Love On The Danube: Love Song is the first of three movies in the Love On The Danube trilogy arriving to the Hallmark Channel this month. The movies, which originally premiered on Hallmark+ last fall, all take place on a river cruise, and though the storylines don’t necessarily intersect, you can expect to see several recurring characters on the ship in each one. Love Song starts the series off strong when a woman meets a man on their cruise and they conspire to set up their single parents who are on the cruise too, only to realize they like each other. It’s a simple conceit but it works thanks to a talented cast.
Opening Shot: A voiceover of a man’s voice greets the passengers boarding a river cruise welcoming them to the Bavarian city of Passau. Sarah (Nazneen Contractor) and her mother Julia (Pamela Sinha), two of the passengers, are dropped off in front of the ship to board.
The Gist: Sarah is a busy professional who can’t seem to put her cell phone down even though she’s supposed to be on vacation. When Jack (Wes Brown), a delightfully charming fellow passenger, notices her as she’s wandering around the ship trying to get a signal, the two have an instant connection – as friends. They learn they’re both from Connecticut, and both of them are traveling with their widowed parents, Julia, a Broadway singer who is actually going to be performing on the ship, and Andre (David Samartin), a retired teacher. Sarah and Jack decide that heir parents have been alone long enough, so they try to set them up. As they plan dates and secretly send gifts to their parents to drum up some romance, Julia and Andre catch on pretty quickly that they’re being set up, and admit to each other that they’re not ready for a relationship. But what they do both recognize is that Sarah and Jack are kinda perfect for each other. In fact, most people on the ship seem to recognize this too.
As Sarah and Jack spend time together, Sarah wrestles with the fact that her boss expects her to be on call for work, even on vacation. Jack is very much the opposite, he things she should be unplugging and really living for the moment. She may have come on board the ship as a workaholic, but after sailing the Danube with Jack, Sarah not only eventually finds romance, she gains perspective on what really matters to her.
Our Take: Set against the backdrop of the Danube and the cities that dot it, Love on the Danube: Love Song makes use of beautiful backdrops like Vienna, Durnstein, and Budapest to add some old world charm to a fairly predictable romance. The film isn’t shy about featuring the logo for Emerald Cruises, the real cruise line that, I assume, sponsored the film, and dammit if I don’t want to go on a river cruise now myself. Well done, Emerald. But the chemistry between the characters – not just Jack and Sarah, but their parents, too – is what gives the film some extra oomph.
Sarah’s backstory as a workaholic initially feels a little basic, but thankfully the movie doesn’t dwell only on the “she’s busy and stressed and he’s laid back” dichotomy. The film’s title comes, in part, from the fact that Sarah’s mother Julia is a singer, and eventually has to overcome her own fears and insecurities to perform for a crowd for the first time in years. Julia embodies the spirit of the film, that sometimes the biggest reward comes from taking a risk and attempting whatever it is that you’re passionate about. As such, pretty much all the characters take some kind of leap of faith, personally or professionally, and the happy ending for everyone feels earned.
Parting Shot: Jack and Sarah kiss on a bridge that spans the Danube, and Jack suggests that they come back every year to commemorate the way they met.
Performance Worth Watching: Wes Brown infuses Jack with a familiarity that could come across is invasive in other hands. Within seconds of meeting Sarah, he’s ribbing her for being on her phone too much, but that’s not his entire character, nor does it come across as judgey. He exemplifies what it means to be decent and good, and is a charming leading man.
Memorable Dialogue: “Are we parent trapping?” Jack asks Sarah as they plot to get their parents together. (One of their plots involves taking their parents on a Sound of Music tour in Salzburg, and I feel like whoever wrote this movie is targeting me specifically, as those were my two favorite childhood movies.)
Our Call: STREAM IT! Essentially, Love on the Danube: Love Song‘s logline is that a man and a woman meet while taking their parents on a European river cruise, somehow, this movie takes what could otherwise be a bland concept and made it really work. The characters have depth and charm, and the film gets us to invest not just the two main characters, but in all of the supporting cast as well.
Liz Kocan is a pop culture writer living in Massachusetts. Her biggest claim to fame is the time she won on the game show Chain Reaction.