Hallmark Christmas movies are expected to be cheesy and almost never portray the realities of falling in love. With that being said, I like most of them despite the predictable and fantastical story lines. I have to say, though, that this one was beyond bad, in my humble opinion. The story is flawed to the extent that if two people in the lead role positions actually fell for, professed their love to one another, and decided to get married so quickly their families would be challenging their sanity, not pushing them forward to propose after dating for one week! That said, there have been other films where love is professed after what seems to be the same amount of time, but it at least didn't make me gag and seemed that the characters had actually come to know each other more than these two did. There is the expected element of someone from the big city moving to a small town - we all know that is a common theme. But, this time there is just no thought put into such a huge decision! As if it is completely easy and reasonable to make the decison to throw away years of tireless work to get where he is in his career and then give it up without even having a chance to be sure about the woman or relationship. Basically, all she did was smile sweetly and they have a misunderstanding which leads them both to feel heartbroken after their week of dating, of which very little is actually shown or described in the film. Then, without ever even discussing the confusion, pain, or rationale behind their sudden parting of ways (and no one even texted the other for a few weeks!), he proposes and she says yes on stage in front of people! They both need to be committed to the mental hospital! Lol. That isn't even mentioning the ridiculous background story about the singer and his crush. They live in this tiny town and went to high school together, but are scared to speak to one another for - what? - 15 years by the look of their ages! It is absurd.
The dialogue between siblings, of which there is an abundance while failing to show the budding romances to make them slightly more believable... well, it is just utter nonsense. What siblings are just constantly that nice to one another that every sentence is a compliment to the other? It genuinely made me gag. "You're amazing!" "No, YOU'RE amazing!" And so on....
Finally, even if the story had been at least bearable, the acting takes it down even further! I am shocked that people have stated that Sarah Troyer's acting was the best of the bad bunch. I thought her constant smile and dreamy eyed look was because it was the only face she knew how to make. Even her short-lived sadness was incredibly poorly portrayed. On the whole, I found her irritating and so very limited in ability that it managed to make an already bad story and dialogue worse still. People have noted here that the lead male's acting was too timid, but that was at least part of the character and noted a few times in his back story, and that the ex-girlfriend actress in LA was the worst actor, but she was supposed to be a bad actor, portraying a model trying to use the lead male and others to try to break into an acting world of which she had no business being part.
I honestly could go on with gripes about how awful this movie was, but I've definitely written enough and feel rather silly for feeling so strongly about it, lol. It is worth saying, though, that I have never left another film or tv review in my life and created this account just to rate and slate this shocking film so people don't waste their time! LOL
Honestly, if this was the first one I'd seen then I'd swear off hallmark movies forever. Thankfully, I've seen enough of them to know that this is the worst one I have ever put myself through!
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