For Love & Honey

This is one of my favorite Hallmark romances. Not only does it feature a good love story, but it shows off the beauty of Malta. And I learned some things about Maltese history and apiology (or mellitology).

Austin (Andrew W. Walker) is an American archaeology professor who visits Malta. There he meets local Eva (Margaret Clunie) who is an apiologist. Circumstances bring them together, then they mutually discover a hidden fresco which might be a map. Thus begins their adventure and their relationship.

For the most part, the relationship develops smoothly, without too much drama. But they both know Austin will be returning to the U. S., so neither foresees anything serious developing, despite their attraction.

Forgive the pun, but this is a sweet story, with an appealing tone. For my money, Margaret Clunie seems like an actress who could handle almost any role. Here, she gives off a pleasant energy that binds the story together.

Thought the story was different enough to warrant an A for effort. I liked both leads and don't understand some of the negative reviews for the female lead. She's so much better than a lot of the cookie cutter actresses in these movies. I also thought the chemistry was really good. She doesn't play the lead the way they are typically played, and I found that refreshing. She has some bite in her character and while some found that off-putting, I found it engaging. I wasn't crazy about the whole bee side story and wish it had more of the adventure slant it teased at. The locations are also wonderful to look at.

This movie was so difficult to watch. It felt like it could have been a good story/concept but it was so poorly executed. Here's everything that went wrong:

• NO chemistry whatsoever. I think it was supposed to be a grumpy/sunshine sort of trope, but just came across as him being a weak/beta male while she was very entitled and basically hated him the entire time for no reason. She seemed to enjoy pushing him around and making him mad. The grumpy/sunshine trope really only works when "grumpy" hates everyone but their love interest. This was the reverse, she was nice to everyone EXCEPT her love interest.

• SO MANY THINGS WRONG with the beekeeping part of the story. As a beekeeper myself I felt insulted that they did so little research. From things like their "wild" hive which was a foot long piece of honeycomb smashed on a wall, her removal of that comb where she just smashed it up even more and stuck it in a box, getting pissed at the MLI for swatting at a frickin drone bee, her going back to the removal site the next day to capture a SINGLE LEFTOVER DRONE to take back to the beehive, and finally talking about how bees "mate for life"????? No species of worker bee ever mates, only the queen. And when she does she takes like 25 partners in one day and never again in her life. So many things wrong it was literally making me cringe.

• Horrible dialogue. I won't even rant about this one. I'll just leave it with a quote "what kind of loyal drone would leave his queen in a time of need" ~ MIL weak attempt at flirting (also the sole purpose of a drone is to leave his queen to mate with another and consequently die)

Complaint about writing, not acting. The leading lady (character, not performer) was unpleasant, entitled, willfully ignorant, and cavalier about cultural artifacts. She did everything short of tearing apart a 400-year-old census that belonged to the library, just because a guy didn't want a bee sting.

Her little sister was smarter, more thoughtful, and much nicer to be around. The older one treated her little sister like a pest. She treated the foreigner like a pest. She treated her neighbors like pests.

The romance was between the guy and the wrong sister.

Again, my complaint was about the writing, not the acting.

American professor of archaeology meets a beekeeper on Malta. Who would've guessed archaeologists and beekeepers had so much in common. Except, he doesn't like honey and he's allergic to bees.

There is a treasure map (no, he's not Indiana Jones) and there is a treasure hunt...

I do wonder why Hallmark movies are now putting the first kiss at the one hour point instead of at the end of the movie, but that's probably my personal issue....

This young couple "plays" Indiana Jones and "Indiana Jane". Honeybees are the center of this movie and are parts of all of the clues, so pay attention.

It's Hallmark, so it's the predictable formula; you know they'll be a happy ending.