Favorite scene with
Nicole Cabella (Tori Anderson) - Dancing with Jake at the Dance.
Love Under the Olive Tree
2020
Action / Drama / Romance
Plot summary
Cabella Oil and Brandini's have been competing oil ranches for decades. However, it wasn't always this way. Founders Raphael Brandini and Frank Cabella once worked harmoniously together, until their relationship fractured, causing them to split their joint ranch into two. Feisty and competitive heir to homegrown operated Cabella Oil, Nicole Cabella is determined to prove she's ready to take the reins of her family's business. And she's all set to initiate a renovation plan that will allow her to expand Cabella to the next level. All set, until Jake Brandini re-appears in Sunset Valley, that is. Corporate attorney Jake is sidetracked from his day-job when he's called back to the juggernaut Brandini ranch due to a family emergency. While there, Jake identifies a land dispute at the border between the Cabella and Brandini properties. Having been neglectful to his own family company, he decides to win back the land for them. In doing so, he re-ignites the rivalry between both factions, as Nicole refuses to concede to his claim on the land. Instead of pursuing a long and costly court battle, the local Sunset Valley judge proposes an unconventional manner of deciding the land's ownership: whichever ranch wins the annual Sunset Valley Olive Oil Competition wins the land. The Brandini's have won three consecutive years, so Jake is confident in accepting the challenge, though he personally has no experience manufacturing oil. On the other hand, Nicole has oil in her blood, but she'll have to conquer her own self-doubt if she wants to be victorious. As Jake and Nicole work towards creating their respective olive oil submissions, while enjoying the annual Fall Festival as they do, they discover they may have more in common than they realized - and sparks begin to fly.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
Director
Top cast
Tori Anderson as Nicole Cabella
Benjamin Hollingsworth as Jake Brandini
Shawn Roberts as Adam Caulfield
Andrew Dunbar as Billy Stevens
Tech specs
720p.WEB 1080p.WEB 752.24 MB
1280*714
English 2.0
NR
Movie Reviews
Reviewed by
Nicole Cabella (Tori Anderson)
Reviewed by
No love for this film
Am not saying this with any pleasure. Despite not being that excited by the plotline, which sounded very derivative and unengaging, Hallmark did have some good films in 2020 and Tori Anderson has been good in other things, with well written characters and good material making a big difference. Hallmark did two A Little Romance films in 2020, the other being the weak 'Love in the Forecast' and of the two films that film is marginally worse despite trying to do something different.
'Love Under the Olive Tree' just didn't do it for me at all. Hallmark were no stranger to surprisingly decent and more films and no stranger to better than expected execution of very basic concepts. It has a few good things, few Hallmark films are irredeemable and there are very few of those made in 2020. It however has a lot of bad things, all major and the worst of them are executed absolutely terribly. Was really hoping that 'Love Under the Olive Tree' would be one of the better than expected films but alas that was not the case.
It's not without its good things. The scenery is very nice and well shot. There are parts where the music is also pleasant.
Shawn Roberts gives the film's best performance, he was quite charming.
Charming is an adjective that neither of the two leads are. Benjamin Hollingsworth is very bland and too uptight, but Anderson comes off even worse. She can be very appealing in the right role, but her character is too mean-spirited and neurotic and Anderson badly overdoes the neuroses. There is no chemistry between them, which feels disconnected and under-rehearsed. Other than Roberts, the supporting cast are unmemorable and none of the characters are remotely interesting, well developed or endearing. Only Roberts comes close.
Despite some light-hearted-ness later, though it does come too late, 'Love Under the Olive Tree' is dull and has a very mean-spirited edge. Just hated how over-the-top negative a vast majority of the characters were, the arrogance is especially overdone, and how they treated others, which made the first half pretty intolerable. It is thin narratively, which affects the pacing, and the lack of freshness with a done to death type of story makes it very predictable. The script is stilted and could have been a lot lighter and more subtle.
Not a good film at all. 3/10.
Reviewed by
Beware
Although the main story-line is sweet, I cannot endorse this movie because of the relationship that was shown between two of Nicole's male friends.
See or Skip:
I must recommend skipping this movie for those who believe in traditional marriage as I do. I also hope that this is not the road Hallmark is going to be going down. James Welch Henderson Arkansas 6/15/2021.