Movie Review: Hidden Gems (2022)

Synopsis: Addy is a former marine biology major who quit school to help her sister, Kate's, fashion design business off the ground. Now in Hawaii as her sister's maid of honor, Addy has the chance to be her sister's equal partner but also would like to return to doing something she loved. When she loses her grandmother's ring in the ocean and enlists help from a scuba instructor, Jack, to dive with her and try to find it, the decision becomes even tougher, especially when her and Jack begin to fall in love.

Who's in it? The movie stars Hunter King, Beau Mirchoff, Eliza Hayes Maher, Diane Sargent and Marita de Lara.

Review: Hidden Gems, which has been in our library for more than a year, was the second Hallmark movie I picked out to watch with my wife while we had a lazy Saturday today. While the first one was a murder mystery, this was a straight-up romantic comedy and, as such, was pretty much was I was expecting it to be.

As is often the case with Hallmark films set in exotic locations, there were times when this felt a bit like a travel advertisement for Hawaii than a movie, especially when Addy (King) and the rest of the women in the wedding party were on a scavenger hunt. There also wasn't anything I would consider surprising in what was a basic and predictable plot. That said, there were still some things to like about it.

For one, I felt like Addy and Jack (Mirchoff) had good on-screen chemistry. I've seen way too many movies in this genre that had leads that just didn't seem believable as a couple. The fact they had similar but not quite identical interests helped but I also liked how Jack seemed to be a bit more well-rounded than the average male love interest, giving him a personality.

On that subject, I did feel like the movie could have spent a little more time trying to develop Addy's future brother-in-law, Nathan (Jordan Matlock), only because he was in quite a few scenes but there seemed to be zero effort to give him any sort of identity other than being Kate's (Maher) fiancé/husband. The film didn't even let him and his groomsmen be competitors in the scavenger hunt, they chose to go golfing instead. I mean, I know he wasn't central to the plot but why give him so much screen time if he's nothing more than a background character?

Also, the more I think about it, the less I like Kate. Addy made such a huge sacrifice, even donating her college tuition money, and it was as though Kate didn't even once think "maybe my sister would like to pursue her dream now." Then, when Addy made the obvious choice at the end, Kate said the right things but certainly didn't seem overly happy about it. Of course, that could have just been me reading into it more than I needed to. I have a tendency to do that.

Final Opinion: There's nothing about this movie that makes it stand out versus other rom coms, especially those made by Hallmark. However, it is a cute film with a decent enough plot and likeable characters, so we still enjoyed watching it.

My Grade: B