Is the Chocolate in this Movie Sweet Enough for Sweetest Day?

Today is Sweetest Day so in honor of that I'm going to review another Hallmark movie, this one is an original from 2019 called Love, Romance & Chocolate. While I'm not a big romance fan, you'd have to search my house to find a romance novel and when you found one is quite likely to be inverting the gender roles or at the very least not involve anyone at all being a virgin in any way. Some folks have called what I've had published romantic and I am certain that no one in that field of the writing industry would agree at all with that assessment. There are tropes to the genre and most of them I hate. I can enjoy when a book or movie acknowledges those tropes and goes out to upset them. Given that chocolate is in the title and should play a big part given the description of the plot, I was willing to give this movie a try.

At first I thought the lead actor looked like Jennifer Love Hewitt, but instead Emma Colvin is played by Lacey Chabert. Emma is an accountant... what? I thought the main plot was going to be centered around a chocolate competition. What would make an accountant qualified to go up against trained chocolatiers such as love interest Luc Simon played by actor Will Kemp? Lacey Chabert has over 150 credits on IMDb, wow, while Kemp has 40 which is the reverse of what I often see on, well, almost anything made for television on the big screen. Director Jonathan Wright has several TV movies and the Good Witch TV series to his credit while writer  Rebecca Schechter has more edgy TV series to her name than romance anything.

Let's see if I like it at all. 

I'm utterly confused by the first conversation. We see someone baking and someone working with chocolate in the opening scene; they are not the same person. Then we see a person with the box we see being filled who is Colvin, our main character, who we have been told in the plot is an accountant, bringing them into work. Someone she works with says these are her best yet while they watch some of the treats being photographed... what? What does that have to do with accounting? Why would an accounting firm be doing photographing food? It is in Bruges, Belgium about 20 minutes into the movie that we find out that the plot on IMDb is garage. Emma is not an accountant, she is a food stylist! 

The chocolate connection continues to be strong in the movie. Colvin and her boyfriend on going to Bruges,Belgium on a chocolate tour but he's got a job offer and breaks up with her. So Emma goes by herself and the decision was quick! I appreciated the Emma traveled light with just one suitcase. She's going alone so why bring more than she can easily carry. And this way she can get another bag to bring home any chocolate or other things she buys, right?

The plot moves quick in this movie. We see Luc not even 10 minutes into it as well as learn about the royal chocolatier competition. Once more IMDb failed because the plot was misleading. It implied that Emma and Luc were competing, as in against each other, but instead, Emma steps in to help Luc out when his assistant has complications with her pregnancy. There is a lot of magic hand waving going on here because of how quickly Luc agrees to let her work with him at Chocolatier Simon & Fils, and how quickly he accepts some (not all) of her ideas. There is a lot of gender role-playing going on too. Luc does a lot of mansplaining about chocolate and tasting that you know that Emma already understands, must understand as a baker, chocolate maker, and food stylist herself, yet she listens and acts like he knows so much. UGH! That's the crap I hate about the romance genre and patriarchy I hate.

One romance trope that this movie rejects the "they hate each other when they first meet" and I am grateful for that. While Emma and Luc don't fall in love at first sight, they don't dislike or hate each other at all. Even a minor dustup doesn't last long at all though miscommunications and the villain are still hurdles. Honestly this is more how most real life relationships work; why invest in the intense fighting until you have a lot more to lose and you have far more feeling invested?

Like many romances this one tosses our heroine a twist by offering her the villain who may actually be a better match for her. Max, who has a very modern chocolate shop, is also in the royal competition. At first, we think that Max is just about the surface, about what it looks like, but his chocolates also tastes good, they just aren't traditional flavors at all. I won't spoil the movie by telling how and when Max reveals his true nature but it happens a few times.

Since this is The Chocolate Cult, I must compliment this movie on the amount of chocolate and the role of chocolate in this film. Every ten to fifteen minutes (if not more often) we are either in a chocolate shop, tasting chocolate with the characters, or making chocolate with the characters.

I actually enjoyed this movie. That is rare for me with mainstream romance of any type. If you have seen it, I want to know what you thought about it, so leave a comment and tell me.