"Christmas Hotel" is one of Lifetime's 2019 Christmas films and a pretty bad one. It is one of two films they made that year featuring Marla Sokoloff. This time she directs Tatyana Ali and Sean Thomas in a love story. The other film has Sokoloff as an actor and is called "Road Home to Christmas." It's much better. Hallmark's 2019 Christmas hotel movie, "Check Inn to Christmas" is also better.
So why is this film lousy? Well, Ali and Thomas have little interest in each other or the film as a whole. Thomas especially seems bored. Sokoloff's direction is flat and uninspired. Some of these films feature a panoramic view of the setting. As TV films usually are, the camera rarely moves up or down. The panoramic shot is one of the most memorable parts of these movies. It's absence is really felt here.
The plot is really dumb. A big hotel chain decides to open a new location in Garland Grove, a small town near a vacation spot. At first the townspeople are opposed to a big corporate business opening up shop. They are lead by Thomas who greets Ali as she enters her the hotel. She has been assigned to manage the hotel. Ali decides to turn the hotel into a year-round Christmas hotel. The townspeople instantly and for no reason become supportive of the hotel.
The rest of the movie is a series of segments wherein the hotel is decorated, people do Christmas activities and the leads fall in love. Thomas opens up a Christmas themed restaurant in the hotel and we get a scene of his food preparation. I feel like the film should have had more of that. No individual activity ever gets enough screen time to be developed. All are just gimmicks. The same applies to any character development. Everyone's character is blurted out instantly.
"Christmas Hotel" was directed by someone with little directing experience and written by someone who wrote five screenplays this year. Interestingly, one of those scripts was "Check Inn to Christmas," which had a much better script even if it wasn't unique.
So why is this film lousy? Well, Ali and Thomas have little interest in each other or the film as a whole. Thomas especially seems bored. Sokoloff's direction is flat and uninspired. Some of these films feature a panoramic view of the setting. As TV films usually are, the camera rarely moves up or down. The panoramic shot is one of the most memorable parts of these movies. It's absence is really felt here.
The plot is really dumb. A big hotel chain decides to open a new location in Garland Grove, a small town near a vacation spot. At first the townspeople are opposed to a big corporate business opening up shop. They are lead by Thomas who greets Ali as she enters her the hotel. She has been assigned to manage the hotel. Ali decides to turn the hotel into a year-round Christmas hotel. The townspeople instantly and for no reason become supportive of the hotel.
The rest of the movie is a series of segments wherein the hotel is decorated, people do Christmas activities and the leads fall in love. Thomas opens up a Christmas themed restaurant in the hotel and we get a scene of his food preparation. I feel like the film should have had more of that. No individual activity ever gets enough screen time to be developed. All are just gimmicks. The same applies to any character development. Everyone's character is blurted out instantly.
"Christmas Hotel" was directed by someone with little directing experience and written by someone who wrote five screenplays this year. Interestingly, one of those scripts was "Check Inn to Christmas," which had a much better script even if it wasn't unique.