Love on the Danube: Love Song

(The first of a trilogy of films set on European cruise boats to launch the Hallmark + streaming service)

To be honest, "Love on the Danube - Love Song" moved along at what could charitably be called a gentle pace and there really wasn't a whole lot of drama. It's a feel-good story with a spectacular European backdrop.

Wes Brown is a reliable Hallmark star. I could name a half-dozen of his appearances, and he's always very good. I'd not seen Nazneen Contractor before, but she does a good job in this movie. However, the scenery is arguably the real star of the show. Good to see Hallmark filming on location. It makes a huge difference and more often than not results in a much better movie, from an atmospheric standpoint.

"Love Song" benefits from an on-location shoot and two well-cast leads. Brown and Contractor have good chemistry, which is 80% of the battle won with these Hallmark movies.

This was not Hallmark's best. Dare I say, it was its top 10 worst. First, the makeup artist chose to give all the women dark smokey eyes, with a dreaded wing eyeliner. It managed to make the mother look older and tired. I mean her WHOLE eyelid was black. Come on! The makeup artist managed to give the daughter turned down eyes which in turn made her look sad all the time. I love Wes Brown and his comedic timing is superb, but how y'all managed to make him boring is a special kind of talent. They had no absolutely chemistry to me. I couldnt buy into their story. The storyline did not do it for me either. This was snoozefest.

6.4 stars.

The story could have been excellent, but it's lacking real drama. This is simply a feel good story about a gal and her mom traveling in Europe, and they meet a guy and his dad on a river cruise on the Danube. The foursome get along and there are intermittent sparks, but so much is missing.

In the category of romance it comes up very shy. The parents have almost zero chemistry and the leads have only a scant more. If the leads had more affinity for each other, it might be more entertaining. But if you take all the romance (lack thereof) and dialogue away from the film, what remains is a feeble storyline and a drab script. Seeing a movie that turns out like this only proves that real filmmaking requires heart. No heart was put into this one. They dotted the i's and crossed the t's with a nice setting, lighting and music, but there is no passion.

Because the acting and cinematography are stellar, I will rate it at 6.4, but not 6.5, because that would round up to 7.

What a boring movie, I kept nodding off. The locations in Hungary were beautiful, especially Budapest. Wes Brown is always a reliable actor in Hallmark's rom-coms, the rest of the cast was ok. Catherine Disher was a stand out, she has stage presence.

A bad script and dialog are what made it a very boring movie. The same topics were regurgitated over and over again along with Julia's performance anxiety. I was to the point of who cares if they ever get together or if Julia ever sings. . A first time screenwriter could probably have written a better script. If you're going to spend the money filming in Europe, get a decent script. Or just save the money and film it in Montreal or Quebec City and call it Paris.

The quality of this movie left so much to be desired starting with a poor script and lack of cohesiveness and chemistry. Some of the wardrobe was lacking and makeup in some cases was the worst I've ever seen, especially for one character (who was also the victim of the poor wardrobe choices).

The scenery was phenomenal but that's because actual historical sites in Europe were used. That's the only reason I stayed with this movie until the end, having personally visited these sites in the past. Still, I could just as easily (and should have) looked at my own videos and photos for the memory factor.

Catherine Disher was the saving grace.