I guess because this is one of the kick-off movies for Hallmark, I may have expected too much. But this movie was a disappointment. It dragged, the lead actress was very wooden, the leading man needed a shave - badly. The movie was an interesting twist on "A Christmas Carol", but fell short of it's potential. There was not much back story explored for the best friend relationship between the leads, not enough "friend" interaction between the leads throughout the movie, so I never invested in the characters or really cared if they got together. He was supposed to be her best friend. There was just no chemistry between them so it never really came across. All their scenes together were short and seemed forced, none of the easy interactions you'd see between "best friends". She didn't really seem to show any feelings for him or any of the past boyfriends. The visits from the past boyfriends were extremely short, and consisted of one short 5-minute scene with each. There's no way she would have figured out what they were trying to show her. There was way too much wasted time on chats with her coworker and scenes watching her work that did nothing to forward the story - time that could have been used to develop the characters and plot. The back story about her mother was barely mentioned, and though it was the source of her issues, it was never fully explored. It was never explored why it caused her so much trauma that she couldn't maintain any type of relationship. This was supposed to be a Christmas movie, but didn't have a Christmas feel, except some short gift wrapping and party scenes. Too much time was spent in her office, with no decorations in sight, no coworkers preparing for Christmas. I hope this isn't how all the Hallmark Christmas movies are going to go this year, because this one was just not engaging. I fell asleep and had to finish it later...
Review of Boyfriends of Christmas Past
