Hallmark Channel
Hallmark Channel’s ‘Passport to Love’ themed movies continues with the second of the two-part Barcelona-set movies, To Barcelona, Forever (although this one is set more in the town of Bilbao). It continues the story of now-besties Erica (Alison Sweeney) and Anna (Ashley Williams) five months after the events of the first movie.
Having been outed as the translator for Anna’s novel in To Barcelona, With Love, Erica is now trying her hand at writing her own novel but all she has so far is a blank page with no title. Bookstore owner/boyfriend Nico encourages her to manifest good things for her book and she immediately receives a call that the option on her novel has been picked up by the publisher … which puts even more pressure on her now to actually write something. More good things come her way as Nico surprises her with a proposal and when they ask someone to take their picture — surprise! — it’s Anna (Nico told her in advance about the proposal so she could be there). During the past five months, Anna has become a successful food and travel blogger but she needs to grow her readership if she wants to continue as she needs the brand deals to help finance her travels. If she can’t come up with something unique, something that’s never been written about before, she’s going to have to rethink her career path.
But Anna has made friends with chefs and foodie insiders and gets the scoop on little, out of the way places, and one of her friends introduces her to a paella made with a very unique saffron only grown in the area by a local family, in a small, secretive town that no one knows about and isn’t on any maps. Anna goes to a store where the saffron is sold and gets a jolt when she learns the price, making a bit of an insult without knowing that the man behind her is from the family that grows the saffron. Throughout the day they keep bumping into each other, and finally at a local eatery it’s obvious to the waitress that there is something between them so she suggests they share a table (because she could use the other one for more customers). It seems to be a match but even after a surprising kiss before the first commercial break — a rarity for a Hallmark movie where the lovebirds usually don’t kiss until almost the end of the movie — Anna needs to hit the road to Portugal to find her next story. But the battery in her electric car dies, she calls Erica to call for roadside assistance and shares her location, and she decides to hoof it to the nearest area of civilization. Which just happens to be the super secret village where Javier and his family lives. (It’s a strange place as it seems like a normal village with residents, a taverna and shops but Javier made it sound like his family were the only people there.) He’s simultaneously thrilled and not thrilled to see her and one wacky event after another leads his family to believe the two are engaged. Javier begs Anna to play along because of some odd tradition that says if the next eligible male heir doesn’t marry by the next harvest (this is all pretty vague) then the family business ends. Why, no one can explain and it makes little sense. It’s almost like they’re trying to make this into a Brigadoon situation where the village will disappear. Anna is on board with one condition — she can write, in vague terms, about the family, the village and their secret to growing the best, most rare saffron. And Javier and his family can allow her to publish it or nix it altogether, but this is the big break she needs for her career. It’s not long before Erica and then Nico show up and dragged into the ruse, but the whole story is enough to also inspire Erica for her novel. The house of cards they’re all building begins to crumble when Anna realizes she really loved Javier’s family, especially the mother she never had, but once they find out they’ve all been lied to, she is sure they will banish her for good. But can her heart let her leave just like that, or will Javier admit his true feelings before it’s too late? And once it’s discovered that Erica was going to adapt the whole story for her novel, will it ruin her friendship with Anna and send Nico packing back to Barcelona? Well, it’s a Hallmark movie, so there will be tears, happy and sad, and maybe even a surprise wedding.
