Hallmark For All Seasons

Before I start my review, can I just say how much I loved this year’s Christmas in July event on Hallmark Channel?  So many Christmas movies – including many of my favorites.  And while I feel cheated that they did not air the delightful “Window Wonderland” I live in constant hope that they’ll re-air it in December so I can Tivo it and keep it forever.  I’ve not ranked it because I didn’t start ranking the movies until AFTER it repeat-aired in December 2018.  But trust me, that’s one of my all time faves and will definitely land in the all-time Top 10 (if not the Top 5) once I do get around to watching it again.

For now, let’s talk new movie.  “Rome in Love” aired July 27, 2019 on the Hallmark Channel as the first of their Summer Nights batch of movies.  The movie starred Italia Ricci and Peter Porte, and was at least partially filmed in Rome – if not the entire thing.  Normally another country plays stand-in for the foreign city (for instance, Bulgaria played the part of France for at least part of “Paris Wine and Romance.”

In a nutshell

I’ve slowly become a fan of Peter Porte in the past year or so, and was looking forward to this one. However, I was very disappointed with it, unfortunately.

Plot

When an unknown actress, Amelia (Ricci), lands the role of a lifetime in the remake of Audrey Hepburn’s classic movie “Roman Holiday” filming in Rome, she is obliged by her director to spend time with American reporter Philip (Porte), who has been assigned by an Italian magazine to write the story that will introduce her to the world.

Actors

Italia Ricci is new to Hallmark movies, and I liked her a lot.  As I said already, Peter Porte has grown on me.  I initially thought he was just a pretty boy who was fine in 2ndary roles within the Hallmark universe, but now I think that he is good – provided the role is right for him.  For this movie, the role was right for him for the most part.  As for the six degrees of Kris Polaha, Italia Ricci is three degrees away.  Ricci starred in 2007’s “American Pie Presents: Beta House” with Eugene Levy, who co-starred with  Greg Germann in 2001`s “Down to Earth.” Polaha and German then shared a screen in in 2014’s “Atlas Shrugged Part III.”

Chemistry

I never got a romance vibe from Amelia and Phillip.  Friendship?  Absolutely.  But romance – no way.  So in that regard, they definitely had chemistry and that I genuinely felt the characters were getting to know each other as friends, but there was no romantic chemistry at all, in my opinion.

Feelgoods

Rome is beautiful, and I want to go to there.  That was the big feelgood from this movie.  I love Audrey Hepburn and wanted a feelgood moment from Amelia wearing a ballgown, but didn’t get that “WOW!” moment because I didn’t care for the dark red dress they chose.  Additionally, while I did enjoy the homage-to-Audrey moments in “Rome in Love” (such as the Vespa scene), it didn’t make me feel any nostalgia for the original “Roman Holiday.”  Maybe I’m cold-hearted, but I wanted MORE.

The only other feelgood came from realizing the the actor portraying the director, Dominic, was none other than Ross McCall, who played Liebgott in my favorite mini-series of all time, “Band of Brothers.”

Tropes

Only a few to speak of.  Small town girl in big city.  To be honest, I didn’t really track them since the movie was a bit boring.  Comment below and let me know what tropes you saw!

Did I Hear/See That Right?

Yep there were a few moments that made no sense.

Philip’s neighbor’s accent was in and out the entire movie.  During her first scene it was a thick Italian accent, but during the pasta-making scene she sounded straight up American/Canadian.

When Philip took Amelia to dinner at that outdoor restaurant, they were the ONLY patrons of the joint.  There were no people at the other tables.  Now, it could be that they closed the place down, but I doubt it, considering she quite literally needed her beauty sleep to prepare for the movie.

They made a big deal about the profile article being released online – and yet somehow the print version was available the very next day for her read when her sister locked her in the bathroom.  I’m sure that magazines don’t really wait until the DAY BEFORE the magazine is set to be delivered to the public to determine what the content will be AND have enough time to format the issue’s final version and print the 100s of 1000s of copies for newstands.  I really don’t think that’s how magazines work.  I could be wrong though.  But I doubt it.

