If you are like me and watch every Christmas movie that comes out, sometimes your expectations aren't high enough and you start cruisin' on authopilot.
Oddly enough, I was just finishing up another Erica Durance movie and somehow I didn't notice she was in this. It's hard to imagine her playing second (female lead) fiddle to anyone, but maybe not to Allison Sweeney, and even then she wasn't quite second fiddle, but much closer to co-lead.
But back to my point, I may have been looking forward to an early season premiere, especially with Sweeney and Brennan Elliot, but I was distracted and floated through the first half hour. Then I woke up and realized that this wasn't going to be another simple Christmas romance, perhaps with a simple who-is-the-writer quest. There are layers in this story and the mystery is only part. In fact, if you watch a lot of these, you probably had a good idea from pretty early on, even though the story kept giving a lot of misdirection.
And beyond the mystery are the layers. A woman remembers painful moments from high school. There's a thread about BFF's. And one about an engaged couple where the man is up to something which everyone but the woman knows is something good. Then the future mother-in-law shows up and the audience makes assumptions which are quickly proved wrong. And a thread about mothers and sons which runs right along with the mother-in-law thread.
The acting is good. I've already made the case that this story is good with fresh elements and the pace is good. The dialogue is good.
This is one of Hallmark's better efforts so far in 2021 especially if you don't classify it in the same category as the ones that are more musically oriented. For that matter, it's ahead of any new ones I've seen so far on competing networks. It's still early yet, but I think this movie will remain amongst the better ones this year.
Oddly enough, I was just finishing up another Erica Durance movie and somehow I didn't notice she was in this. It's hard to imagine her playing second (female lead) fiddle to anyone, but maybe not to Allison Sweeney, and even then she wasn't quite second fiddle, but much closer to co-lead.
But back to my point, I may have been looking forward to an early season premiere, especially with Sweeney and Brennan Elliot, but I was distracted and floated through the first half hour. Then I woke up and realized that this wasn't going to be another simple Christmas romance, perhaps with a simple who-is-the-writer quest. There are layers in this story and the mystery is only part. In fact, if you watch a lot of these, you probably had a good idea from pretty early on, even though the story kept giving a lot of misdirection.
And beyond the mystery are the layers. A woman remembers painful moments from high school. There's a thread about BFF's. And one about an engaged couple where the man is up to something which everyone but the woman knows is something good. Then the future mother-in-law shows up and the audience makes assumptions which are quickly proved wrong. And a thread about mothers and sons which runs right along with the mother-in-law thread.
The acting is good. I've already made the case that this story is good with fresh elements and the pace is good. The dialogue is good.
This is one of Hallmark's better efforts so far in 2021 especially if you don't classify it in the same category as the ones that are more musically oriented. For that matter, it's ahead of any new ones I've seen so far on competing networks. It's still early yet, but I think this movie will remain amongst the better ones this year.