7.6 stars.
A woman owns a restaurant in America and has run out of good ideas. Now her restaurant is in jeopardy of closing and her investor is about to cut his losses and run. She has little time left to become inspired and to improve everything about her business. She flies off to Europe to a quaint town in Italy for a short vacation and to spark her creativity.
The rest of the film is predictable. If you had to guess, what sort of man do you think she meets there? You guessed it, he's a man who works in a cafe. Check. Question number two: Is he an Italian man with a thick accent who has all the great ideas she needs to help her to innovate her restaurant? Check. Do all the people in this little town love her and she loves them and she considers staying? Check. Does she do a little matchmaking of two secondary cast members? Check. Is the leading man missing a parent? Check. Does the leading man have a slightly tense relationship with his father? Check. Is she missing a parent or two? Unknown. Is there a "book within a book" aspect of the theme. Check.
I was pleasantly surprised when the romance happened, because a few parts of that sequence were a bit unorthodox for Hallmark. Not very different, but just enough to get me interested in a sequel. I hope they do one, but I doubt they will. I'm still waiting for sequels to a dozen other greats from this past year.
