Enjoyable Hallmark Christmas movie starring the always lovely and likable Alicia Witt as a struggling shop owner who becomes engaged to a jerk real estate agent. She takes a trip to meet his family but, through a series of events, she winds up spending the holidays with the wrong family and falling in love with the guy she thought was her fiancé's brother. It's all very contrived and maybe a little While You Were Sleeping-ish, but it's hard to dislike anything with Alicia Witt in it. Her character here is a bit of a ditz at times and we're never shown what in the world she saw in the jerk fiancé to begin with. How he even got a second date with her boggles the mind. But this is Hallmark and, if we've learned anything from Hallmark over the years, it's that the quickest way to meet your soul mate is to become engaged to a terrible person.
As I said, this is as contrived a setup as you'll likely ever see in a movie. All the pieces have to fit together just right and in the right order at all times for this to work. Of course they do and it's fine. I don't watch Hallmark movies for great plots anyway. The characters are nice and the romance between Alicia's character and Mark Wiebe's character is handled well. One thing stood out to me and it's something I've seen before in other Hallmark movies. Wiebe's character builds furniture for a living but the movie makes sure to tell us he has a degree in economics. Why is it that in Hallmark romcoms the men always have to be either rich or "capable of being rich but choosing not to be?" It does seem strange, at least to me. Is there a big cry for pragmatism in romance stories nowadays?
As I said, this is as contrived a setup as you'll likely ever see in a movie. All the pieces have to fit together just right and in the right order at all times for this to work. Of course they do and it's fine. I don't watch Hallmark movies for great plots anyway. The characters are nice and the romance between Alicia's character and Mark Wiebe's character is handled well. One thing stood out to me and it's something I've seen before in other Hallmark movies. Wiebe's character builds furniture for a living but the movie makes sure to tell us he has a degree in economics. Why is it that in Hallmark romcoms the men always have to be either rich or "capable of being rich but choosing not to be?" It does seem strange, at least to me. Is there a big cry for pragmatism in romance stories nowadays?