Victoria's Romantic Secrets
As she gets ready to go out with her husband, Mike (Terence Knox), for her birthday Maggie Sorrell (Victoria Principal - Dancing in the Dark) could not have anticipated what was coming as on Mike's return he tells her that he has met someone else, someone younger, and plans to marry her. With the help from her friend, Sam (Mary Kay Place - Indecent Seduction), Maggie moves to another town and together they set up an interior design business. It is how Maggie meets, the handsome and younger, Jake (Adrian Pasdar - Near Dark), an architect who has left his cheating wife. And before long the sexual sparks begin to fly between them, but not with out complications and heart ache.
Adapted for TV from a Barbara Taylor Bradford novel, "Love in Another Town" is an as you expect romantic melodrama made for a specific demographic who gush over soft lit romance which almost has a fantasy, fairytale quality. It has all those typical romantic melodrama elements from numerous back lit scenes where the light cascades through windows as people kiss to the lip quivering moments just prior to a first kiss. And of course "Love in Another Town" has the requisite big dramatic scene come the end of the movie. But "Love in Another Town" with its May to December, age gap romantic storyline is an acquired taste which will be laughable if romantic melodrama isn't your sort of thing.
Now if you were to scrape away all the melodramatic styling, the soft lighting, the unbearable close ups and the almost fantasy like quality and "Love in Another Town" is really quite a bog standard story. An older, wealthier woman starts a relationship with a younger man who works for her is a standard of so many romantic dramas. As is the fact that their fledgling relationship can't run smoothly, in this case something happens to Jake's estranged wife which leads to Maggie and Jake's romance having a few trials and tribulations to contend with.
But "Love in Another Town" is simply saturated in that over the top romantic styling which will appeal to some audiences but is cringe-worthy for others. The soft lighting, the beautiful settings, the romantic locations and the scenes of lip quivering sexual chemistry are all too much for this reviewer. Don't get me wrong as all of this stuff is what I expected because of "Love in Another Town" being an adaptation of a Barbara Taylor Bradford novel but even expecting it, it was still way too much.
But for what it is worth "Love in Another Town" is still watchable thanks to the cast which includes Victoria Principal, Adrian Pasdar and Mary Kay Place who try to be as convincing as possible. It is because they try to keep their character's more over the top scenes and stupid dialogue real that it is just about bearable.
What this all boils down to is that "Love in Another Town" was the over the top romantic melodrama I was expecting and the whole over the top romantic styling was too much for me. But I am sure there are those who enjoy this sort of almost fantasy romantic drama and it will appeal to that crowd especially those who enjoy May to December, age gap movies.
Tags: Age Gap Romances
