seekingkindredspirits

Hallmark Christmas movies are reliable holiday fare: usually lightweight, predictable and an entertaining escape for an hour or so. Any watcher of Hallmark movies knows, you have to suspend disbelief and embrace the implausible and unrealistic.

In this movie, Abby, a designer is called upon by her sister and brother-in-law to help prepare recently deceased Grandpa Frank's home for sale. Abby leaves her high-pressure job and new career-making opportunity to go to small-town USA to help her family out, and for no compensation either, as far as we can tell. Hmmm.

Upon her arrival in town, Abby has a conversation with a guy working outside a coffee shop. There's a "Be back in 10" sign on the door, and she asks if he knows when the owner will return, e.g., has it been 10 minutes or did s/he just leave? The guy inexplicably acts like a complete jerk. I wanted smack that smirk off his face myself (only in my imagination. But I would have been supremely irritated).

Then we learn that Grandpa Frank didn't just leave the house to Abby's BIL (I think his name is John), but the inheritance is split 50/50 with Grandpa Frank's contractor, Bo (played by Marcus Rosner). The rude jackhole Abby encountered outside the coffee shop. Of course it is.

Did GF leave instructions for the house? Nope. Bo and Abby's sister and BIL are just supposed to figure it out. Therein lies the so-called plot. Bo wants to convert the house to a B & B. Abby's sister and BIL want to sell it so they can improve their own situation- It seems that Abby's widower dad is living with with her sister and BIL in the garage because they don't have room in the house.

Bo can't afford to buy Abby's sister and BIL out. He is self-employed, doesn't have savings, cash flow, whatever. How then, does he expect to float a bed and breakfast? Does he even have a plan? And how does this help Abby's sister and BIL? They need money to improve their circumstances and house their father somewhere that's not the garage. Bo hears this, but he's unswayed. This guy is so self absorbed! In real life, if one person can't buy out the other, it forces a sale. Done.

So - Abby's sister and BIL take a big step back and say, "You two work it out." Meaning Bo and Abby. What? So instead of sitting down and looking at practical things, such as whether a bed and breakfast is even practical, they immediate start trying to impose their design/remodel opinions on each other. With neither doing any listening or compromising. Why go through the exercise of making decisions when there is no actual plan for this property?

Instead, they tear off wallpaper. Buy paint in two colors because they can't agree. Romantic sparks ignite after Bo purposely gets paint on Abby's clothing (again, why would he for one moment think that was okay?), and they chase each other around this large house having a "paint fight." Unless the place is going to be gutted, no one has a paint fight inside a house. After being assaulted with paint, Abby starts to like Bo- for no apparent reason.

Hallmark still needed to fill a good hour after that, so there's an evil developer wants to destroy the town's park side plot, and Abby must intervene.

My biggest issue with this movie is not that they are trotting out all the tropes, but the story doesn't have any foundation to build on - either the conflict or the characters. We all know how it's going to end, but I just want to fast forward through the movie to get there.

I don't have high expectations for a holiday movie, yet I had a hard time just getting through it. There's nothing original or interesting about the story, the main characters had zero chemistry, and the actors sounded like they were reading from cards.

I watched this one with a few other people, and we all decided this must have been produced during the SAG writers' strike and on a low budget. We kept waiting for something interesting to happen, and it was really strange (and distracting) that the actors delivered their lines in monotone at approximately half-speed of a normal conversation, always in muted, whispery tones and with flat affect.

I don't recommend this unless you literally have nothing else to watch.

I wanted to like this movie. I can usually suspend disbelief for an hour and just enjoy the escape for an hour.

This movie just irritated me from the start.

The optometrist, Michelle, has zero respect for boundaries. Forcing "help" on people (which is what she did, if we're honest) is not okay. Also not okay: calling your daughter's teacher at home, signing him up for a clinical trial without his permission, and badgering him about decorating his classroom for Christmas. And encouraging Bailey, her daughter, to violate the "no Christmas decorations" rule. Who cares what his stated reasons are. It is his space, not Michelle's or Bailey's.

The colorblindness as a story premise could have been interesting if it were more grounded in reality - apparently, teacher Ryan only sees black and white?

I found myself wanting Ryan to tell Michelle to back off and leave him alone. Terrible, I know. There are better holiday movies. A lot of them. Don't waste your time.