The Secrets of Bella Vista

Best Points: The Actors: especially the leads- Niall Matter and LeFevre are excellent . Their difficult and sometimes impossible Jobs are to flesh- out and fill the holes in the underdeveloped script. .. a. Mystery of Family and hidden clues.

Weakest Points: Trying to develop a good and well written storyline in Hallmark's standard 1 1/2 hour format. Really doesn't work well here.

Many layers of the plot and well drawn inter-connection between characters - sadly never happen

Worth the. Watch? Yes, good actors and the location make it worth the short watch, but you leave wanting something more substantial.

The major relationship here was between the two sisters. That was, IMO, very well done, as was the gradual involvement of the lead's life with that of her extended family in the orchard, and her discovery of their history.

Niall Matter is one of my favorite actors in the Hallmark universe, but he was irrelevant here. If anything, I thought he should have gotten together with the sister, not the lead character. I suppose it was an obligatory part of a Hallmark movie, but in this one it wasn't necessary.

To the whiners who say that they don't like the inclusion of LGBTQ, get over it - they're a part of society now, and in this movie they were introduced as just a normal set of friends of the lead. Nothing was pushed, and they weren't pushed into the closet. Lots of Hallmark movies have hetero couples, and a few have gay couples. No big deal.

To sum up, an interesting movie with a non-threatening mystery, and romance was a side-issue.

I struggle to rate this hallmark film. I love Hallmark regular Niall Matters and Rachel Lefevre was just fine. I really liked that this was about an apple orchard (and not another vineyard) and I loved the main characters career around antiques...and all of the antiques shown (was that a Parker slag lamp on the desk? And I have that very same brass letter holder!).

The story was VERY loosely based on the Susan Wiggs novel The Apple Orchard. The main character, Tess Delaney, is up for a very coveted position acquiring antiques for the prestigious New York firm of Sotheby's. Meanwhile an unknown gentleman keeps trying to contact her...it turns out she has inherited half of an orchard and estate from a grandfather she never knew and surprise!...she has a half sister that inherited the other half. Then she discovers the estate is in financial trouble...enter the story of their grandmother whose wealthy Jewish family fled the Nazi's during WWII, possibly with some kind of treasure.

The base story was a decent one and could have been well done. Unfortunately, it was just ok.

The part I really didn't like...was the random lesbian storyline that felt out of place to the rest of the story. It's like the put it in out of requirement and made no effort to actually work it in seamlessly with the story. Thus it felt forced and awkward or as some reviewers have commented...like a moral lesson. No issue with a lesbian storyline, but I would prefer to see it done well.

I'm afraid I can't really recommend this hallmark film to loyal hallmark romantics like myself...or fans of mysteries, sorry.

I'm a big fan of Rachel Lefevre, the redhead beauty who plays Tess. I also like Hallmark vet Niall Matter, who plays Dominic. Rachel was in another solid Hallmark movie this year called Moriah's Lighthouse and Niall was in a really great Hallmark movie this year called Rip in Time.

This is NOT another cookie cutter Hallmark movie. It's an engaging lost and found story that was somewhat reminiscent of The Christmas Note and My Christmas Family Tree (2 great Hallmark movies that explored the emotional impact of having a complicated and incomplete family history).

The Secrets of Bella Vista is based on the novel The Apple Orchard by New York Times bestselling author Susan Wiggs and ties a key plot point about old historical items to the escape, by Tess' grandparents, from Nazi-occupied Denmark during World War II. Tess, unaware of this history, coincidentally has an interesting job as a high end art and antiques expert in San Francisco. She's presented as someone too busy to even eat. Just as I was getting annoyed with Tess, I realized the script had given her a believable back story of abandonment that explained most of her actions (with one glaring exception). I also found the explanation for the Orchard's financial problems to be surprisingly credible.

I was drawn in by the story and appreciated the careful plot details that made this a (mostly) believable family mystery. I cared about Tess and Isabel (warmly played by Helena Marie) and was grateful that this wasn't a story of scheming and back stabbing beneficiaries. In fact, Tess was unrealistically portrayed as too far on the other end of the spectrum.

Specifically, it's revealed at the beginning that she's inherited half of a big apple orchard property, home and business near Napa that she thinks is worth as much as $20 million. And yet she flippantly tells the banker she doesn't want it and is willing to sign it over to a newly discovered family member she's never met.

Really??

She's supposedly only 30 years old (which the radiant 43 year old Lefevre pulls off) and though she seems successful, how rich could she possibly be? And who just walks away from what seems like a huge inheritance? Heck, she could have sold her share and donated the proceeds to Ukraine War Relief. Her lack of interest in her inheritance was wildly unrealistic.

But that was just one of only a few off key notes in an otherwise entertaining and enjoyable movie.

Random Observations:

The growing (and wonderful) relationship between Tess and Isabel seemed believably warm and healthy for both of them.

I've heard the phrase "bankers' hours", but the banker in this movie really never seemed to work.

There's a bad outdoor green screen scene at the orchard that looks more fake than most.

There's a terrible, and terribly misplaced, song that plays over the pie baking scene with lyrics that include "we don't need money no, we don't need money for rainy days. We don't need anyone". Ugh. But the scene was cute.

I love Hallmark's increasing inclusion of LGBTQ characters without having their lifestyle being the source of any drama.

Hoping to see Rachel Lefevre again in another Hallmark movie soon.

Tess Delaney (Rachelle Lefevre) is a globetrotting high class art hunter who is too busy for a personal life. She inherits an apple orchid from her father who supposedly abandoned her at birth as told by her absent mother. The other inheritor is her newly discovered half-sister Isabel (Helena Marie). Damhnaic McAuley (Niall Matter) is the estate executor.

This is a Hallmark movie, but they're really pushing the romance that hard. The bigger story seems to be a family mystery turned treasure hunt. I am not overly interested in any of the plotlines although the mystery kept my interest. It's a mixed bag although Hallmark does not set the bar that high.