"Sometimes two ingredients may not look like they go together,
but just give it a chance and it might surprise you."
Hello everyone!
I can understand them, in a way. That particular holiday makes up about half of their yearly production and they need to make sure everything they make gets out to the audience.
But come ON. Starting mid-October and never really having any Halloween movies is a bit much, even for Hallmark!
Still, it is what it is, and maybe at that point I'll end up watching other movies instead of what they have in their lineup, because as of right now I still make sure to double check the schedule and then work through if I want or don't want to watch it.
Tonight's topic was on the want to watch list because of the two leads, and I have to say I'm not regretting it, but there were definitely some interesting choices made in the movie.
South Beach Love, coming up!
You'll find reviews of other Fall Harvest movies down at the bottom of the page, as per usual!
Meanwhile, let's talk South Beach Love.
This is William Levy's Hallmark debut, starring opposite veteran Taylor Cole (and man is it lucky they gave him this particular actress, because she needed to ground the production somehow). It tells the story of two families who are both preparing for their daughters' quinceañeras, and what they discover along the way.
So Sara (Cole) owns a food truck restaurant in Miami and she has history with Tony (Levy), because they used to be a couple and wanted to go study together to France, but only Tony was given the opportunity when the spot opened up, and he ended up leaving, with her and a broken-down food truck they'd been planning to open, fusing Cuban and Irish cuisine, in the rearview mirror.
Years later he now owns a one Michelin star restaurant in New York (not that it's all it's cut out to be, though I will say him staring dramatically out the rainy window while speaking to his sister on the phone is straight out of a telenovela), but he's returning home for his niece's quince.
The same thing - so the quince - is also happening for Sara's niece, and it turns out the families have a bit of a rivalry going about it, one that neither the girls nor Sara or Tony understand.
Especially as Tony is all for connecting with his ex-girlfriend and trying to get things back on track, which actually doesn't seem all that impossible at the beginning, even though it's awkward.
I mean, he comes to her restaurant, they go on walks together, he even helps her with a Cuban recipe she's having trouble with since obviously he has both the experience AND the bloodline (his parents came from Cuba years ago).
But things heat up when a magazine wants to feature one of the parties in their spread, and the two mothers go at it like two bulls that are seeking dominance over their territory, bewildering everyone about them, honestly.
Not to mention, the magazine itself creates drama when they mis-quote the two chefs whom they both interviewed, though this is the only part of the movie where I get honestly annoyed at Sara. See, of the two of them, HER quote is the one that's most accurately represented, and she takes a dig at Tony's one star, whereas HIS is completely flipped on its head and turned into something he never said, so she lashes out at him, being mad even though he explains to her that was never something that came out of his mouth.
Considering that HERS did in fact ACTUALLY hurt him - and was true - I don't know what it was she has to be hurt about. She's the only one who really hurt someone! But that's never addressed properly because it's all about her and her hurt feelings for something that didn't even happen.
The story then comes to a dramatic peak (not including Tony and Sara going salsa dancing with his family, or Tony helping Sara's niece with steps to the mambo, which I can't decide is because of Levy's heritage, or because he was a contestant on Dancing with the Stars) when the quince for Sara's niece needs to be rescheduled because of a fire at their party location, which prompts the girls to band together and convince their families they should have a JOINT party.
Everyone except the mothers is down for this, although the mothers finally relent as well and have a much-needed talk since they used to be BFFs and then things changed when one of them had to work more and more and got busy, but most importantly for some reason, the other got mad because the former's house was sold to others and not them.
Uh, lady, you do know that when people come to pay in cash, you sell, right?
I don't know, the problem seemed contrived to me, about as much as when Sara is making a bid for a restaurant that's closing in town, but would have been out-bidded until Tony puts in his own and then offers her a partnership.
Instead of anything reasonable she shuts him down and sends him packing, because she doesn't need help - which, contrary to what she thinks, is actually what she needs!
So the two parties finally happen, together, and the two families FINALLY get back to speaking terms, not to mention, with a little bit of help from Sara and Tony both (but mostly Tony because his one star carries some weight) the party gets featured on the cover of that magazine, and everyone can relax and have fun.
Sara and Tony can, too, and Sara finally apologises, so does Tony, they end up kissing under some fireworks which harks back to their very first kiss, and we fast-forward to six months later when they open their restaurant together, and can't have a moment's peace from their families spying on them kissing and cuddling.
THE END!
As you can see, this movie is slightly different from other Hallmark productions in the sense that while, yes, the love story is important, it doesn't QUITE fill out all the gaps because the party planning takes a large chunk out of that. I will say I enjoyed it, but at the same time it was frustrating that the writers couldn't come up with something decent to get the drama going, if they wanted drama.
They could have instead just have Tony and Sara drift back together naturally, but they can't seem to let go of that one big low that NEEDS to happen (spoiler alert: it doesn't, not really).
The party planning and the culture that comes with it were really interesting to me because I have about 0 experience with it all at any given point in time, so I was really intrigued by it and how insane it can become if you let it get out of control, like they almost did in this one. I mean, Tony, Sara and the girls kept saying it's supposedly a night for family and coming together, but all the mothers were doing was trying to one-up each other and keeping everyone apart.
Still, it does get nicely resolved and everyone seems happy in the end, but I have a few other nitpicks to mention, mostly about Sara.
Whose idea was it to dress her like a schoolgirl for most of the movie? Those short-short dresses and headbands weren't doing Cole any favours AT ALL, but mostly I'm surprised that nobody figured out her hair was a health hazard. I mean, it was beautiful, this is true, but a chef CANNOT have their hair down or around their face in any way, shape or form when they're cooking or prepping, especially not as freely down as hers was a lot of the time. That would never have flown in the real world, not from what I can remember (and as I worked in the business for a bit, I should know).
Shout out to whoever was picking background music for Levy to walk onto sets to though. It literally sounded like we were in an 80s soap opera, which made me laugh!
Overall, this was a fun sort of romp, slightly different, the love story was still there, and I think Levy has a good shot of making his mark in these movies, especially if he gets cast in a Christmas production next.
So we'll see what happens! But if you have a rainy afternoon to kill, you can watch this one and chuckle.
xx
*images and video not mine
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