Sweeter Than Chocolate

This Hallmark romance, like many, is formulaic, which is okay. We expect some of that from their homey homilies on hometown hegemony over metropolitan mores.

In this one, you can expect: A bakery. Check. A smalltown girl. Check. Her initial resistance to his charms. Check. Her gradual softening. Check. A legend about an item bringing true love. Check. Someone longing for a big promotion. Check.

The bakery is run by Lucy Sweet (Eloise Mumford). At the beginning of the story, she is rather sour, despite her name. And her recalcitrance when it comes to love lasts longer than most Hallmark heroines, but the film does have a satisfying ending. Hang in there for the emotional payoff.

This was a romantic addition to the Hallmark film vault and perfectly timed for Valentine's Day. The general story is about a family run chocolate shop that is going to have difficulty making the 40% rent increase and a local reporter who wants to be an on air anchor but has only done gotcha exposé pieces.

The two end up working together for a mutually beneficial project that gives Lucy Sweet much needed exposure for her Sweet Chocolate Shop and Dean Chase gets to show off a softer side as they interview couple for the sweet shop's wall of love. You see Lucy Sweet's grandfather has a special chocolate called the Cupid, that was not for sale but only for friends and family. When Lucy took over the family business and she found her grandfather's secret recipe, her mom talked her in to selling the Cupids for Valentine's Day. The Cupid chocolates seem to have a magical way of bringing couples together...queue the special interest piece on couples brought together by the Cupid.

This was such a sweet and romantic film that didn't discriminate on the type of love represented on the wall...second chance romances, heterosexual, homosexual...everyone's story is told. Meanwhile our two stars seem to be hitting it off with some amazing chemistry and chocolate making!

These two were romantic gold, Eloise Mumford and Dan Jeannotte.

I highly recommend this film to fellow romantics and chocolate lovers. This is an excellent Valentine's Day film. The romance touch m so much I cried!

Lucy Sweet (convenient, but it has an explanation) is a soon to be struggling chocolatier who is given an amazing opportunity when journalist Dean wants to make a story about the "Cupids", chocolates that supposedly make you fall in love.

Eloise is a Hallmark favorite of mine and there were moments in this movie when she kind of made me nervous, but I understood where she was coming from. She just wants to take care of her family and their legacy. Meanwhile, Dean is very ambitious and they crash at first but they end up being a great team. Their chemistry was beautiful, it's all in the little gestures.

The final conflict wasn't forced and it developed naturally. Kudos for that. Also my country was mentioned, yay!

This feature reminded me why I love these silly movies. It took me back to when I only started watching them and all of them felt one of a kind.

"Sweeter Than Chocolate" should be re-titled "Depressing as hell." Ok, I watch Hallmark movies as an escape and to enjoy the romance and love stories. This one sounded good. There's a lot of melancholy and 30 minutes before this movie ends, the main character gets unexpected news that makes her sad and from there, her day keeps getting worse and worse and even worse. And, sure, being Hallmark everything is all good again by the end. But I personally did not want to ride along with the upset, negativity, tears, drama and fears. It was too much. I watched until the end because I had to see it get better. I like the light-hearted and fun ones or the sweet, romantic, tender ones. And don't get me wrong, I have enjoyed other Hallmark movies where the characters are still overcoming a past loss. Most of those, are still positive and uplifting in their own ways. This one was had too many other snags going on that upset the characters. Melodramatic and a downer Hallmark movie in my opinion.

I liked the chemistry between Brenda Strong and Eloise Mumford as mother - daughter. I liked the gay friendly position. And Dan Jeanotte is just the amusing guy.

Each of this - I liked- is real significant for a film who you know, too well, unfortunatelly, the recipe.

Its sin, maybe the not so convincing story of Cupid candies. But it is a Valentine day film, so, a sort of modern fairy tale and the indulgence is just necessary in its case. But the good point can be only the make of chocolate, the reference to paprika and the stories of people together, after years .

So, pretty more than nice. Especially for fair relation mother - daughter.