8.2 stars.
You know that moment in your life when you mustered the courage to tell the man of your dreams that you were falling in love with him? What did he say? How did it all turn out for you in the end? Does anyone really put themself out there, edge their way up to the cliff, look over the side into that great chasm that we aptly define as "no risk no reward"? Here we have one of those moments, and I think of our love triangle of sorts, on the one hand we have a woman who has nurtured and loved this man and his daughter for three years since his wife died. She is the perfect fit for him, to the audience watching 'Winter Castle', she appears to be gentle, and kind, pretty, and as a bonus she can sing a melody so beautifully. You cannot deny that she loves them. And suddenly to her utter horror, another beautiful woman enters the scene. All can see that she steals his heart immediately. But who can say which he will choose? As the days pass in this magical winter wonderland at the winter castle, we still do not know whom he truly loves. And we see after several critical moments that in fact he does not know either. I am convinced this is more true to life than the alternatives. If you've never seen 'The Batchelor', then you'd not understand the concept I'm trying to describe. These movies characterize these nearly impossible dilemmas as a normal occurrence of everyday ordinary life, but in my experience the one that got away is rarely the one and only. To put it another way, unfortunately, I've learned the hard way that the one who steals your heart is rarely the right person for you in the end. One of the best lessons of this life is that indubitably the grass is almost always greener on the other side...