First off the cast is good. There have been ballet movies with less than convincing looking people acting as ballet dancers. In this movie the main dancing leads are dancers. A familiar face from Center Stage, Sascha Radetsky plays the lead dancer/ ballet director. Amy Acker has a beautiful face and a ballerina look - and her dance sequences are convincing as she is an ex dancer. The little girl her niece can dance too. The two main leads looked a little old for the earlier time period since there was an 8 year gap.
On the plus side, it's good to have a Hallmark movie set somewhere else than a struggling small town with a failing business. The Nutcracker itself was beautifully done.
On the minus side, the story is a little irritating. They were both annoying. On her side, if she wanted to dance it was her choice kind of even though she may have hurt herself. On his side if couldn't she dance another night? There must have been a few performances. After all dancers sub for each other all the time from injury etc. She didn't have to dance on the very night her sister died. Another less than convincing thing is the way the other dance moms were so against the nepotism then changed their minds so quickly at the performance was fake and contrived. These pseudo dramatic episodes can be overly fake in Hallmark movies.
Worth one watch
On the plus side, it's good to have a Hallmark movie set somewhere else than a struggling small town with a failing business. The Nutcracker itself was beautifully done.
On the minus side, the story is a little irritating. They were both annoying. On her side, if she wanted to dance it was her choice kind of even though she may have hurt herself. On his side if couldn't she dance another night? There must have been a few performances. After all dancers sub for each other all the time from injury etc. She didn't have to dance on the very night her sister died. Another less than convincing thing is the way the other dance moms were so against the nepotism then changed their minds so quickly at the performance was fake and contrived. These pseudo dramatic episodes can be overly fake in Hallmark movies.
Worth one watch