that her co-star in this one is Eric Winter, who is married to her in real life.
I had high expectations then! If you're playing opposite your spouse, the chemistry is bound to be off the charts, right?
Our story begins with Gabby, a professional sous-chef who works at a classy restaurant in a big city and is expecting a proposal from her long-time boyfriend, David, not that David sees it the same way; instead of a proposal which she thought was coming, he explains the celebratory night is for his promotion, at which point she tells him they're over.
Luckily there was no going back to the ex drama in this one, although I will admit it sounded a bit weird that Gabby was anticipating a ring when she herself admitted they saw so little of each other. Obviously his head wasn't on the same wavelength!
But anyway, her breakup leads to her deterioration in the kitchen which ends in her quitting her job before her boss can actually fire her, after which she takes up her sister on her invitation and heads to the small town of Bright Shore to recover and figure out what to do with her life next.
Her sister Christina is thrilled, and also believes it's fate because she's a real estate agent and she has a piece of real estate that would be PERFECT for Gabby if she were to open her own restaurant.
Initially hesitant, Gabby runs into a competitive former baseball player Caleb (Winter) who pretty much warns her off from owning a restaurant. The whole meeting seems incredibly antagonistic for two people who've only just met, in my opinion, and it might have made more sense if Hallmark said these two were either old flames or high school classmates or something.
Anyway, fired up, Gabby takes on the challenge of the restaurant at which point begins her back and forth with Caleb, who just can't help himself when he always wants to be the best.
This includes but isn't limited to undermining Gabby and making sure he has specials on the night of her opening and stuff like that.
Really, with an attitude like he has, I was surprised no one actually decked him!
That aside, Gabby gets to meet Caleb's daughter (his wife divorced him and left) and spends a lot of time with the girl and her own niece as they help her in the restaurant, and watches them play softball, something the entire town participates in as they want to win this shindig this year!
Gabby has good advice for Caleb's daughter, who's afraid to be a hitter because she isn't good and might let her team down: she's letting the team down by not allowing herself to play, too.
This comes into wild effect later when it seems it's mostly Gabby's encouragement that gets the child up to bat AND helps them win the game proper.
Gabby and Caleb find a sort of truce with both the restaurants doing well when Caleb hears there's an opening for head coach at the local high school and applies, leaving his younger brother to mostly run the kitchen and the restaurant while he's out and about. Plus, there's this summer festival that's just around the corner, one Gabby wants to win because the winner gets ten thousand dollars in prize money.
And just as Caleb actually has dinner at her restaurant (named Grace, after her and Christina's mother) and the two of them seem to be leaning towards each other, Gabby learns on festival day they're doing practically the same piece of food to show to the judges, which infuriates her since she thinks he's just undermining her again.
Caleb proves her wrong when she loses most of her staff because of a hot oil injury and he comes to help her prepare, and eventually this leads to Gabby winning the competition, and meeting with her head chef again, who Caleb had invited up for the festivities.
Gabby then apologises to Caleb and he reveals he's landed the coaching position; the two of them kiss at the end of the festival and the movie pans out into the last few seconds before wrapping up!
This recipe was slightly different from Hallmark's usual cooking (see what I did there) because the romance angle of it all was pushed to the side so much I almost didn't see it coming, and the two main characters just bothered one another a lot. Roselyn and Eric were quite good in their roles, but really quite antagonistic as characters so the romance plot was a little shy in my opinion; I was by far more interested in Caleb's younger brother for some reason, and his ideas for the restaurant food they were serving.
All in all, however, this is a pretty lovely movie to spend a lazy summer evening with, and certainly if you feel the main cast lacks something, the supporting cast makes up for it!
xx
*images and video not mine
No comments:
Post a Comment