A Paris Proposal

Anna Bowman (Alexa PenaVega) and Sebastian Laurent (Nicholas Bishop) are co-workers in an advertising agency and they don't get along. She's a by-the-numbers account manager and he's the creative kind. They are forced to team up for a pitch in Paris. A misunderstanding leads the clients to assume that they are married.

This is a Hallmark romance. It is a little funny when he's insulting her. This is a fine standard fire-and-ice coupling. They need to fight more. I don't get her outfit with the big front flower. She should be dressed like an accountant. That's the premise. They need to stick to it. All in all, this is fine for Hallmark and we get a Paris vacation on top of it.

We have here the start of a classic antipathetic romance, and unlike most antipathetic romances in these Hallmark movies, the writers had the courage to carry the tense relationship deep into the movie ... almost to the end, in fact.

The man (a Frenchman with a disaster in his family's business) develops exorbitantly expensive ideas for ad campaigns. The woman (with a one year disaster of a marriage in her past) is practical and keeps her ad campaign ideas sensible.

Together they're assigned to travel to Paris to secure the account of a French diamond jewelry house who wants to expand into the USA.

The story of their conflicting ideas for the ad campaign needed to win the account drives the movie, and in the end they come to an mutual idea surprisingly easily.

However, the movie is charming, in my mind more because of the older French couple who own the diamond house than the stars.

I won't lie, this is a Hallmark romance that grew on me. The reluctant ad campaign team of Anna Bowman and Sebastian Laurent are sent to Paris to win the Durant diamond company's advertising contract for their expansion into the American market, by their boss. The boss was hoping that Sebastian would help Anna get back some of her creativity ("color with all the colors in the box") and that Anna would help Sebastian learn to "color inside the lines". Their styles couldn't be more different, but after a misunderstanding in front of their new potential clients the two have to pretend to be married...even to Sebastian's estranged French family.

The Paris backdrop is truly lovely and the costumes were wonderful! I particularly liked the black and white striped dress worn by Anna in Paris. I thought her friend in Paris was unnecessary, but I did really enjoy the glass of water scene.

This was surprisingly romantic and really grew on me, as initially I wasn't sure about the lead...but I really warmed to their chemistry and highly recommend this slow burn romance. I particularly enjoyed the end as a romantic.

I'm glad I didn't listen to the other snarky reviewer who hated this movie. I absolutely loved this movie. Lately, many of the Hallmark movies seem to have cookie-cutter plots (and I still like those most of the time), but this was fresh. The actors had great chemistry, the music fit the movie very well (I kept Shazaming the songs... they will make a great Parisian playlist), and the scenery in Paris was amazing. I'm sure I'll watch it again soon, I liked it that much! Was it perfect? Of course not, what movie is. But for Hallmark, this was one of their best yet! If you enjoy music, romance, and beautiful scenery, you'll love it! It reminded me of an old fashioned romance.

This Hallmark romance begins with a familiar situation: coworkers who go together like oil and water. Anna (Alexa PennVega) and Sebastian (Nicholas Bishop) work for a New York ad agency. When they are sent to Paris to sell an important new French client, a small mistake results in the impression that they are married. To their consternation, their charade snowballs, until it threatens everything, including personal relationships.

PennVega and Bishop work well together. Others in the cast have their moments---especially Elie Kaempfen as Andre the hotel clerk who adds some moments of light comedy.

The conflict in the film resolves fairly quickly, but the final scenes are satisfying.