User reviews

Not as good as hallmark's usual offerings it had all the elements, just lacked chemistry with the viewer. The lead actress just felt awkward and it took a while to get the hang of the flashbacks. No experienced manager would have an argument with a member of the staff in front of guests. Background sound/music might've been authentic to a kitchen but was a bit loud for dialogue. Fine for one watch but that's enough.

6.4 stars.

This film fails to capture the ambience of a rustic Italian restaurant, is slow moving and not engaging. The chemistry between Amy and Frank is somewhat non-existent, whereas their friendship is more believable and practical. I feel she is straining her performance and not interested in playing the part. His personality seems lifeless and dull. It's as if they both delved too deep into their characters and forgot to import some enthusiasm.

The back story of Mama and Papa was interesting although not realistic because their personalities do not transfer from past to present. Mama's past self being a robust, petit, cute and gentle person; changed into a frustrated, sour, voluptuous, matriarch with no spark. Papa simply disappears into the background. Their accents don't jive from past to present, hers being non-existent after a while. There is no convincing the audience of such drastic shifts in character and how things are.

The Mama and Papa history doesn't mesh, the leads don't fit together, there is nothing to root for, not even the hope of a triumphant romantic ending either past or present.

This is a sweet heartwarming story about the origin of an Italian American restaurant in New Jersey. The restaurant is called Mama's and as you can imagine the story starts with Mama and Papa. The contemporary story is about Frank and Amy...Amy who Mama thought of as a granddaughter inherits the restaurant when Mama dies and that is when she meets Frank the current chef at Mama's.

The story is a bit about taking in strays, creating a family, about trust, compromise and taking a chance on someone as a way to spread the love.

My favorite nugget is about writing a letter to someone and how precious that can really be.

This was a little different for a hallmark film, less emphasis on the wooing and more emphasis an the living, just being...and on friendship.

A bad script, too much nostalgia for "Mama", her recipes and her way of doing things. Too many flashbacks. Leads that don't have chemistry and the rest of the cast didn't seem to click. It didn't hold my attention, there are other better things on TV.

When ambition and tradition don't mix, the flavor of Mama's Ristorante is lost. But with the help of Mama's recipe for love, a partnership is born, and her legacy lives on.

The commercials didn't seem very exciting and that should have warned me not to bother watching it. No chemistry, boring story, a lot of blah blah blah that went on and on and on. It didn't have a clear storyline. It's over saturated with flash backs and the main characters just didn't capture my attention. There wasn't much cooking, not that much food, a lot of very short overly dramatic problems that were resolved before you even understood the problem! Fine to play in the background while doing other things but not worth watching with your full attention.

The movie has its quirks and inconsistencies, as pointed out in previous reviews. As almost always, premises and elements of the plot are not original. Yet, they get a different, fresh spin and the story acquires a dignity of its own. The psychology of the lead characters, Amy and Frank, is more sound than it appears at first look. Here, we have two young people that, confronted with career disillusions and big life choices, react with stubborn attitudes and rush decisions. I do not believe this makes them unlikable or that they "have no chemistry". They are just human, hiding their insecurities, in need to learn from their mistakes.

I find it credible that their initial reciprocal attraction helps them, through necessary skirmishes, find how much they have in common and to like each other. Actually, this makes the story sweet.

The acting is simple, no hamming, no frills. The frequent flash-backs to Mama and Papa life, are, perhaps overused, but do add to understanding the theme of the story and to the content of the movie, rich in values of hard work, tenacity, family and friendship.

One special tribute is owed to the producers for a diligent effort to maintain authenticity. After myriads of movies where the actors totally butcher the pronunciation of the Italian language or substitute it with "Italican"or Spanish, here, finally they have cast actors, Scrofano, Di Tomasso, Babis, and Montesi, who speak the language naturally and correctly.

Overall, a charming movie and a better production than many Hallmark films of late.

I really enjoyed the story line. This film truly had great potential!

But, I felt that Melanie Scrofano (Amy) held back the quality of this film.

It had great potential, but she did not appear to be "into" this film, which is too bad, since it had potential to get a 9 rating from me. Her acting did not appear to be genuine. She seemed to simply make statements. Her body language including facial expressions did not match her statements.

The transitioning back and forth from the origins of Mama's to now, could have been done so that it was easier to follow ... perhaps not as many transitions with longer sessions so that the original mama and papa could be clearly seen and understood. Eg: When did papa disappear? What happened to him? When did Amy leave Mama's? Etc.

