This movie's predictability honestly turns it into a snoozefest.
I have no idea what happened to Chad Michael Murray in this film. I've really enjoyed him in Christmas films in the past (Write Before Christmas and Road to Christmas come to mind), but his acting was so poor here, I started wondering if he legitimately was trying to get himself fired off the film. His character was distant and cold and never really warmed up, not to his family and not to his love interest. He had this deep, almost Southern twang (completely unlike the rest of his family!) that kept making me think he was filming a movie about a grumpy rancher on the side and that character kept bleeding into this one. The lack of family chemistry was super disappointing, especially between the brothers, which not only felt inauthentic, but was a seriously missed opportunity for comedy. (I kept thinking back to Hallmark's The Christmas House, also from this year, where the fun and believable banter between the brothers really made the movie for me).
Jessica Lowndes has become a staple in these Lifetime/Hallmark movies, and I agree with other reviewers that she's slowly but surely improving. She's loosened up considerably and become much less wooden, but still needs to work on bringing emotion into her voice.
The movie's biggest failure, though, is that its plot is so predictable that the audience will literally never be surprised or even impressed by the storytelling. This plot has been told a million times before, and nothing helps it stand out from all the other recycled versions of this exact same movie. There's a calendar of almost rigid holiday traditions that the family follows to a T every year shown near the beginning, which would've been much more enjoyable to watch than what actually happens when everyone else is too sick or indisposed to participate: the two leads have to plan an event together. It's disappointing that this script was approved, because it lacks creativity and any real ingenuity.
I have no idea what happened to Chad Michael Murray in this film. I've really enjoyed him in Christmas films in the past (Write Before Christmas and Road to Christmas come to mind), but his acting was so poor here, I started wondering if he legitimately was trying to get himself fired off the film. His character was distant and cold and never really warmed up, not to his family and not to his love interest. He had this deep, almost Southern twang (completely unlike the rest of his family!) that kept making me think he was filming a movie about a grumpy rancher on the side and that character kept bleeding into this one. The lack of family chemistry was super disappointing, especially between the brothers, which not only felt inauthentic, but was a seriously missed opportunity for comedy. (I kept thinking back to Hallmark's The Christmas House, also from this year, where the fun and believable banter between the brothers really made the movie for me).
Jessica Lowndes has become a staple in these Lifetime/Hallmark movies, and I agree with other reviewers that she's slowly but surely improving. She's loosened up considerably and become much less wooden, but still needs to work on bringing emotion into her voice.
The movie's biggest failure, though, is that its plot is so predictable that the audience will literally never be surprised or even impressed by the storytelling. This plot has been told a million times before, and nothing helps it stand out from all the other recycled versions of this exact same movie. There's a calendar of almost rigid holiday traditions that the family follows to a T every year shown near the beginning, which would've been much more enjoyable to watch than what actually happens when everyone else is too sick or indisposed to participate: the two leads have to plan an event together. It's disappointing that this script was approved, because it lacks creativity and any real ingenuity.