To Barcelona, With Love was a totally delightful rom-com that totally established the friendship of then-strangers Erica and Anna, as well as the romance of Erica and Nico, while Anna ended up going off to follow her passion. Setting To Barcelona, Forever five months after the events of the first film allows for some off-screen character development that feels perfectly natural once we catch back up with everyone. The proposal moment to bring Anna back to Barcelona was a nice touch, and it allowed her to take Erica and Nico to some more secret places around the city (which is odd that they as residents don’t know about), giving them — and us — time to catch up on their lives. Once Anna takes off, the movie really becomes her story as she falls into the romantic ruse with Javier, which seems innocent enough but becomes more complicated and emotional as Anna grows closer to the family … and to Javier even though she won’t admit it because she fears giving in to those feelings will completely sidetrack her free-spirited lifestyle. Except maybe she really does want that special love in her life, and her car breaking down where it did was kismet. The whole situation leads to some very funny moments, but some very emotional as well, especially as Anna connects with Javier’s mother. The whole ‘will they or won’t they’ storyline really seems like it could go either way, and even with some of the moments that make you scratch your head, Julie Sherman Wolfe’s screenplay is still charming, warm, funny and very heart-felt. It’s a wonderful companion to To Barcelona, With Love, and by the end we really hope that we’ll get to see the further adventures of Erica and Anna.
As with the first movie, both Alison Sweeney and Ashley Williams are excellent. Williams really excels with her comedy timing, but she can tug at your emotions as well as Anna become conflicted about the lie. Sweeney is terrific at showing her emotions on her face, both sadness and joy, and you believe every single emotion Erica is feeling through her performance. She and Williams make such a great team together it would be a tragedy to not put them together in another movie at some point. Alejandro Tous also returns as Nico, also making you believe Nico is totally in love with Erica, even when he is disappointed a bit when she blurts out that her story was going to be vaguely about the family, but he’s always her biggest supporter. Unfortunately as the story takes place mostly outside of Barcelona, we don’t get to see the relationship of florist Mateo and Nico’s assistant Joseph develop, but an early scene in the movie lets us know they are still a couple.
Hallmark Channel
Miguel Brocca makes his debut as Javier — even though the credits from the first film list him and all of the family members even though they aren’t in the movie — and he is a quite charming and complex character. He clearly is insulted when he first meets Anna because of her comments about the price of saffron, but once they finally get that table together — and close down the bistro — it’s clear that he is already developing feelings for Anna (although it could be just one of those in the moment things). But once he gets deeper and deeper into the lie, he does a great job of showing how conflicted Javier is, trying to deny his feelings for Anna because he assumes she will be leaving, while trying not to disappoint or stress out his parents (his mom in particular who makes it a point to tell him her heart can’t handle any more stress). He and Williams have great chemistry and it is a joy to watch their romance unfold, even with a bit of a language barrier.
And speaking of language barriers, how is it that someone who translates English books into Spanish, as Erica does, doesn’t know the Spanish term for ‘beginner’s luck’?
Also doing some nice work are José Emilio Vera as Javier’s father Carlos, a man with a bit of an impish streak in him (particularly as he teases Anna about not knowing what Wifi is), and Paloma Montero as Javier’s mother Rosa. She is quite funny as she believes Anna is the woman set up with her son by a matchmaker, even if she is an American, and her relationship with Anna becomes an authentic mother-daughter relationship that will warm and tug at your heart, especially as Williams reacts to the bond. She and Montero have just as good chemistry as she does with Brocca, and through their performances we really don’t want to see any of them get hurt emotionally. Alex Sorian Brown also has a few nice moments as Miguel, the family’s young saffron expert who always knows exactly when to harvest the flowers. One day early or one day late will completely alter the flavor so perhaps if the family can accept some change every 500 or so years, Miguel can be the one to handle the business while Javier tends to his own affairs of the heart.
The film is nicely directed by Ron Oliver, who makes beautiful use of the locations (and you can actually find the taverna in Javier’s village online — it’s a real place (at least the exterior is), and even one moment looking over the crocus fields that is most likely a green screen shot doesn’t feel totally like a green screen shot. Every part of the movie, from the behind-the-scenes operations to the locations to the excellent cast makes To Barcelona, Forever a complete joy to watch, and it only leaves us wanting more.
To Barcelona, Forever has a run time of 1 hour 24 minutes, and is rated TV-G. The film is streaming on Hallmark+.
Preview – To Barcelona, Forever
Hallmark Channel