It seemed like the movie took place over the course of less than a week, and yet I’m to believe they spent that ENTIRE time just doing secret promotional work for Amelia and teaching her to waltz, versus any actual filming?  Again, I’m not in the movie business any more than I’m in the magazine business, but I’d have thought they’d spent time filming the movie in Rome and worry about promotional stuff later on when they weren’t on location in Rome.  And learning to waltz enough to pass muster in a movie should only take an hour, tops.  It’s one of the easiest classical dances to learn.

Re-watchability

I doubt I’ll be watching this one again.

The Ranking

So where does it fit in the rankings?  Not quite at the bottom of the ranks, but close.

1. Winter Love Story (air date: January 19) – 685 pts – weighted score: 115.8 (81.2%)
2. Love to the Rescue (air date: March 23) – 679 pts – weighted score: 115.4 (80.9%)
3. Mystery 101 (air date: January 27 (HMM)) – 454 pts – weighted score: 94.2 (80.5%)
4. Love on the Menu (air date: February 23) – 642 pts – weighted score: 113.8 (79.9%)
5. Bottled With Love (air date: April 13) – 649 pts – weighted score: 112.2 (78.7%)
6. Love Takes Flight (air date: April 27) – 670 pts – weighted score: 111.0 (77.9%)
7. Love, Romance & Chocolate (air date: February 16) – 627 pts – weighted score: 110.2 (77.3%)
8. The Last Bridesmaid (air date: June 22) – 643 pts – weighted score: 109.2 (76.6%)
9. Paris, Wine & Romance (air date: May 4) – 638 pts – weighted score: 108.3 (76.0%)
10. My Boyfriend’s Back: Wedding March 5 (air date: June 8) – 635 pts – weighted score: 108.0 (75.8%)
11. Flip That Romance (air date: March 16) – 597 pts – weighted score: 105.8 (74.2%)
12. Mystery 101: Playing Dead (air date: June 23 (HMM)) – 425 pts – weighted score: 86.5 (73.9%)
13. True Love Blooms (air date: April 6) – 598 pts – weighted score: 103.1 (72.3%)
14. The Story of Us (air date: February 9) – 605 pts – weighted score: 101.3 (71.1%)
15. A Brush with Love (air date: March 30) – 563 pts – weighted score: 97.7 (68.6%)
16. Ruby Herring: Silent Witness (air date: January 20 (HMM)) – 357 pts – weighted score: 79.5 (67.9%)
17. Love, Unleashed (air date: July 6, 2019) – 559 pts – weighted score: 96.2 (67.5%)
18. Love Under the Rainbow (air date: March 9) – 581 pts – weighted score: 96.0 (67.4%)
19. One Winter Proposal (air date: January 12) – 535 pts – weighted score: 95.8 (67.2%)
20. Just Add Romance (air date: March 2) – 548 pts – weighted score: 95.6 (67.1%)
21. From Friend to Fiance (air date: May 25) – 555 pts – weighted score: 94.8% (66.5%)
22. Christmas Camp (air date: July 11) – 530 pts – weighted score: 93.9 (65.9%)
23. Crossword Mysteries: A Puzzle to Die For (air date: March 10 (HMM) – 354 pts – weighted score: 74.1 (63.3%)
24. Sister of the Bride (air date: June 29) – 516 pts – weighted score: 89.8 (63.0%)
25. Valentine in the Vineyard (air date: February 2) – 503 pts – weighted score: 89.5 (62.8%)
26. Love, Take Two (air date: June 15) – 507 pts – weighted score: 87.8 (61.6%)
27. Snowcoming (air date: January 26) – 485 pts – weighted score: 87.3 (61.2%)
28. The Winter Castle (air date: January 5) – 475 pts – weighted score: 85.9 (60.2%)
29. Sailing Into Love (air date: May 18) – 455 pts – weighted score: 78.0 (54.7%)
30. Rome in Love (air date: July 27) – 436 pts – weighted score: 76.7 (53.8%)
31. A Winter Princess (air date: January 18) – 380 pts – weighted score: 70.5 (49.5%)
32. A Feeling of Home (air date: May 11) – 386 pts – weighted score: 69.7% (48.9%)
33. Love in the Sun (air date: June 1) – 361 pts – weighted score: 62.5 (43.8%)

To see where this movie lands in my overall rankings of Hallmark movies, visit my Hallmark Movie Rankings page!

What did you think of “Rome in Love”?  Comment below and let me know!