Passport to Love - Great American Family

I just watched Passport to Love this past weekend. It was Great American Family’s first premiere of the year. By comparison, Hallmark has already released 6 new ones this year. Was it worth the wait? Was it what I would call magical? Well let’s jump right in and talk about it!

Shae Robins, one of the two stars of the movie, hosted the premiere on Great American Family Saturday night. She is also the star of Destined at Christmas as well as the sequel, Destined 2. I have to admit I haven't seen either film, yet, but I went back and recorded them both so they're now on my watch list. Mason D. Davis is a new name for me so I looked him up and discovered he and Shae Robins were in another movie together a few years ago called Identical Love. Is it a coincidence that that movie was also directed by the same person, Brian Brough?

Passport to Love opens with Shae Robins's character Nicole, a professional travel blogger, arriving at a tropical French Polynesian island called Mo’rea. If there's one thing I love about this movie it's got to be the scenery. We got to see some spectacular views of the amazing places they traveled around the world. I mean, I've never heard of Mo'rea but just look at this! 

Kade, played by Mason D. Davis, works for a travel magazine in their publishing and marketing department. Nicole and Kade run into each other when they discover they’ve double-booked the same rental place on the island. And, of course, they debate who should be the one who gets to stay there.

I have to say I enjoyed the little bit of bantering between the two of them early on. It was fun but not overdone. We got to see who the characters were and how they interacted with each other. But one thing I noticed right out the gate, and I didn't know how much this would impact my opinion of the movie overall, but the acting was kind of flat.

Now I know I'm not an actor and I'm continually working on improving my own delivery in my YouTube videos (believe me, it’s a struggle) but when I find myself imagining how other actors would deliver the same lines if these roles were recast, that's not a good sign.

Having said that, though, I'm not going to dwell on the quality of the acting for the rest of this review. It’s true, it stayed pretty flat throughout the movie, but there are some other highlights I want to focus on from here.

I thought the story itself was actually very good. Kade’s boss blames the popularity of travel bloggers for their declining readership and sales and he specifically wants Kade to go after Nicole's blog. He wants to buy her out so they can ultimately shut her down.

Over the course of the movie Kade follows her to places all over the world, which was really fun because even though Kade works for a travel magazine, he never got to experience any of the places he visited. So, to a small extent, I felt like we got to live vicariously through him while he tried all these new things for the first time. 

In the beginning he was excessively nervous, like when they went out kayaking (at least I think it was kayaking) and Nicole jumped in to swim with the stingrays and sharks.  They rode camels in Turkey and traversed a maze in Scotland. And by the very end he rode across Finland in a snowmobile to find Nicole who was there to see the Northern Lights. That was a romantic scene!

We also saw a glimpse of some beautiful scenery like this tropical French Polynesian island, the magnificent balloons in Turkey and the lush green Scottish countryside.  

And of course along the way he fell in love with her all while keeping the big secret about his boss’s true intentions from her. This gave the story a chance to build up throughout the movie to that critical moment when we knew eventually, the truth would have to come out. So, when Nicole finally did find out what Kade was up to, and it wasn’t even Kade who told her, her reaction was understandable and it didn’t feel forced.

The story reminded me a little bit of one of my favorite Hallmark Christmas movies, A Bramble House Christmas. Sure, the circumstances are different, but stay with me and I’ll explain where I find the similarities!  

In Bramble House Christmas, our leading man, Finn, follows Willa to a resort B&B with the intention of proving that she’s a con-artist trying to cheat him out of his father’s inheritance. As he gets to know her more he finds out that she’s not only NOT a fraud, but he falls in love with her. The big conflict builds as he keeps his original intentions a secret from her. Now do you see the similarities?

Well, the biggest difference between these two movies, to me, is the quality of the acting. I could feel Willa’s and Finn’s pain in A Bramble House Christmas when she finally found out the truth about him. It was such a moving story and a great example of why I love these movies.

But even with a similar story I didn’t feel quite the emotional pull at the end of Passport to Love, and I think if the acting were a little better I would have with this storyline.  It had some good moments, but if I’m being honest I think they have some work to do on the execution.

So how do I rate this one? It starts with a good story, it has some great scenery and we get to join them on some fun excursions while they travel the world. But, coupled with the flat acting, were these enough to make it magical? Perhaps. It’s certainly more magical than one or two others I’ve seen recently. And yes, if it were on again I’d probably watch it. So with all these in mind I think I’ll give it a rating of 3½.  That extra ½ I’m giving it is because it was always very clear to me, despite the quality of the acting, that this was first and foremost, a love story.

So what did you think? I’m a little disappointed that while the Great American Family movie app lets you submit reviews, I haven’t found a place to read any, yet.

As always, please share your own thoughts and opinions on this movie right here in the comments below. I'm interested to find out how many of you agree with me and who has a very different opinion this time. I’m always open to a fun discussion!

Well I think that wraps up my thoughts on Passport to Love.  As always, thank you so much for joining me for this week's Magical Movie Club review.  We'll be back next week to chat more about our favorite Magical Movies! 

Great American Family's Original Preview: Preview

Great American Family Movie site:  Passport To Love