Romance and remodeling collide when a corporate executive wins a New Zealand inn that lacks curb appeal.
With many films, there is often talk of a "formula"; some sort of checklist that every film must follow. That is never clearer than when you watch a Hallmark movie. Within the first 15 minutes of a Hallmark movie, you’ll know which woman will fall in love with which man. The woman is generally a city girl, and the man is often more "country"; this "town and country" pairing is the epitome of Hallmark movies. Before the film’s first hour is complete, the man and woman share a "point of no return" moment: their eyes lock in a new way, often after a pivotal conversation. A token villain appears, or a competing character that threatens to undermine the romantic destiny of the leading man and woman, but we all know how the movie will end: an embrace, a kiss, a happy ending.
That is the most basic formula that you'll find most TV movies (Christmas and romantic comedies especially) tend to follow. That is the case here too. The lack of originality and thought put into this film is incredibly noticeable. Take a look at the title, Falling Inn Love. I have lived in New Zealand for over 30 years, and have never heard anyone refer to a building as an inn, (let alone have two inns in a small town); a B&B, bach, or motel would make more sense, but you can guarantee that the title of this film was decided long before the script was written.
Okay, this was filmed in New Zealand, and it used a few New Zealand actors like Anna Jullienne (best known for her role as Nurse Maia Jeffries in the television series Shortland Street), or Blair Strang (he is most noted for playing ambulance driver Rangi Heremaia on New Zealand's longest-running soap opera, Shortland Street), or Claire Chitham (Claire rose to fame as Waverley Harrison in the New Zealand TV show, Shortland Street), and Lucy Wigmore (she played core cast member Dr Justine Jones in the long-running soap opera, Shortland Street). In fact, there are only five actors involved that haven't had roles in what is apparently NZ's only television show. No real point here, it just feels like actors were pulled from a limited pool of soap actors.
The film does get a few things right about the culture of New Zealand. We get some Te Reo Māori language thrown in without context, translation, or emphasis placed on it, which was nice. Some performance arts in the form of Kapa Haka were also on display, our nations love of rugby, as well as some good kiwi slang; "munted" and "pack a sad" being most notable. What is odd though, is how the film points out the frequent confusion between Australia and New Zealand culture by foreigners (through the use of the snake gag seen in the trailer), and yet the film casts an Australian actor with the strongest Australian accent ever, as the main male lead, fueling the confusion further.
The cinematography and lighting were adequate. Nothing was overly spectacular, which is surprisingly rare for a film shot in New Zealand (it's really hard to make our natural environments look bland and flat. The acting was adequate from the Shortland Street crew (Blair Strang probably giving the most authentic performance), but Christina Milian was incredibly inconsistent, with some overcooked and exaggerated acting performances in the first act, before calming down into something watchable in the second act, and reverting back to inconsistent and annoying in the film's climax.
Something about this really irks me. Perhaps it comes down to this false representation of New Zealand being thrown at Netflix's audience, alongside an incredibly weak story that had no sense of conflict at all beyond what poor character traits Christina Milian provides. When a goat is your favourite character, you know are watching some absolute drivel.
Falling Inn Love is an absolute travesty. It gets some aspects of the culture right, but butchers the remainder, putting forward a weak, tired story where every plot point is predicted far in advance. The sheer quantity of clichés and tropes is a magnitude higher than the number of Shortland Street actors involved. There is no reason to watch this. It lacks charm and personality, it lacks the conflict and obstacles to overcome, and it lacks anything that would make me want to recommend it to anyone.
Just don't even bother. If you really want to see the goat, just enjoy the photos I attached to this review.