One Winter Proposal

Generally follow-ups are inferior to the first film, and rarely capture any essence of what made the first movie special. One Winter Proposal follows on beautifully from the first film with both couples showing great familiarity with each other . The dialogue flows easily, especially with Sean and Megan getting much more storyline. They were both great. This is Taylor Cole & Jack Turner's third pairing in a movie and they share great on-screen chemistry together. Hallmark pulled out all the stops with a wonderfully romantic finale. Good job !

This opinion is probably going to down like a lead balloon, but to me 'One Winter Proposal' is one of the few Hallmark sequels to be better than its predecessor 'One Winter Weekend'. Personally didn't actually care for that film, it had its moments and good things (especially the scenery and Rukiya Bernard) but the main plot, lack of chemistry between the two leads and Taylor Cole brought things down. So expectations were not high.

Actually found myself pleasantly surprised, especially considering that and that sequels (with obvious exceptions) tend to be inferior and unnecessary. 'One Winter Proposal' didn't feel unnecessary and works extremely well as a film on its own, one wouldn't even guess that it was a sequel. Instead of amplifying 'One Winter Weekend's' mistakes and making more on the way, 'One Winter Proposal' corrects almost all of them and has other strong assets.

Will get the not so good things out of the way. Cole is better here than she was before, but her presence still comes over as cold at times. Will agree with the few that have said that the story is on the thin side, so there are some draggy stretches when things are less eventful.

Some of the dialogue is still a bit soapy.

However, there are a lot of great things here and a lot of improvements. Once again, 'One Winter Proposal' is more than very pleasing on the eyes. Especially the scenery, once again spectacular. The soundtrack is also pleasant in a nostalgic way, Hallmark films have an annoying tendency of being over-scored and intrusive but not here in my view. The dialogue is not perfect, but flows better and doesn't come over as bland or corny. The literary references are lovely.

Better too is the story, while thin and not perfect pace-wise things connect a lot better and there is nowhere near as much of a sense of "two films in one". Didn't worry about things not making sense either and there is the charm, heart and light-heartedness that 'One Winter Weekend' lacked. The characters are more interesting and Cara works much better as a character here.

Due to this film not taking her negative traits (which was her arrogance beforehand) to extremes. There is a lot more chemistry between Cole and Jack Turner and there is more of a sense of growth in the relationships. Turner is likeable and subtle and Dewshane Williams is fun, but once again the acting honours go to Bernard who sparkles. Cole's performance is uneven, but as said she is not as much of an ice queen.

In summation, surprisingly good. 7/10.

This was a lovely sequel to the first film and although the first film is still my favourite I just absolutely fell in love with a certain scene that everyone is waiting to see throughout the film. Cara and Ben have been going strong for a year to the point where he is ready to pop the question. Megan's career has taken off to the point where she and Sean have drifted apart and she has kinda transformed into a workaholic, but soon they reconnect and reignite their spark. I think this film did a better job of balancing out the couples screen time compared to the first film as much of the first focused on Cara and Ben and not much on Megan and Sean, but this was much better with both couples getting an equal amount of screen time together and focus on their love stories. It impresses me on how much some of the characters have really changed over the last year, showing a LOT of character development and continue to grow throughout the film. Plus one of my favourite moments is when one of my favourite songs, A Thousand Years is played during a significant moment that will make your hearts melt.

Overall, I think Hallmark has done it again and created another classic Christmas romantic comedy film.

I don't remember too much about the first one in this little (eventual, I'm sure) trilogy, but I see I gave it a 5. So this one must be a lot better. I am not usually a Taylor Cole fan, but she was perfectly pleasant in this one. Her relationship with her boyfriend was free of stupid misunderstandings and silly juvenile behavior. I liked their sub-plots of her new mystery book and his fledgling snowboard company.

But, hold the phone, the star of this show was Rukiya Bernard as Megan, her best friend! What a cutie! She was so charming and charismatic I couldn't take my eyes off her! Not a false note in her acting. And Dewshane Williams as her love interest was a worthy match. I liked the chemistry between the 2 couples with each other and the other two in the foursome. I will certainly tune in to the inevitable One Winter Wedding.

Scenery is beautiful. Story is predictable and unrealistic. A little slow, but still enjoyable. I loved the use of A Thousand Years (Christina Perri). It was funny to see two of the main characters kiss at the beginning of the movie (instead of only once at the very end - typical of the Hallmark formula).