I sapori del Portogallo

Honestly, the only reason I chose to watch A Pinch of Portugal among the multitude of generic Hallmark Channel romantic movies is because I lived in Portugal for a couple years. And the truth is that this is just a generic Hallmark Channel romantic movie, it's just set in Portugal. There's not anything particularly amazing or terrible about it. It's what you'd expect it to be. Heather Hemmens does fine in the lead role, but most of the other characters are one-dimensional or half-baked. I also expected to get hungrier during a movie about cooking shows. Este é um bom filme para passar o tempo.

This movie is all about Heather Hemmens and her character Anna. I was impressed that Hemmens had incredible chemistry with both the rivals opposite her, Luke Mitchell and Duarte Gomes. And I think that most of what chemistry there was came from Hemmens. Eventually it is cut short with one of them, but the movie was made more interesting by the fact that it wasn't obvious which it would be until shortly before the one was eliminated. And then, the conflict wasn't about the romance. How that developed surprised me. It's true that it was obvious that the shoe was going to drop on Anna somehow, but I didn't see it coming from that direction. The climax and ending are interesting and I found it to be nice.

I love underdog stories and that's what this is with Anna at the center. I loved that she wasn't arrogant and that her personality was all about enjoying life and welcoming other people in. Something along the lines of a crowded table is the best.

We see some good scenery from Portugal which is a common Hallmark fixture. The acting is good and so is the dialogue. I will definitely watch this again.

Anna is the prep chef for a famous chef's tv cooking show. They are sent to Portugal to shoot a segment for the show. Unfortunately the problematic head chef is negotiating his new contact and playing hardball. Chef Dean doesn't show up in Lisbon and the crew scrambles to try to fill in with some footage. This puts prep chef Anna in the limelight. The local Portuguese market manager, Lucas, is not only providing help but seems interested in Anna. Anna is doing a bang up job filling in for Chef Dean...in fact the whole crew loves her, especially her best friend and camera man Russ. Years ago Anna made a pass at the handsome Australian Russ, but he put her in the friend zone.

The actress Heather Hemmens, who plays Anna, is wonderful and a lovely woman. Likewise, Russ played by Luke Mitchell is quite the charmer but the end kiss needed a little bit of work. Overall, I think I can recommend this hallmark romance to fellow romantics...and the gorgeous Portugal backdrop is worth seeing. It was lovely.

Another reviewer stole my thunder. It is true, they showed generic shots of Lisbon at the beginning and once in the middle to make you think that they were in Lisbon. As someone who knows Lisbon well, I could tell where they were most of the time-Cascais and Sintra. I was looking forward to something in Lisbon but I was happy to see some other familiar places. The story was typical Hallmark stuff and I thought Lucas' character changed really abruptly. Maybe that was the point. He was always like that and we just discovered it around the midpoint of the movie. I enjoyed it more than anything because it was filmed in Portugal (if not in Lisbon per se) and the nostalgia factor made me give it an 8/10.

7.2 stars.

The whole food theme is overdone, however it's not been done exactly like this one yet, so that's the only fresh thing about this film. The setting of Portugal is cool, but the whole scene is too polished, too much Hallmark, not quite enough foreign feeling to it. I didn't get the full zest of Portugal, it's too Western-Canadian-British-Aussie feeling and not enough of the grit and grime of the actual country they are attempting to capture. The man who runs the market is a sleeze, which was actually off-putting, I wanted to root for him. The lead female has been in several Hallmarks. She has charisma, the only saving grace of this movie.