Amor al sol

Except possibly for the natural scenery and a soundtrack that doesn't get in the way, there isn't anything good about this movie. The acting is stiff all around. I agree with the reviewer that said Emeraude Toubia isn't ready for the lead in a movie like this, at least not based on this performance. Don't get me wrong. She is charming and fairly energetic not to mention beautiful. She has no chemistry with Tom Maden, None of the actors are particularly good except Shawn Christen.

Dialogue and story are lame. The dialogue delivers stupid lines and conversations over and over. The very first scene seemed like a movie by the numbers scene and so did the last scene and several other plot points. When Evan and Alana are walking and talking about their future together, Evan's attitude is just plain stupid and again, delivering the lines was stiff. How about this for stupid - they keep complaining that they have a week to get the inn ready and they keep taking breaks in the middle of the day. And there was nothing interesting in the story. Scenes that should have delivered a spark fell flat. There was a key plot development that came way too early in the movie.

There was one little piece of information being kept from Alana and the audience. Is there anyone who didn't figure it out in the first half of the movie?

Painful? Yes maybe a little. Worst movie ever? That's saying a lot and I can't go with that. Usually for me that means something offensive or disgusting. It is one of the poorer Hallmark movies and I watch them all. What I'd say about this movie is that it's just plain flat.

The photography was excellent and, regrettably, it seemed that the actors read their lines perfectly but more emoting was needed. Perhaps the Hallmark machine is cranking the product out a wee bit too quickly? The second half was better but still..,

I fast forward through a lot of this. Acting wasn't great, except for Shawn. Since Shawn wrote what this is based upon, I need to see if the book is better. First Hallmark movie I didn't really like.

Émeraude is a beautiful young woman with no game. She needs to get more acting experience before carrying a full length movie. Wooden performances all around. The story was so weak I didn't care what happened by the end. The story seemed to take forever. The writer did a great job with "Miss Christmas" - so what happened here?

Two hours of this was too much; a 30-minute version would have been preferable. It seemed more like a group of actors trapped in what they knew would be one of Hallmark's mistakes, but for me, the most uncomfortable observation was that I thought the father and daughter were actually married to each other when I first turned on the movie about 15 minutes in; their dialogue seemed more like husband and wife. A good cast in a poorly edited, poorly written, poorly paced movie. The scenery was nice, though.