Love Under the Olive Tree

This film has a rehashed plot of the 2016 Hallmark Film "Autumn in the Vineyard". The female leads in both films are both neurotic and start off closed off in the beginning until the male lead helps them "open up". In both films the female and male leads have a "History" and are competitive. Both films had competition where the one of the leads gets the land if they win. The only difference this time around is that its olives/olive oil and not wine. The few occasional cutesy moments were not enough to redeem this film. The rehashed plots are getting more and noticeable. Hallmark films are a fun guilty pleasure but not when you can recognized a rehashed plot. "Autumn in the Vineyard" did it better. Hallmark needs to stop taking its audience for granted.

This was an unnecessary movie that just repeats the theme of other Hallmark movies in an uninteresting way. Don't bother. The 2 leads seem ill at ease. Olive oil is not the most interesting subject.

This film wasn't unpleasant to watch, just a little lacking in energy. It also was weird that a film that was obviously created for the channel's Fall Harvest promotion wound up on the air in June.

A lot of these films do the Romeo and Juliet family squabble thing, but this one directly steals almost its entire setup from last year's Fall Harvest entry, Love, Fall, and Order as a it involves a dispute over property lines.

The plot has been over-used, and the acting not very believable. Even the supporting cast left a lot to be desired. I saw no comedy or romance in this movie. Maybe some fresh new talent from the writers on down to the bit players would be able to salvage this wreck.

Am not saying this with any pleasure. Despite not being that excited by the plotline, which sounded very derivative and unengaging, Hallmark did have some good films in 2020 and Tori Anderson has been good in other things, with well written characters and good material making a big difference. Hallmark did two A Little Romance films in 2020, the other being the weak 'Love in the Forecast' and of the two films that film is marginally worse despite trying to do something different.

'Love Under the Olive Tree' just didn't do it for me at all. Hallmark were no stranger to surprisingly decent and more films and no stranger to better than expected execution of very basic concepts. It has a few good things, few Hallmark films are irredeemable and there are very few of those made in 2020. It however has a lot of bad things, all major and the worst of them are executed absolutely terribly. Was really hoping that 'Love Under the Olive Tree' would be one of the better than expected films but alas that was not the case.

It's not without its good things. The scenery is very nice and well shot. There are parts where the music is also pleasant.

Shawn Roberts gives the film's best performance, he was quite charming.

Charming is an adjective that neither of the two leads are. Benjamin Hollingsworth is very bland and too uptight, but Anderson comes off even worse. She can be very appealing in the right role, but her character is too mean-spirited and neurotic and Anderson badly overdoes the neuroses. There is no chemistry between them, which feels disconnected and under-rehearsed. Other than Roberts, the supporting cast are unmemorable and none of the characters are remotely interesting, well developed or endearing. Only Roberts comes close.

Despite some light-hearted-ness later, though it does come too late, 'Love Under the Olive Tree' is dull and has a very mean-spirited edge. Just hated how over-the-top negative a vast majority of the characters were, the arrogance is especially overdone, and how they treated others, which made the first half pretty intolerable. It is thin narratively, which affects the pacing, and the lack of freshness with a done to death type of story makes it very predictable. The script is stilted and could have been a lot lighter and more subtle.

Not a good film at all. 3/10.