6.4 stars.

This film fails to capture the ambience of a rustic Italian restaurant, is slow moving and not engaging. The chemistry between Amy and Frank is somewhat non-existent, whereas their friendship is more believable and practical. I feel she is straining her performance and not interested in playing the part. His personality seems lifeless and dull. It's as if they both delved too deep into their characters and forgot to import some enthusiasm.

The back story of Mama and Papa was interesting although not realistic because their personalities do not transfer from past to present. Mama's past self being a robust, petit, cute and gentle person; changed into a frustrated, sour, voluptuous, matriarch with no spark. Papa simply disappears into the background. Their accents don't jive from past to present, hers being non-existent after a while. There is no convincing the audience of such drastic shifts in character and how things are.

The Mama and Papa history doesn't mesh, the leads don't fit together, there is nothing to root for, not even the hope of a triumphant romantic ending either past or present.

Films centered around food and the culinary world is not a new thing for Hallmark, but there are plenty of their films that did this setting and concept really well in an entertaining and easy to relate to manner. Despite not being novel, the idea for 'Welcome to Mama's' was a lovely one and had real potential to be light hearted and heart-warming. Which has been the case with most of the previous 2022 Hallmark films (though there have already been stinkers), even with the serious-themed ones.

'Welcome to Mama's' just didn't come together properly for me. It was not the light hearted and heart-warming film it intended to be, or at least certainly to begin with it wasn't, and was a case of having the right ingredients but not using them very well and not doing enough with them. There are good things and it is not the worst 2022 Hallmark film up to this point, that's between 'Cut, Color and Murder' and 'Butlers in Love' with 'Where the Heart Belongs' not far off. But it is no 'North to Home', 'The Wedding Veil' or 'Presence of Love'. Of the three Loveuary films, 'Welcome to Mama's' is the weakest.

Am going to begin with the good. Lorraine Bracco brings some welcome zest whenever she appears and, while not liking his character to begin, Daniel DiTomasso does easy going charm very well and always looked natural.

The production values also look lovely, loved the look of the setting and it is a nicely shot film. The momentum does pick up a little going into the final third and it was nice seeing some Italian culture.

Melanie Scrofano however didn't do it for me, she is very stiff throughout and it didn't look as though her heart was in it. She and DiTomasso agreed do not have any spark together and come over as too antagonistic towards each other and both characters are sketchily developed. While disliking his character at first, coming over as a jerk, his character at least grew and relaxed, but Scrofano's did not making her a lot more difficult to warm to. The cast chemistry is disconnected and the direction feels very routine throughout.

Did find the dialogue very awkward sounding and cheesy throughout and the banter is overused and goes too far on the hostility that it becomes mean spirited. The story is dull (especially the first act which was a slog in almost every way) and predictable and the charm and heart are not there. Also found that it took itself too seriously for any light hearted-ness to come through and the conflict is very contrived and phony. The ending felt too pat.

Overall, lacklustre. 4/10.

A bad script, too much nostalgia for "Mama", her recipes and her way of doing things. Too many flashbacks. Leads that don't have chemistry and the rest of the cast didn't seem to click. It didn't hold my attention, there are other better things on TV.