The Christmas Contract

It is a refreshing story line for Christmas. No one over acted, they seemed relaxed & comfortable with each other. I kept getting confused--didn't know which was the mother and who were the daughters! They all looked the same age, really! Had to watch very closely to figure out which one it was!

This is a familiar setup for a holiday story: newly single woman takes home a ringer because her ex will be there with someone new. Warm-hearted family embraces the new man and swaps holiday traditions.

That's where the plot diverges from the usual: there's no heart-rending over deceiving loved ones, and the developing love interest is warm, believable, and well-paced. There's enough going on with the other characters and outside events that Our Heroine seems like a fully rounded woman, not simply a cut-out with a cute hairstyle and a vestigial career.

Our Heroine is positively luminous. She sizzles in this role, like a young Cybil Shepherd or Kathleen Turner, without once doing or saying an overtly sexy thing.

Of course there's the obligatory misunderstanding at the 3/4 mark, that you can see coming from way back. But the way it's resolved doesn't involve either of them doing anything cringe-worthy, and does evolve beautifully out of preceding events.

And I'd REALLY like to experience a Louisiana Christmas.

Absolutely loved Danneel, Hilarie and Antwon. And of course the special guest star: the family business beers! Well, of course Tyler Hilton too.

Love this movie. Such a sweet story... but somewhat spoilt by the awful sound quality. The speech is fine, it's just the too loud background noise of what I presume are supposed to be crickets! Still well worth watching though!

It's easy to get tired of the banal almost formulaic hallmark Christmas movies, but this is definitely one of their best IMO. I loved the chemistry between the 2 leads. Hilarie Burton's eyes literally sparkle when she looks at Robert Buckley, another actor with great charisma. The only 2 negatives that I noticed was, one, although the movie is called, "The Christmas Contract", they never read it before signing and there apparently are no conditions (so why the contract?). Secondly, other than Rocky, there are no Louisiana accents. The mayor in fact sounded like a New Yorker.. But these didn't detract enough from what I would call a very romantic movie and good entertainment.