Unlike what some reviewers had stated about Daniel di Tomasso (Frank Rossi), I felt that he played his part well. More details about the transition and blending of both he and Melanie (Amy) should have been included to better display how they bettered the new Mama's and how their romantic relationship grew.

Films centered around food and the culinary world is not a new thing for Hallmark, but there are plenty of their films that did this setting and concept really well in an entertaining and easy to relate to manner. Despite not being novel, the idea for 'Welcome to Mama's' was a lovely one and had real potential to be light hearted and heart-warming. Which has been the case with most of the previous 2022 Hallmark films (though there have already been stinkers), even with the serious-themed ones.

'Welcome to Mama's' just didn't come together properly for me. It was not the light hearted and heart-warming film it intended to be, or at least certainly to begin with it wasn't, and was a case of having the right ingredients but not using them very well and not doing enough with them. There are good things and it is not the worst 2022 Hallmark film up to this point, that's between 'Cut, Color and Murder' and 'Butlers in Love' with 'Where the Heart Belongs' not far off. But it is no 'North to Home', 'The Wedding Veil' or 'Presence of Love'. Of the three Loveuary films, 'Welcome to Mama's' is the weakest.

Am going to begin with the good. Lorraine Bracco brings some welcome zest whenever she appears and, while not liking his character to begin, Daniel DiTomasso does easy going charm very well and always looked natural.

The production values also look lovely, loved the look of the setting and it is a nicely shot film. The momentum does pick up a little going into the final third and it was nice seeing some Italian culture.

Melanie Scrofano however didn't do it for me, she is very stiff throughout and it didn't look as though her heart was in it. She and DiTomasso agreed do not have any spark together and come over as too antagonistic towards each other and both characters are sketchily developed. While disliking his character at first, coming over as a jerk, his character at least grew and relaxed, but Scrofano's did not making her a lot more difficult to warm to. The cast chemistry is disconnected and the direction feels very routine throughout.

Did find the dialogue very awkward sounding and cheesy throughout and the banter is overused and goes too far on the hostility that it becomes mean spirited. The story is dull (especially the first act which was a slog in almost every way) and predictable and the charm and heart are not there. Also found that it took itself too seriously for any light hearted-ness to come through and the conflict is very contrived and phony. The ending felt too pat.

Overall, lacklustre. 4/10.

I adore Lorraine Bracco but not in this environment. The back and forth between present and past was fine, but the main leads had zero chemistry. Their personalities clashed, and the story was stale. This one fell flat for me, definitely not a rewatch.

Once again, when I read the scathing reviews to some of the Hallmark movies, I shake my head. I love watching Hallmark movies because they are entertaining. I don't go to bed and have nightmares because of violence, language, etc. I have said before in a review that there is so much negativity from some reviewers that I should stop reading them. And here I am again commenting on that negativity. Of course we all have and are entitled to our own opinions. My opinion of this movie is that it is well acted, fairly easy to follow the flashbacks and a well written ending. Good chemistry was evident in how the story ended. Very believable ( to me ) that they were falling in love. Once again I encourage the negative Nancy viewers to find more joy. I applaud Hallmark for giving us an enjoyable escape from wars, pandemics and politics.

I watched for the first hour then gave up.

This movie is boring, the main characters have zero chemistry.

The constant bickering between the two leads gets tiring.

I didn't know what to expect with this movie, as I don't usually love the formulaic Hallmark movie. I have to say I was very pleasantly surprised with this one. The two leads felt like real people to me. They each had flaws that they gradually overcame with each other's help (Mama and her cookbook helped too but I don't want to give anything away) . It was a tender story with some fun humor and I thought the production did a great job of capturing the restaurant and food. I thought the whole cast was great, the performances were subtle and very realistic and by the end I was really shipping Frank and Amy. I'm also impressed with how far Hallmark went with trying to tell an authentic story. The main cast is Italian and I totally believed that as part of their cultural identity. Sure, some of the conflict towards the end seemed a bit contrived, but it's totally forgivable as, overall, this movie greatly exceeded my expectations. I'd recommend for anyone looking for fun and easy viewing with heart.

Wasn't expecting to like this movie, but the story was good, the flashbacks with Lorraine Bracco were good and the food was awesome. Really liked the scenery. The actors did a good job.

I'm surprised by these reviews so had to one. I really enjoyed this one - the acting and the fact they were fresh faces, the old school Italian restaurant that felt authentic, and all around something a bit different. Really lovely and enjoyable.

This movie is a fresh new look on the channel. A very good storyline, very realistic acting, A prime cast members, and a sweet comedy. I was so into this movie. I hope to see more movies like this.