Let's start with what was good about the movie. Shirley Moon Kobe, who plays Grandma Williams and Kristen Ryda, who plays the best friend Danielle gave the best performances in the movie. They were likeable and believable, didn't feel stiff and unrehearsed, like literally every other actor in the film. To be fair, Grover McCants, gave a decent performance too, but he wasn't believable as the president, but that had more to do with the writing than his ability. His reading of "Twas the Night before Christmas" was good however. The very brief cut-in scenes of the waitstaff serving felt the most natural in the entire film.
The writing was below poor, it felt disjointed and unnatural, and when coupled with the subpar acting, this movie was a waste of the viewer's time. The characters took many leaps during the storyline that felt convoluted. One could not feel or see the romance blossoming between the main stars. Jesi Jensen did not come across as a woman falling in love. Joe Kurak smiled too much and also did not come across as a man falling in love. One was to believe this was happening because it was stated so. There was no chemistry between these two actors. Lines that could have been funny were not. Andrew Dawe-Collins and Nina Kircher who played the now-desceased original owners of the hotel, are playings ghosts that are supposed to be pushing the main characters together, but again, it was something stated more than believable. Their "there one moment, gone the next" appearances also seemed more like out of a "b" rated movie.
The outside scenes were very gray and drab, you could hear the wind while the actors were speaking. The beauty of Holly Hotel at Christmastime was not fully developed. There was a few quick good shots, but for the most part, the beauty was not shared with the audience. For a romance type movie at Christmas time in Michigan, there was a lack of snow falling which might have evoked some form of emotion in the viewer. When I walked out of the theater after viewing the film, it was snowing, I was in Michigan, in another small town, and that felt more romantic than the level of romance achieved in this film.
The wardrobe of the main female character was poorly put together. She was wearing tennis shoes in most of her shots that a teenager would wear, pajamas that looked purchased from Walmart, and she did not look like the new food critic of the New York Times as depicted in the movie. Even at the end of the movie, the red dress she changed into, to meet the President of the United States, was lackluster. If she wore jewelry, it was unremarkable, and her hair was still wind-blown from the outside scenes, despite having just cooked Christmas dinner for an entire hotel restaurant with a seemingly incompetent culinary staff in less than 5 minutes.
The big surprise towards the end of the movie is that the President of the United States (Grover McCants) comes to Holly Hotel to have Christmas dinner with Chrissy and Sam, the current owners of Holly Hotel. The back story is that Sam and POTUS knew each other from back when Sam was a congressman a 12 years earlier, however it was very noticeable that the First Lady never spoke a word, she just kept nodding her head like a bobblehead, while dining with "old friends".
I had much higher expectations of the movie based on the movie cover and trailer. The music and depictions in the trailer were far better than the actual movie. I walked away, let down by the fact that I will never get those 85 minutes of my life back.
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