| Hallmark movies are generally at their best when they’re realistic or at least based in something real, when they deviate from that and want to dabble in time travel or other sci fi nonsense, things go awry. Because of Cupid is about a pair of bartenders who accidentally create a magical love potion that they serve to their customers, creating unexpected relationships out of a concoction of mixology chemicals. | | 2026
Directed by: Liz Farrer
Screenplay by: Sarah Montana
Starring: Amy Groening, Evan Roderick
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Based on that premise, viewers should be apprehensive, because that is pure nonsense. But there is a genuineness to all the main characters (I am refusing to identify Cupid as a main character since there is no honesty to that nonsense), that they make this illogical premise work. It’s fun and cute, and even the scientifically-minded among us can allow for at least a little unexplainable magic. The key word is little. For the most part the plot is kept light and simple, occasionally it veers too far but by that point you will have already fallen for the main couple.
There is a great, early line where Uncle Richard says nobody should go into business with Marcus (Evan Roderick) because “he’s two golden retrievers in a trench coat.” There are two options here: either they wrote the screenplay first and cast the character based solely on that line, or after casting the movie they had to re-write it to incorporate that line because there has never been an actor and a line of dialogue so perfectly in sync. Whatever you’re picturing as two golden retrievers in a trench coat, that’s what Evan Roderick looks like, and however you think two golden retrievers in a trench coat should act, that’s exactly what Marcus is like.
Naomi (Amy Groening) is more of Marcus’s opposite, with a degree in biochemistry she’s analytical, focused, driven by logic not feelings; she is not two golden retrievers in a trench coat. (Okay, I will stop saying that line). Naomi and Marcus are best friends and work great together even if one of them says it out loud because they drank the accidental love potion and the other takes the entire movie to realize they’re in love.
I often have problems when Hallmark characters talk business as they usually have no clue. Naomi and Marcus are about to be out of jobs because their boss is selling the bar, and Marcus refuses to work at one of his uncle’s restaurants because he wants to make it on his own. This character would have chosen unemployment instead of being handed a job which he was more than fully qualified for. Always so stupid. But of course a competition has been announced where Naomi and Marcus can save the bar. As someone who seeks out mocktails and has been saying for years that most bars are over-looking this sector, I now feel at least a little vindicated that Hallmark included that as a major plot element. The movie probably would have worked even better if they just left out the magical love potion and antidote part.
Because of Cupid does have the tendency to veer into nonsense, but the main characters, especially the lead couple, are so genuine that they turn this into something cute and fun instead of stupid.
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