Cuisiner n'est pas jouer

My wife and I were looking for a light, entertaining movie after Saturday night dinner with wine and found this one, streaming on Peacock. It is NOT a Hallmark movie, in fact it is a Canadian movie set in Brooklyn but shot in Canada, but it follows the Hallmark formula very closely.

Two single strangers meet quite by happenchance, they immediately repel each other, then they start to take a liking to each other, then a big issue comes up to split them apart, then followed by new choices and what my wife and I call "the hallmark kiss" comes during the very last minute of the movie. Yep, that's how you do it!

Lidia is a traditional chef running the small family Italian restaurant in Brooklyn. The recipes and menu are hold overs from past years, the food is superb but dining traffic has dropped off. Lidia is concerned about keeping it afloat.

In an evening out with her good friend they happen upon Daniel at his restaurant. It is futuristic place with a barely edible, eclectic menu of experimental foods. Lidia brushes him off but Daniel is persistent. He wants to partner with Lidia, he wants to modernize her restaurant, all the things she does not want.

If things stayed that way then there wouldn't be a movie. They gradually meet in the middle and each has to make hard choices about the joint endeavor.

The actors are attractive, the story is plausible, we found the movie to be suitably entertaining.

This is a typical forgetable Reel One Entertainment TV movie - you watch it once, and forget about it. Technically is mostly ok. Only one scene suffers from the poor audio recording. Music isn't loud when cast talk, but it's mostly melancholic, and I mostly disliked it. It was obviously shot in Hamilton like so many times when Hamilton pretends to be NYC, and you're going to recognize the same outdoor locations again and again. However, stock footage usage wasn't excessive.

The cast is mostly all right. I mostly liked Ben Sanders, and I hope he will land main role in the future. AnnaMaria Demara was all right, but her partner David Lafontaine wasn't. Nothing personal against him, but I watched him already several times, and I think he isn't the main role guy. Their chemistry was off. But what do I know...

And there is a writing. I understand that it was the first time write, but the whole thing about VR and restaurant is ridiculous and cringe, but on the other hand, things like that exist IRL, so, yeah... I simply didn't like. Even igoring that, it's the typical story about saving small business which you like me probably watched so many times.

And obligatory don't watch trailer (for some reasons here is only posted shortened version) as it's the ROE one and for some unknown reason(s) it shows whole movie compressed.

I'm going on a politically incorrect rant here. I love all romance, even crappy ones. I enjoyed the lead actress very much. Typical romance story line, nothing particularly good but not bad. Not sorry I watched. The problem I had, and have with so many modern day productions, is the lack of a male lead that feels like a man. I don't know if the lead here is straight or gay, nor do I care. But I do care about watching traditional romance (i.e male with a female) and actually think there is a chance they will sleep together and it will be hot. Completely missing here. Another great example is the Bridgerton series, they took the best romance series ever written (in low brow romance genre) and cast the male leads with men who don't feel like men. It's not about looks, consider the 2005 version of Pride and Prejudice. Mr. Knightly was not a great looking man, but he exudes masculinity (my god that scene where he's coming over the field at sunrise). Why can't we have men pull off masculinity back in movies?