Christmas Takes Flight

I think they leaned into making the lead a jerk too much because he was unlikable. By the end he didn't deserve the leading lady. Not by a long shot. And they tried to have us forget that he was the reason the charity event they were all fighting for was canceled. Jerk! Her sacrifice for the Charity brought me to tears. There was no chemistry between the vivacious heroine and the guy. The romance they crowbared in at the end was out of left field. She was as surprised by it as I was. If it ended on a handshake between employer employee it would have made more sense. There should be a sequel were she find true love with someone else.

Generally a pleasant movie. Of course it had the antagonistic leads and the build up to a crisis but the story was enjoyable enough. It was well served by the actors who were very natural esp the wonderful Katie Lowes.

I am sick of All these movies having empty cups in EVERY dri l scene. A woman always carries in 4 huge cups of "liquid" with one hand. Hands a clearly empty Styrofoam cup to the person, and inevitably, the person tilts the cup halfway back for the first sip. Ludicrous.sometimes the camera shows the new drink from an angle showing halfway down its empty. Sick of this!! If you can't believe that, you can't believe anything.

This is awful. The female character's family has some legitimately bad practices at their company they just sold to the male character. We are supposed to side with the female character because he is taking all the joy out of their not very profitable family business. She is annoying and he is a stick in the mud. It's awful. I just wanted them both to disappear from my screen. I couldn't make it past the first 30 minutes and I love these cheesy types of movies. Incredibly formulaic but annoying and dull.

It's so awful I am struggling to get to the minimum word count for this review.

The Christmas decorations are on point though.

Have been on a roll watching Hallmark/Lifetime etc Christmas films for a few years now. It has been an interesting and worthwhile endeavour, though a very inconsistent one. There was never the mentality of expecting a classic or the film in question to be flawless. Something that was never managed with pretty much all the films seen. There was always the expectation of seeing a film where one can see at least some effort rather than merely cash-in level. The former being obvious in most luckily.

'Christmas Takes Flight' is one of the Christmas films in the former category. 2021 was very hit and miss for Christmas films and for Lifetime, but 'Christmas Takes Flight' is somewhere around high middle in ranking. Can see why some will not like it and it does have issues that stop it from being a classic (never expect a classic with this company), but there was the expectation of it being a pleasant enough watch at least and to me it succeeded at that absolutely.

There were a lot of 2021 Lifetime Christmas films that started off slow and had characters that took time to warm to, and that was the case with 'Christmas Takes Flight'. It does take time to get going, is awkwardly written and the hostile banter is too much and overdone.

Also never really connected with Evan Williams' character and did find Williams bland in the role, so it did make his chemistry with Katie Lowes rather lukewarm (in a romance that was already on the underwritten side) and the too pat ending not easy to buy.

Luckily, Lowes won me over hugely and never stopped being engaging from start to finish. Actually did connect with her character and didn't find her too perfect or exaggerated. She is very well supported by Andrew Airlie, who does father figures beautifully, and cute Gabriel Jacob-Cross.

Production values are pleasing. It's not too drab or garish in photography, the editing didn't seem rushed or disorganised and the scenery has a real charm to it. The dialogue on the whole, when the film got going, has flow and doesn't get too cheesy or too schmaltzy. The story on the whole is light hearted and heart warming, while the direction is assured and unfussy and the music not too much.

Summing up, pleasant film and not too bumpy. 6/10.