Pearl in Paradise (Hallmark) Reviewed by Star and Duck

March 7, 2024

Pearl in Paradise (Hallmark) Reviewed by Star and Duck

Duck: Friends, sometimes a duck starts a movie thinking, “I wonder how long I’m going to last before I’m so bored that I faint, flippers-up, on the carpet.” Then he suddenly finds he’s been watching for 45 minutes and hasn’t even noticed the time. Ducking embarrassing, really.

Star: That’s how it was with Pearl of Paradise! Set in Fiji, a male romance writer called Colin (Kristoffer Polaha) and female magazine photographer named Alex (Jill Wagner) join feathers—no, forces—in order to find the blue pearl that Colin made famous through a novel set in Fiji. Colin needs to increase his flagging book sales and Alex needs a promotion. They’ll achieve their dreams by finding this treasure the world’s been seeking for so long—a pearl that, according to Colin, only he can find. Because he alone knows its whereabouts.

Duck: So, they wing their fluff all the way to Fiji (by plane) where opposites really do end up attracting.

Star: Stellar chemistry between both of these duckies, and what struck me right from the start was how compelling each of their stories were. They had equally strong separate stories that dovetailed together beautifully. I cared similarly for them both, and what they learn from their quest, including their mistakes, really rocks my inner duck. There’s depth here—and a deep understanding of the true value of love.

Duck: Also, super-ducking awesome racial diversity, and a fey-presenting character too—one I’d guess is LGBTQIA-identified—played by
Jarred Blakiston. Blakiston gave a super-fun comedy performance, actually, filled with pond-worthy pep and quack-worthy quirk. Also, Rob Kipa-Williams and Amelia Reid gave rich, nuanced performances as secondary characters. Tons of diversity and flipper-tickling talent.

Star: Yup, Pearl in Paradise really revved my duck-motor. No falling asleep on this one, folks.

Duck: Unless you eat too much pondweed pie. In which case, you’ll be flippers-up and snoring no matter what you watch. You have been warned!

On that note, at the time of writing, you can watch Pearl in Paradise here:

Amazon Prime (including via Hallmark Movies Now)

Apple TV

YouTube (via Hallmark Movies Now)

Fubo TV

Featured image by Star Tavares, using art courtesy of Hallmark Movies Now.

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romanceypants

A nonbinary human and their smart-beaked duck gab about romance novels, movies, and being ourselves.

About US

Welcome! I’m Star Tavares. I am queer and nonbinary, and I use they/them pronouns. My hubby Jake is LGBTQIA+ too. Our plush duck is called Duck and is super-ducking awesome. He likes to call himself an award-winning duck because we wrote a screenplay about him that won some awards, and who are we to argue?

The thing is, we used to publish in the romance genres, but after we came out, we thought romance didn’t want us anymore. But you know what, toots? We were wrong.

Now we’ve rebuilt our confidence and are back to living our Romancey Pants life, writing, reviewing romance movies, reading romance novels, and doing a whole lot of stretching. (Did I mention we’re getting older?)

Want to know more about Star’s writing credits? Under another name, Star has published romance stories, novels, and novellas with presses like Harper Collins and Cleis, and has won awards for their shorter works from the likes of Glimmer Train, Screencraft, and Narrative, where they also worked as an editor. More recently, Star’s nonfiction about gender identity has appeared in The New York Times and at Huffington Post Personal.

Since Jake, who is also a romance author, is starting to add more reviews here (along with Duck’s best frenemy Sir Mallard Jones) watch this space for more about him and his career.

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Romancey Pants