Geheimzutat: Liebe

Jacky Lai the lead actress was great in this movie, as were most of the others, perhaps with exception of her parents.

The story had the obligatory snow ball fight, and a "save the local x by fundraising, someone saving the day, upsetting the boss, then the love, etc etc... Actually maybe it's not different after all, but it kinda felt like a story that slightly differs to the usual. Maybe it was good acting, maybe good leadership / directing / production... I don't know why, it just felt better than the usual movies.

I/we watch a lot of these Christmas romcoms and it's not often I will take my time to review one.

I really enjoyed 'A Sugar & Spice Holiday'. It is a sweet, warm, and engaging Christmas movie, one of Lifetime's better originals this 2020 season. It is also another first for Lifetime: a Christmas movie with (primarily) an Asian American leading cast. The movie centers around Suzy Yung (played by Jacky Lai), a rising star at an architect firm, who returns to her hometown in Maine for Christmas. However, she has to take her work with her if she wants that big promotion. While at home, she is persuaded to enter the local gingerbread bake-off with an old high school classmate named Billy Martin (played by Tony Giroux), thus stepping into her late, and beloved grandmother's shoes; baking was part and parcel of her childhood growing up with Nema (aka her grandmother, played by Cindy Piper). The story is lovely to watch on screen. The script is cute and fun. There was a nice balance of humor, romance, and family warmth, which made for a pleasing viewing experience. As another reviewer here pointed out, the writer did a good job developing the characters; there were, for example, some quirky individuals at the bakeoff. I also enjoyed the voice-overs and narrations by Suzy every time a new character was introduced in the movie, which included comparisons to and graphics of baked goods; I have added these sayings in the quote section of IMDB, they are quite nice to read. What makes all this work on screen, of course, is the acting. It was brilliant. Lai had a very good performance, quite convincing, I felt. Giroux too was great. He had a fun and confident - with a touch of warmth - vibe to his portrayal of Billy. The chemistry between the two was impressive/convincing (e.g., the scene in the kitchen, where Billy was showing Suzy his technique, was steamy). The supporting cast was also wonderful, some very good acting, I thought. I especially liked watching the performances in the bakeoff scenes (fun to watch). All in all, this is a delightful new edition to Lifetime's 2020 Christmas movie lineup. One of their best this season. Highly recommend.

It was so cute!! I loved the script and the cast has such great chemistry. What a fun take and I'll admit most Christmas movies are really formulaic and obvious but this one has such a sweet message and great spirit! I'd watch it again and I'll keep my eyes on the leads and keep my fingers crossed they do a sequel!! (Just watched about 2 prior movies with the same sort of storyline but this one was unique enough and I swear the casting was superior to any other)

The movie starts out so close to the formula. The unethical boss tells Suzy and her competitor that she lied to them. Now they have a time limit to present a proposal and a promotion rides on it. But Suzy says "what about my holiday?" The answer - work at home. Oh and I'll call you every 5 minutes to ask you how you are doing and accept a vague answer. Suzy goes home and gets roped into a contest along with, you guessed it, her old high school male sidekick. She's an architect and he's a toymaker and toy seller, yet they are both expert bakers. Wow, just the setup wears me out.

From there on we get expected results but some of them happen in slightly unusual ways. There's a little twist in the contest, but it's obvious how that will turn out. I was especially surprised by Suzy and Billy's choices which made sense, but endings rarely go that way.

I've said before that you have to consider these movies similar to the fantasy genre in that you can't expect reality. So I'll make these comments, but then dismiss them from consideration even though I found them very irritating. I already mentioned the unethical boss who gives them a ridiculous deadline. Then it's bad enough Suzy gets roped into the contest. She also wastes all kinds of time on other things too. And Suzy makes three big mistakes. We don't see the first one she makes play out until after the other two, but almost anyone can see it coming as soon as Suzy makes the call. The next two are ridiculous. No experienced baker would make the first. No experienced 21st century technical professional would make the second. Another reviewer aptly commented that the consummate professional woman, Suzy, gets a littlie whiny threatening to give up on everything. Like I said, you can't expect any resemblance to reality in these movies.

Acting: Jacky Lai and Tony Giroux give good performances and have decent chemistry. Several supporting actors weren't as good. The contest facilitator reminded me of Mayor Tinsdale on Good Witch for her overacting, but then maybe like Catherine Disher she was supposed to.

A sugar and spice holiday was a sweet movie. It was well acted and had some nice moments. But the CGIs were horrible. Still, the movie is heartwarming and has a lot of sweets in it.