Candy Cane Christmas

I love hallmark movies and the predictability of them. But this was so horrible. Why is the leading woman so insecure? After all the misunderstandings, she still chose overreacting rather than finding out the truth? If it wasn't for the leading man, I wouldn't have finished this movie.

Not sure if writing or lead actress but her character was almost unwatchable. Too bad as male lead was very pleasant

There is way too much awkward in this movie. Too many conversations between Eric and Phoebe go that way. Then there is the blind date dinner at Phoebe's friend's house. And the two dates with the cartoonist are epic fails.

There's not much chemistry between Mark Ghanimé and Beverley Mitchell. As I already mentioned, uncomfortable conversations seem to be the norm. And this movie falls into the trap of not giving the leads enough screen time. Also there are too many conversations with friends about whether the prospective love interest is available. It's fully 2/3rd or more of the movie before Eric and Phoebe actually have a decent time together. I think all this is supposed to be humor, but it takes too much away from the romance.

The climax is sweet but mostly predictable.

Even the title didn't suit this movie. When the woman was selling her house and investors were in town, I expected there to be a connection to a new development and bringing candy cane lane back. But no. Candy cane lane ended up as something that could never have been made and kept a secret from Phoebe. You have stretched beyond a limit of belief here.

The writing and storyline were weak. There was a big deal about meeting investors but the investors weren't part of the story or plot. There was the nice young woman that served Eric coffee every day and knew his order. The she disappeared, we never saw her again! The woman at the beginning that was selling her house was irrelevant to the story - a lot of loose ends to this movie.

This was a slow moving romance. How long can it take for two people to admit they like each other?

I found the story in this movie to be unremarkable. Don't get me wrong, I am not one of those Hallmark/Lifetime haters on here, who constantly complain about this genre of film. For the most part, I enjoy such films, see my other reviews. But this one was, simply put, hard to stay engaged with; I had to stop myself on several occasions from using my iPad, multitasking. I had a similar experience to another reviewer in this regard, which was I found it difficult to invest in/bond with the characters. I think this is due mostly to some weak writing, as the acting was decent. Mark Ghanimé's performance (as Eric) was good; he had a soft confidence to his performance on screen, which was pleasant. I spent many hours during the late 90s watching 7th Heaven, so it was nice seeing Beverley Mitchell (as Phoebe) on screen again. Her performance was pretty good. The chemistry between the two was OK. I see some reviewers on here thought it was good, while others did not. It was not great, but it was believable. I think that is the best way to describe it. Some of the scenes between Phoebe and Eric seemed to drag on a bit too much...but again I think this is a product of some weak writing as opposed to the acting. Overall, it was an OK Christmas movie that I will not watch again.