Let It Snow

Alan Thicke's corporation has bought the Snow Valley resort from its third generation and sends his daughter, Candace Cameron Bure, to survey it. She arrives in the middle of its Christmas season and finds love with both Jesse Hutch and the idea of Christmas in this Hallmark Channel seasonal romantic comedy.

It's a nicely written movie. Mr. Hutch is oppressed by four generations of tradition, including an elaborate series of events and recipes and even regular family guests which must be rigorously followed, with no room for the changes he wants to make. Ms. Bure feels rootless and enchanted by the order and beauty she sees about her. Add in some quite lovely camera-work of the snow-drenched landscape near Vancouver, and you have a fine holiday romcom.

Stephanie (Candace Cameron Bure) is an executive with no Christmas spirit who's sent by her boss (and father) to look at a family-owned lodge their company has just acquired. The plan is to turn the cozy rustic lodge into a ski resort, which is news to the family selling it. Stephanie spends the week before Christmas with the family, experiencing the holiday their way. If you think she'll fall for the handsome son (Jesse Hutch) and have a change of heart about Christmas, you must have seen a Hallmark movie before.

I'm always down for a good Candace Cameron Bure TV movie, especially a Christmas one. She's the same here as she is in every role: pretty, charming, likable. Alan Thicke is good as her not-so-likable dad. The fact that Thicke used to play Candace's brother Kirk's father on Growing Pains no doubt led to some back-patting for whoever cast him. Jesse Hutch is an actor whose face is very recognizable if you watch much TV, even if you can't remember where exactly you've seen him before. He's been a guest-star on just about everything that films in Canada. This is one of the bigger roles I've seem him in. He does well and has nice chemistry with Candace. Their meet-cute is funny. I wouldn't mind seeing him in more starring roles. Dan Willmott and Gabrielle Rose are his salt of the earth parents. It's pretty much impossible to dislike them. Oh, and just to preserve it for posterity in case someone changes it: Jesse Hutch's IMDb bio currently brags that he shares a birthplace with fictional comic book character Wolverine and tells a rather odd anecdote about him faking a hostage situation at his high school. Weird but amusing.

The Canadian scenery (subbing for Maine) is lovely. The cast is pleasant and fun. The story is predictable but who cares really? This isn't challenging stuff but it is enjoyable. It has humor, romance, and heartwarming family moments. It's a better than average Christmas TV movie that will make you smile.

Finally a movie where Candace Cameron Bure isn't completely annoying!

Alan Thicke portrays CCB's father and tycoon of hip young hotels for the jet set.

He sends CCB to take stock of his latest purchase and plan how to tear it all down and make it new and edgy for their clientele.

Well what do you know but shortly after arriving and butting heads with the current owners son (Jesse Hutch) they soon begin to fall for one another!

Can CCB convince her father to keep the family charm of their new purchase?!

This movie was so enjoyable and the cast was very believable. I felt I was at Snow Valley too. Stephanie and Brady (Cameron Bure and Hutch) are both great actors and worked well together. I appreciated Stephanie's humorous antics and the variety of activities both indoors and out for them and the other guests.

It was refreshing to not have serious conflict between the two of them. Instead, they both faced a similar and more realistic difficulty with their dads' expectations. They kissed before the very end of the movie which I liked and Brady supported Stephanie when she approached her dad near the end of the movie so they were working together as a couple. Quite nice to see.

I got so involved in the movie that I when it was over, I had forgotten the "real world" which showed me I really loved this movie.

As has been said quite a few times, Hallmark's Christmas output is very hit and miss. Some though are above average level, and there are some surprisingly enjoyable ones amongst the average and less films that there is in a good deal of in their output. Have been on a roll for the past couple of years watching and reviewing as many Hallmark and Lifetime Christmas films every now and again and it has been interesting despite the quality being uneven.

'Let it Snow' is to me among Hallmark's better festive efforts and certainly for that year. It is light years away from being a masterpiece or flawless and will admit to considering bailing early on, but stick with it as it does get better. 'Let it Snow' was a pleasant watch and is really not bad when taken for what it is and judged for what it's meant to be. Which is an inoffensive if uneven and hardly unique watch and not a cinematic classic or milestone.

It is very professionally filmed and the locations are simply beautiful. A lot of Hallmark's Christmas films suffer from being over-scored, meaning being too constantly used and too loud. That isn't so big a problem here generally. While the characters are not meaty or original, none of them annoyed me and nor did they bore me. The leads were easier to connect to than expected. They also had personality traits that appealed and any negative traits were not exaggerated, which can be a common problem with female lead characters particularly in Hallmark's Christmas output.

Candace Cameron Bure is a big reason as to why 'Let it Snow' works, she has a likeable character worth identifying with and Bure is just beguiling. Jesse Hutch's character isn't as interesting but is an amiable and subtly charming presence too. Their chemistry is genuine and always at ease. Am not usually a fan of Alan Thicke, but this is one of his better performances where he manages to make something heartfelt out of a potentially annoying character. All the cast are fine in their own way.

While the dialogue is not what one would call amazing, it is not as cheesy or as forced as a lot of festive films or films with similar story types. The story is formulaic, but is also immensely charming and heart-warming. There is nothing mean-spirited about it and it is genuinely moving without going overboard on the sentimentality.

As said though, the story is very formulaic and the film is not for those that dislike cliche overload, with most of the characters and situations as cliched as they come it does make things very predictable.

Furthermore, the ending is on the too easy and corny side and maybe some of the music could have had more personality.

Overall, well done. 7/10.