Love in Aruba (2021)
★★ — Love in Aruba (2021)
Love in Aruba is a 2021 romantic comedy drama produced by Silver Peak Productions, Candlelight Media Group and SunWorld Pictures. Running to a trim 90 minutes, it follows Amber, a young woman who travels to the Caribbean island of Aruba to work as a tutor and carer for Macey, the daughter of a single father named Connor, who is there on business. What unfolds is, broadly speaking, the kind of warm-weather romance that has become its own recognisable genre within made-for-television entertainment, occupying the same cultural space as a dozen or so similar productions released each year. Aruba itself, with its reliably sunny skies and photogenic coastline, provides an appealing backdrop, and the film leans into its location in ways that will feel familiar to anyone who has sat through a Sunday afternoon TV movie. It is worth noting that, whatever its distribution story, the film sits squarely within a tradition of light, undemanding romance pictures aimed squarely at a particular audience rather than at festival crowds or awards circuits. For context on how a romance can carry genuine emotional weight when it chooses to, it is worth looking back at this site's take on Call Me by Your Name, a film operating in a very different register.
The film was directed by Brian Brough, a prolific figure in the world of faith-adjacent and family-friendly television movies, with a long list of credits in this particular corner of the market. His work tends to be polished but unremarkable, competent in its framing and pacing without drawing attention to itself, which suits the genre's expectations well enough. The principal cast includes Sashleigha Hightower and David McConnell as the central pair, with Scarlett Hazen as Macey, alongside Xannova Xan and K. Danor Gerald in supporting roles. None of these are household names in the traditional sense, though that is fairly standard for productions of this type, where the appeal rests more on the premise and the setting than on star power. Hightower and McConnell carry the weight of the will-they-won't-they dynamic that the story requires, and the chemistry between the leads is the kind of thing that makes or breaks a film like this. For a sense of how comedy and romance can be handled in a looser, more personal register, the earlier review of I'm Drunk, I Love You is worth a read, as is the write-up of The Bigamist, which approaches romantic drama from a rather more unusual angle.
A-Z World Movie Tour Aruba It's nowhere near as bad as some of the reviews make it out to be. It's super predictable, the scripting is a little basic, the acting is fine (from most people). It's just a pretty average movie. I can't believe it released in cinemas. It HAS to be a TV movie. There was some strange conversations about the % of renewable energy on Aruba and a little too much of a tourism advert at some of the locations. Overall.. it's just a below average film but something old people would probably love
I will say, there is something mildly curious about how openly the film functions as a kind of extended tourism promotion for Aruba, which does not do the story any favours when you are trying to care about the characters rather than book a holiday. It sits, for me, in that category of films that are entirely watchable on a quiet afternoon if you have no strong feelings either way, but that you would struggle to defend in any serious conversation about the romance genre. I have sat through worse, and I have sat through much, much better. Sometimes that is simply where a film lands, and there is no great shame in it.
Rating: ★★ | Year: 2021 | Watched: 2025-05-25
Where to watch
Watch in the UK
Stream: Amazon Prime Video · Amazon Prime Video with Ads
Rent: Apple TV Store · Amazon Video
Buy: Apple TV Store · Amazon Video · Sky Store
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi
Watch in the US
Stream: Amazon Prime Video · YouTube TV · Amazon Prime Video with Ads · Great American Pure Flix Amazon Channel
Rent: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Fandango At Home
Buy: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Fandango At Home
Physical: Amazon US
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