Full disclosure: I love Hallmark movies and I've had the good fortune to visit Paris several times over the course of my life. As a child I visited with my European parents, then as a honeymooner with my ex, and last time as a father with my daughter the year I got divorced. Every trip was magical, perhaps none more so than my last visit with my beloved daughter.
Her Pen Pal felt like a return visit to Paris for me and features some great writing, dialogue and tour guide type stories within the story. It was written by Joie Botkin (story by Amy Helmes and Kim Askew), with a few shout outs to Audrey Hepburn in Sabrina. I actually saved some of the best lines in a collection of Hallmark quotes that I've compiled. Here's a few:
Tracy- "If I had known that wedding planning was just an endless decision making tree, I probably would have eloped" Victoria: "Tracy, honey, life is an endless decision making tree."
Jacques: "Be a flaneur... It's a French thing. It means somebody who strolls just to experience, who wanders with no purpose." told to Victoria as they visit the romantic and wonderful Le mur des je t'aime (the I Love You wall) in Montmartre.
Victoria: "Is the sky falling? No, the heavens are just readjusting."
Victoria: "Tu me manques, Paris! That means I'll miss you Paris right?" Jacques: "Sort of. Tu me manques in French doesn't mean I miss you. Tu me manques means you are missing from me."
There's also a beautiful foreshadowing discussion of the Pont des Arts, once known as the "Love Locks Bridge" (and prominently featured in Love Locks, another lovely Hallmark movie set in Paris). Mallory Jansen was beautiful and real as Victoria (loved her in On the 12th Day of Christmas with Tyler Hynes) and, at one point, she was refreshingly self aware about her handling of the bride's needs. Joshua Sasse could play James Bond and was about as smooth as a lead could be. They had great chemistry and some wonderful moments throughout the film.
Didn't really buy the couple getting married as a couple and, other than Cameron's pretty new girlfriend, who was more friend adjacent, the groom didn't seem to have any Black friends at his wedding, at least none that showed up as a character. Kinda weird. I also could have done without the ex-boyfriend Cameron (he dated a WEDDING planner for 12 years and they never got married??). Cameron acted like a complete idiot even though he was "honest" with his new girlfriend (who was beautiful, also a lawyer, sweet to his ex, and probably more suitable for him, even though he probably didn't deserve her). On the one hand, she got to fly to a destination wedding in Paris with her boyfriend of 6 months. On the other hand, she got to watch him pine over his ex while they were there. "As you say in French: 'ooof' " (a line spoken by Victoria)
Her Pen Pal felt like a return visit to Paris for me and features some great writing, dialogue and tour guide type stories within the story. It was written by Joie Botkin (story by Amy Helmes and Kim Askew), with a few shout outs to Audrey Hepburn in Sabrina. I actually saved some of the best lines in a collection of Hallmark quotes that I've compiled. Here's a few:
Tracy- "If I had known that wedding planning was just an endless decision making tree, I probably would have eloped" Victoria: "Tracy, honey, life is an endless decision making tree."
Jacques: "Be a flaneur... It's a French thing. It means somebody who strolls just to experience, who wanders with no purpose." told to Victoria as they visit the romantic and wonderful Le mur des je t'aime (the I Love You wall) in Montmartre.
Victoria: "Is the sky falling? No, the heavens are just readjusting."
Victoria: "Tu me manques, Paris! That means I'll miss you Paris right?" Jacques: "Sort of. Tu me manques in French doesn't mean I miss you. Tu me manques means you are missing from me."
There's also a beautiful foreshadowing discussion of the Pont des Arts, once known as the "Love Locks Bridge" (and prominently featured in Love Locks, another lovely Hallmark movie set in Paris). Mallory Jansen was beautiful and real as Victoria (loved her in On the 12th Day of Christmas with Tyler Hynes) and, at one point, she was refreshingly self aware about her handling of the bride's needs. Joshua Sasse could play James Bond and was about as smooth as a lead could be. They had great chemistry and some wonderful moments throughout the film.
Didn't really buy the couple getting married as a couple and, other than Cameron's pretty new girlfriend, who was more friend adjacent, the groom didn't seem to have any Black friends at his wedding, at least none that showed up as a character. Kinda weird. I also could have done without the ex-boyfriend Cameron (he dated a WEDDING planner for 12 years and they never got married??). Cameron acted like a complete idiot even though he was "honest" with his new girlfriend (who was beautiful, also a lawyer, sweet to his ex, and probably more suitable for him, even though he probably didn't deserve her). On the one hand, she got to fly to a destination wedding in Paris with her boyfriend of 6 months. On the other hand, she got to watch him pine over his ex while they were there. "As you say in French: 'ooof' " (a line spoken by Victoria)