Movie: Always Amore
Release Year: 2022
Network: Hallmark Movies & Mysteries
Starring: Autumn Reeser, Tyler Hynes
Synopsis: Struggling to keep her late husband's Italian restaurant afloat, a woman agrees to work with a professional consultant to see if they can turn things around. At first she's resistant, but as they get closer, she realizes not all change is bad.
Rating: ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
⚠🛑 Disclaimer: This review may contain movie spoilers
Review:
Not gonna lie, I was expecting this one to be good but I wasn't swept off my feet. I assume I may be in the minority here but I found this movie super slow and somewhat boring. Perhaps it's because we have already seen an Italian restaurant movie this year and this plot is really over used in the Hallmark universe. I don't know what it is but I was seriously underwhelmed.
Although overall I didn't love the movie, there were two things that stood out to me that really carried this movie and kept it in the mid-range of enjoyment... Autumn Reeser and Tyler Hynes. I love both of these actors and I knew that they would shine together and they did. They each delivered exceptional, emotional and deep performances. They really carried the movie. It's too bad the plot wasn't better as I think this had the potential to be exceptional with the caliber of these two stars. If they can stand out in this movie, imagine what they can do with a movie that has a more interesting plot? Autumn Reeser I thought was truly exceptional. She had me in tears a few times with the raw emotion.
Like I said earlier, I found the plot to be too similar to other films. Trying to save a family restaurant from closure is way over used by Hallmark. I was hoping something else would wow me but it just didn't. Yes I understand Elizabeth (Reeser) was trying to carry on the legacy her husband had built and I appreciate that, but that wasn't enough to make it stand out from other similar plots. Yes I do like how Ben (Hynes) had his own similar story of loss and how they helped each other move on, but that didn't carry the whole movie for me either. There were other stories that just weren't meaty enough to fill in the rest of the story. I did like the "mafia" like scene with the olive oil, but outside of that the chef who lacked confidence, the chef contest, and the daughter struggling at school weren't deep enough for me and just seemed like filler.
I don't want to bash the movie too much as, like I said before, the performances of the two leads really needs to be recognized. It's unfortunate that the story they were telling just wasn't original enough or meaty enough to warrant a higher rating from me. This is one I will not watch again.
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