Pretty Good

Perfect cast and a good story

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

I admit to having a soft spot for "Broken Lullaby." It's an interesting if complicated story, filmed in Budapest. There's also romance.An elderly cosmetics queen (Vivian Reis) asks her niece Jordan (Mel Harris), a genealogist, to trace her family - now a widow, she feels time is passing and she would like to know more about her roots. She only has a picture of a little girl next to a magnificent music box, which, it turns out, was made by Faberge.Jordan travels to Europe and finds out that the box is highly prized and sought after by several people: a count (Oliver Tobias), a young man (Rob Stewart) who feels the music box belonged to his family, and one other person who seemingly will stop at nothing, including murder, to get what he wants. Jordan doesn't know whom to trust.The story takes us to Vienna, though the credits say it was only filmed in Budapest. The scenery is very beautiful, and the acting is fine. The problem is, it's not particularly well directed. As someone pointed out, with a complicated story, a film like this needs a stronger structure.I haven't seen many other Harlequin films; I think this story is a cut above, and certainly had a decent budget. I recommend it.

LMN has revived "Broken Lullaby" as one of their featured movies this week. As a family genealogist myself, I find it troubling that this story leaves such a huge hole by not clearly defining the relationship between Jordan (Mel Harris) and her "Aunt Kitty" (Vivien Reis) and more troubling still, that genealogist Jordan could be so wrong in what her own relationship to Nicholas is.Commenter Verenka above states "Her aunt (by marriage we are left to presume), is trying to track down her long lost family in Europe." After a huge part of this family puzzle is solved, however, Jordan supposedly alleviates the concerns of her love interest, Nicholas (Rob Stewart), by stating that she and he are fourth cousins, indicating that it is therefore OK for them to pursue a relationship.If they were only cousins by marriage, Jordan should have stated so at that time, but since she goes so far as to try to define their NATURAL relationship, this leaves us with the never addressed question as to how did Jordan's mother/father end up being the sister/brother of the believed orphan Kitty? Even after Kitty's true family background is revealed, there is no room for Jordan's mother or father in the picture. This supports the theory that Kitty is Jordan's Aunt only through a marriage by Kitty to Jordan's natural Uncle. Again, if that were the case, why did Jordan not alleviate Nicholas' concerns with the fact that they are only related by marriage instead of stating they are fourth cousins? They are NOT, however, fourth cousins, either by marriage or through natural relationship, rather FIRST COUSINS ONCE REMOVED (by marriage, if that's the case). Jordan and Nicholas's mother would be first cousins (or first cousins by marriage). One would think that any genealogist worth her salt would get a relationship THAT close to home right! Nevertheless, if they are NOT related by marriage, this is a problematic relationship - much too close for comfort!

The story concerns a genealogy researcher (Mel Harris) who is hired by her Estee Lauder-like cosmetic queen aunt. Her aunt (by marriage we are left to presume) is trying to track down her long lost family in Europe. All they have to go on is a photo of a young girl standing by an ornate music box. The researcher heads to Europe and conducts her search in places like Milan, Budapest, and Vienna. The scenery is the real thing and is actually shot on location (unlike a Murder, She Wrote where Jessica is supposed to be visiting a far-flung locale and Lansbury never left Burbank). Anyway, she meets a young man who is also searching to solve a family mystery of his own and they team up to track down clues and menace bad guys. The dialogue, particularly the romantic dialogue, is terrible. I watched this because of the scenery but the script was so bad that I stayed on just to see if it would get worse. It did. Acting was also off. I can see why Mel Harris's career never really took off after thirtysomething, but she is adequate (seems too old for her co-star though). But, the supporting players are straight out of the community playhouse. I also lost count of how many times they say "Budapest" to each other. Yes, it is pronounced Bood-a-phesht. We know, okay? I realized halfway into the film that this had to be one of those Harlequin movies and sure enough it is. Guess that says it all.

Take young, pretty people, put them in an exotic locale, stick in a few bad guys, have the two lead characters find romance after a couple of heavy breathing scenes, create the flimsiest of plots, then work out a happy ending for everybody (other than the three or four who get murdered, of course) That's the classic (and successful) format of the Harlequin Romance. It's not very good but then it's not very bad either, like most of the little yellow pocket books. And the location stuff in Budapest is especially interesting, even if they didn't use the wonderful old train station (designed by Gustave Eifel) or show the city's famous thermal baths.