Le cascate dell'amore

This is a rather typical Hallmark movie, running at just around 80 minutes, filmed in Canada with mostly Canadian actors who have experience in TV shows and TV movies.

The plot is an attractive woman is sent on assignment to an area to photograph waterfalls for a piece in an online travel magazine. At the lodge she meets an attractive man who also is one of the tour guides. He is divorced and has an attractive and smart 11-yr-old daughter. This threesome get to liking each other rather quickly.

My wife reminded me half way through that the Hallmark method is to throw in something to create friction then present a way for the man and woman to overcome it. The friction here arises when her photos are published with exact GPS coordinates so any tourist can find the hidden waterfalls, something she promised would not happen.

This is not a superior movie by any measure but it is a fun, pleasant diversion. We watched it at home on DVD from our public library, half drunk after our usual Saturday steak and wine dinner. It is perfect for that type of situation. No extras on the DVD, as budget as you can find.

Girl gets her big career chance, falls in love, something happens to cause strife. It happens in all the Hallmark movies. There are times I wish Hallmark would go back to making movies less formulaic as they did a decade or so ago.

Still, Cindy Busby and Christopher Russell pull this off as they always do. Russell has done everything at Hallmark from romantic lead to self serving rat. And I have to strongly disagree with the reviewer who heavily criticized Ms. Busby's performance. To say that her lead characters in Hallmark films are anything like the always selfish rich girl she played on Heartland shows the reviewer either doesn't watch these films closely or didn't watch Heartland very closely. She was the villain most of her time at Heartland and is, of course, playing solid leads for Hallmark. The characters aren't close to being the same.

The falls they used are lovely, the little girl is charming, and I wish Miranda Frigon would get a lead and not play the jealous rival sometime.

Given the subject matter and the two leads, I didn't expect to like this at all. I dreaded watching it, but I watch everything Hallmark does (except for a few of the amateur detective mysteries). I haven't liked anything Cindy Busby has been in except the Godwink movie, and I would have loved that with almost anyone. Christopher Russell is just too stereotype of a hunk.

The movie changed my mind quickly. The dialogue was good, at least in the beginning, and some of the situations were interesting. Cassidy Nugent was good as the daughter and I think it always helps one of these movies when the female lead bonds with her opposite's daughter. Busby and Russell did have good chemistry.

I saw the conflict immediately when it was foreshadowed, although it played out slightly different than I expected. I should have, but didn't see the ending coming, other than the obvious outcome.

Give the writers or director extra points for not doing the "It's a date. Oh, no, not a date" line for which there was a huge opening.

I didn't find Cindy Busby annoying as was suggested. She grows on you, but Amanda Frigon always plays a very dislikeable character!

Christopher Russell is a favourite at our house!

The scenery in this movie makes the movie worth watching.

I was a little worried about this movie because Cindy Busby's two previous Hallmark movies were boring and bad, mainly due to Cindy's acting. But she was really good in this one.

The overall story and acting is good.