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Hallmark’s “Paris Wine and Romance”

“Paris Wine & Romance” aired on May 4, 2019 on the Hallmark Channel. It starred Jen Lilley and Dan Jeannotte. “Paris Wine and Romance” was only partially filmed in Paris, France, naturally, which I loved since I was just there a few weeks ago myself!! I just hate that I missed them filming by about 2 weeks. However, the bulk of the movie was actually filmed in Bulgaria, according to an interview with Jen Lilley.

In a nutshell

Y’all. I really liked this movie. Hallmark’s spring and summer movie game is STRONG this year and this is the third week in a row I have really, really enjoyed their Saturday night movie!

Plot

Isabella (Lilley) recently took over her family’s Oregon winery and dreams of growing the business into a world-famous contender. Her uncle enters her wine into a fancy wine competition in Paris to help her move forward with her plans. Isabella meets Jacques, a winemaker from one of France’s most famous winemaking families. Despite being in direct competition with each other, they begin spending time together during the event and romance blooms.

Actors

I love Jen Lilley. She is one of my favorite Hallstars, and she never disappoints. Dan Jeannotte was entirely new to me. I didn’t watch “Reign” on The CW, and I don’t watch the “Good Witch” series also on Hallmark. I’m happy to report that I thought he was fantastic and the perfect leading man for Jen Lilley.

Chemistry

Lilley and Jeannotte most definitely had chemistry, and part of that came from really good writing combined with their acting in general. Simple things like him putting his coat around her shoulders, or admitting that he only went to dinner to spend time with her – oh my word, so so good. There one particular Hallmark actress who overdoes the “longing glances” at her leading men (I won’t name her), but Jen Lilley was on point and sheer perfection in this movie. See photo above for a perfect example! I believe I’ve already done six degrees of separation between Jen Lilley and Kristoffer Polaha, so this time around I’ll do it with Lolita Davidovich, who played Jacques’ mother in “Paris.” Davidovich is two degrees away Kris Polaha, having co-starred in “Kill Your Darlings” in 2006 with Greg Germann, who then shared a screen with Polaha in “Atlas Shrugged Part III” in 2014.

Feelgoods

This one had many highlights for me, mainly in Jacques’ responses to being around Isabella. Sadly, I didn’t take many notes during the movie this time around, but his sheer enjoyment in spending time with Isabella was the winner for me. Jeannotte created a lot of little throwaway moments that I really appreciated from a romance perspective, and he was quite expressive. It was those moments that gave me all the feels throughout the movie.

Tropes

There were a couple big tropes. First up was her necklace. This is a relatively new trope that I only noticed last year, but a lot of Hallmark actresses now where the simple gold chain with the round circle decoration at the center. Sure enough, Lilley wore it a lot last night. There was also a promotion on the line in the sense that Isabella wanted her wine business to grow. And they even managed to get in the empty coffee cups, not once, but TWICE in this movie! And the second time it was SO NOTICEABLE that those cups had nothing in them because there were no lids on the cups and even after taking big sips of “coffee” the inside of the cups were pure white.

And we are officially adding “make bold romantic statement with LOTS of candles in an unsafe place” to the Hallmark trope library. Because my man set them up in a winery filled with alcohol and wood in this movie.

Did I Hear/See That Right?

The Paris green screen when she was in the taxi was awful. So was the green screen when they were on the balcony overlooking the city. C’mon, Hallmark. I love you, but get it together. The taxicab green screen was straight out of the 1950s.

And here’s one thing that threw me for a loop. I thought the wine competition head announcer dude was trying to do a French accent and failing miserably. Turns out, he may ACTUALLY be French. His name is Pierre Rousselet. So he’s a French guy doing a really bad Frenchman-speaking-English accent. How is that possible?

Re-watchability

In the end, I liked this movie a lot. On the re-watch scale it’s a definite “yes” for me.

The Ranking

So where does it fit in the rankings? As I said, these recent movies over the past few of weeks have been really good, so my top scores are all jockeying for position and moving around a lot!

Winter Love Story (air date: January 19) – 685 pts – weighted score: 115.8 (81.2%)
Love to the Rescue (air date: March 23) – 679 points – weighted score: 115.4 (80.9%)
Mystery 101 (air date: January 27 (HMM)) – 454 pts – weighted score: 94.2 (80.5%)
Love on the Menu (air date: February 23) – 642 pts – weighted score: 113.8 (79.9%)
Bottled With Love (air date: April 13) – 649 pts – weighted score: 112.2 (78.7%)
Love Takes Flight (air date: April 27) – 670 points – weighted score: 111.0 (77.9%)
Love, Romance & Chocolate (air date: February 16) – 627 pts – weighted score: 110.2 (77.3%)
Paris, Wine & Romance (air date: May 4) – 638 points – weighted score: 108.3 (76.0%)
Flip That Romance (air date: March 16) – 597 points – weighted score: 105.8 (74.2%)
True Love Blooms (air date: April 6) – 598 points – weighted score: 103.1 (72.3%)
The Story of Us (air date: February 9) – 605 pts – weighted score: 101.3 (71.1%)
A Brush with Love (air date: March 30) – 563 points – weighted score: 97.7 (68.6%)
Ruby Herring: Silent Witness (air date: January 20 (HMM)) – 357 pts – weighted score: 79.5 (67.9%)
Love Under the Rainbow (air date: March 9) – 581 pts – weighted score: 96.0 (67.4%)
One Winter Proposal (air date: January 12) – 535 pts – weighted score: 95.8 (67.2%)
Just Add Romance (air date: March 2) – 548 points – weighted score: 95.6 (67.1%)
Valentine in the Vineyard (air date: February 2) – 503 pts – weighted score: 89.5 (62.8%)
Snowcoming (air date: January 26) – 485 pts – weighted score: 87.3 (61.2%)
The Winter Castle (air date: January 5) – 475 pts – weighted score: 85.9 (60.2%)
A Winter Princess (air date: January 18) – 380 pts – weighted score: 70.5 (49.5%)