The Secrets of Bella Vista movie review

MOVIE TITLE: The Secrets of Bella Vista

This romantic drama was released on Hallmark Movies and Mysteries channel on September 18, 2022.

RATING: TV-G

LENGTH: 1 hour 24 minutes

MOVIE REVIEW MOM GRADE: B-

IN A NUTSHELL:

This Hallmark mystery was directed by Heather Hawthorn Doyle, and written by Jamie Pachino based on the book “The Apple Orchard” by Susan Wiggs.

The story is about Tess Delaney, who gets the surprising news from estate executor Damhnaic McAuley that she has inherited half of an apple orchard from a father she never knew and has a half-sister she didn’t know about. When she visits the orchard and connects with her new-found family, she learns that the orchard is deep in debt. Using her knowledge as an antique expert, Tess and her half-sister work to unravel the mystery of their grandmother’s “treasure” that could hold the key to saving the orchard. And, in the process, Tess ultimately finds a new understanding of herself.

THINGS I LIKED:

The casting of the mother and daughter was pretty good! I thought the beautiful Rachelle Lefevre looked a lot like Nathalie Boltt.
Nice cinematography and drone shots.
There’s a fun mystery to figure out.
I like that Hallmark movies don’t always have female employees fighting and bickering. This is the second recent Hallmark movie where I’ve seen a boss portrayed as super nice to her employees and up for a promotion for a great job.
Empty refrigerators always make me laugh in movies.
We get to spend time in a beautiful apple orchard.
There’s more to the story than just romance.

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE:

Hallmark was really going for the “diversity” award in this movie with storylines that include a pregnant lesbian couple, a Hispanic family with immigration problems, and a Holocaust story.
Why are the ladies in Hallmark movies always super uptight? Does Hallmark think that’s how all single women are?
The CGI window views look super fake.
Super cliched dialogue.
There’s a lot of exposition in less than 5 minutes.
Grape stomping is hilarious but seems super unsanitary, right?
Dumb dialogue like “Do you have something sweet like a dessert thing?”
Maybe I missed it but it seemed funny to me that there was no discussion about why the apple orchard was going bankrupt. They never addressed the underlying causes. Instead, the characters spent a lot of effort trying to save it, but what kind of financial situation were they going to be in with the orchard once they saved it without solving the underlying problem?
The romance felt like an afterthought in the story, really.