Hallmark Channel
After spending the past three weeks of Hallmark’s ‘Passport to Love’ series of films in Europe (Spain and Italy to be exact), the network takes a sudden turn left and takes viewers below the equator to the Southern Hemisphere, specifically Peru for a romance movie whose title isn’t completely accurate.
A Machu Picchu Proposal finds Home Ec teacher Katie (Rhiannon Fish) dragged to Peru by her brother Dan (Christopher Vieria) because she speaks Spanish … and he’s planning to propose to girlfriend Luciana (Michelle Rosselló) at Machu Picchu, which apparently requires a lot of planning to visit the site … you can’t just show up (similar to the last Hallmark movie with Rhiannon Fish that took her to Antarctica). She’d rather stay and start planning meals for the upcoming school year, but when Dan entices Katie with the opportunity to try new foods and come up with new recipes for her class, she jumps at the chance. The moment they land in Peru, Katie spies a handsome man on the other side of a parade, and later he turns up again, a friend of Luciana, a chef who is about to open a new restaurant in Chicago, also spending his last days of freedom looking for exotic new dishes he can put on his menu. Carlos (Alec Santos) is already attending Machu Picchu that day on some kind of VIP excursion and he can bring some friends so why don’t they all go? This throws a monkeywrench into Dan’s plans because he wanted to ask Luciana’s father for his blessing before proposing, and he already went through all the hard work to get their tickets to the site. But while Dan and Katie are very much people who follow schedules, Luciana and Carlos are not, but Dan doesn’t want to make his girlfriend think he can’t be spontaneous so he blurts out that of course they will go, which sets the stage for what is to come.
At Machu Picchu, Dan is upstaged by another newly engaged couple so he postpones his own proposal. Later that night Luciana’s family has a big shindig and Dan has a bit too much to drink (as well as suffering the effects of altitude sickness), deciding that this is the perfect time to get engaged while the whole family is present. He unknowingly drops the ring, but Katie picks it up and holds on to it, fearing Dan is being much too impulsive. From that point on, every plan Dan makes to propose is hijacked by Carlos taking them all on another adventure, while Katie does her best to find a new location as spectacular as Machu Picchu (so you can see there is no actual Machu Picchu proposal). Dan begins to get anxious that all of his planning is going to fail and he’ll have to wait a year before he can try again, so he asks his sister to not tell Carlos what she’s doing every time she takes him to a new town so he doesn’t screw things up. Instead she tells Carlos she’s looking for a very special ingredient but every time she finds a site, Carlos and Luciana somehow manage to scuttle everything unknowingly. Dan ends up having bad reactions to alpaca wool and milk and Luciana twists her ankle, and Dan blows up at Katie insinuating that she just saw Carlos as a nuisance, which drives him away. Of course Katie was actually beginning to have feelings for Carlos, so she now has to help Dan get his proposal done and find Carlos before he returns to the States to tell him how she truly feels. Can she pull it all together before it’s too late for them all?
Hallmark Channel
A Machu Picchu Proposal is a charming enough romantic movie, but it’s the lesser of the four ‘Passport to Love’ movies. Directed by Colin Theys, the locations are absolutely spectacular and everything appears to have been filmed on location (unlike some of the egregious green screen shots in Polar Opposites), giving the vistas a sweeping, epic feel. The small towns are also beautifully filmed and the native population and their culture is treated with respect. It really is one of the most breathtakingly beautiful movies Hallmark has produced, and they were so very fortunate to be granted permission to film on location. The script by Juliana Wimbles becomes a little repetitive as Katie drags Carlos around to keep him distracted enough to not drag everyone on a new adventure, but it also gives Katie the chance to be impulsive. Some of the situations they get themselves into verge on the ridiculous — like Katie and Dan unable to find the dropped engagement ring in a shallow bowl of freshly made chocolate, and chef Carlos, of Mexican heritage, not knowing how empanadas are made — but it’s all entertaining and charming and funny and heartwarming, eliciting a few tears of joy by the end as, spoiler alert, everything works out perfectly.
Rhiannon Fish is wonderful as Katie, a woman who struggles to not restrict herself to self-imposed schedules. She has a 1000 watt smile too that is completely infectious. She does a wonderful job of keeping her distance from Carlos, not wanting to impulsively throw herself into something she knows may end at the conclusion of her trip to Peru. She also has a good relationship with Christopher Vieria, who plays her twin brother Dan, always using their twin connection/twintuition to help him get his proposal done perfectly. She just comes off a someone with a beautiful personality, someone you’d want to be friends with. Vieria is more comedic and over-the-top as he gets into one situation after the other on his road to the proposal, shockingly blowing up at Katie when all of the disappointments becomes too much. But he makes us empathize with Dan and in the end we all want to see him make that proposal, no matter where it is (and just maybe, through a little bit of magic it does happen at Machu Picchu).
Alec Santos makes for a charming Carlos, even though he’s a bit too focused on doing what he wants to do, dragging everyone along in his wake. But he makes it clear there is something a bit more than just casual between him and Katie, and when Dan blows up his face just shows all the hurt he’s feeling, believing Katie actually felt he was just someone who was causing more trouble than he was worth. You can’t help but feel for the guy and hope that Katie will be able to tell him how she really feels. Michelle Rosselló is also very good as Luciana, more of a free spirit than Dan, having more of a Carlos attitude about her, but perhaps that is just what Dan needs (and she will certainly be more grounded as she will be Carlos’ sous chef at his restaurant). All four of the main actors make the film much more enjoyable than it could have been.
A Machu Picchu Proposal is a totally enjoyable movie with a wonderful cast and some breathtaking scenery. It has some funny moments, some drama and romance but the storytelling itself just doesn’t have the spark as the other three ‘Passport to Love’ movies. It’s still work a watch, however, for the locations and Fish’s megawatt smile.
A Machu Picchu Proposal has a run time of 1 hour 24 minutes, and is rated TV-G. The film is streaming on Hallmark+.
Hallmark
I want to go to Peru after seeing this!