Romantic Friction (2023 TV Movie)
5/10
Strange
24 September 2023
Another pretty low budget Reel One Entertainment TV movie. The previous reviewer is wrong as this TV movie not only doesn't have anything with Hallmark, it targets different demographics, too. Let me start with technical issues.

Surprisingly, there is almost none. The only issue is fake location. Movie starts with Kelowna (Canada) stock footage which is really strange. I actually thought this time plot is going to take place in Canada, however we almost immediately found out that it takes place somewhere in USA. But there is more, never again movie showed stock footage till the end! This is double weird because in the last few years ROE TV movies are mostly plagued with stock footage which artificially prolongs run time. So it's weird because basically there is no stock footage after the start, but then why they showed Kelowna when movie takes place somewhere in USA?

I liked directing, I think cast was good, but writing was all over the place. This is the first TV movie written by Jon Bradfield so I won't be so much harsh. Dialogue is actually one of the better among ROE TV movie. I especially liked how Michael was flashed out. I admit I was suprised since he was awful in Act I.

What mostly killed higher raiting for me was Lea's backstory. With just one change it would be wastly better, but... We found out almost at start that Lea is a French woman from Paris who is temporarily in USA because of her failed pursue of some guy. And that's the huge issue. There is simply no way that French woman who lives whole life in France and is not an English language teacher can speak English perfectly. It's really immersion killer as Julie Roy is actually a French language native which she showed few times in the movie. Later we found out that she is actually half-French as is her mother, but still, she lived whole life in Paris. The simple and believable solution would be that she is from Canada (probably Quebec). Why Canadian production companies avoid mention of Canada is a million dollar question.

Few more issues. I didn't like Lea's wardrobe, it was mostly baggy and looked just bad. Of course there was almost always obligatory wardrobe change scene which is tiring as is basically used as time killer. And I don't why but Wade Coleman Publishing company looked like real life cafe which was repurposed for the movie.

In the end, it has some highs, and some lows, overall average.

And obligatory don't watch trailer as it's the ROE one and for some unknown reason(s) it shows whole movie compressed.
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