It is a sweet story with a rather weak script. I was a bit worried at the start, as the first 20 minutes or so were not so good; there were some awkward acting and dialogue, I thought. For example, the 'clean the bathroom' line at the Santa Squad shop (when they were at the bubblegum dispenser) seemed odd (as opposed to funny, which I think is what the writer was going for there). That said, the movie did improve. Rebecca Dalton (playing Allie) had a decent performance. The scenes with her and the children were the strongest scenes of the film. She did a good job here, giving off a warm and fun vibe to her performance. Aaron Ashmore (playing Gordon) was not bad. I prefer him in Killjoys (he is great in that series) to this. He had some awkward acting at times, especially early on and towards the end of the movie, I thought. The chemistry between the two was not great. However, his scenes (towards the middle) with Allie and the children were warm and fun. He had a good performance in those scenes. The supporting cast was pretty good. Chris Sandiford (playing Tony) had a kind and gentle vibe to his performance, which I liked. The two children, Molly Lewis as Iris and Hattie Kragten as Rose, both had cute performances. Again, for me, it was the scenes with them and Allie or them with Allie and Gordon that were the strongest. The scenery, props, and sets were fine, though I was not a fan of that house. Did anyone notice that the two large snowmen were made of cotton balls? You could see the fibers sticking out. It was strange as the two smaller ones were clearly made of snow. Overall, it is a good enough Lifetime Christmas movie with some fun and cute family scenes.
Review of Santa's Squad
