Saving Christmas Spirit

I don't usually watch Christmas movies, but this one was something special. It's a great mix of humor and sentimentality that really gets you in the Christmas spirit. The setting and the visuals are completely stunning. I love the actors especially the two leads. Really enjoyed it! It's set in Scotland and the beautiful old house that looks a little like a castle. I see beautiful Scottish scenery, wonderful production value. There's a fantasy element to the story. It's very charming and mysterious. The two lead characters have amazing chemistry. I believe it they actually used some local non-actors in the cast, which added a nice element of authenticity. I highly recommend this!

What a wonderful Christmas movie! The scenery is gorgeous and the acting is delightful. Very special, unique Christmas movie. Loved all the locations, the landscapes, the house, the mountains, the scenery. The actors are warm and endearing. I laughed and cried and I wanted to know each of the characters more. The kids were adorable and believable. Loved their story line about the girls rugby team. Loved the innkeeper. She's hilarious. The two leads were great. Loved the reindeer. And the music, especially the last song is really nice. There's a lot of history and Scottish folklore too. Definitely worth seeing on a cold night around a warm fire!!

This is a gorgeous, magical Christmas movie with delightful characters set in lovely Scotland. And bonus! It's not one of those factory produced, typical Christmas films with the same boring plot! It's got romance and humor, drama, reindeer and plenty of storyline to keep you interested and warm and fuzzy inside. Loved Ashely Newbrough and James Robinson as the leads, and loved the actors who played the kids in the subplot which really moves the story along and gave it extra layers. Layla Burns who is also in Outlander plays a darling and feisty red headed rugby player, and Jake Satow from The Dropout plays a charming and heartfelt kid who tries to help her start a girls rugby team. Louis Emerick from Brookside is fabulous as the grumpy coach and Joanne Randle is so funny as the cheeky Aunt Edina. This movie has Christmas magic from start to finish, and the traditional ceilidh dance and end song truly top it off! The scenery and locations are beautiful throughout and make you want to go there. The musical score is also really great. Beautifully filmed. This is one to watch every year by a cozy fire with a warm beverage in hand.

American movie makers are getting better at Brit flicks! Ironically the most stereotypical character is the over-the-top camp New Yorker, but fortunately he's not in it much, and even he gets some of the many amusing lines to make him slightly less run-of-the-mill. There's a good mix of characters, with three generations providing a range of plots. Many of the set-ups have the usually predictable endings, but plenty occurs to keep watching for as everything eventually resolves. I like a bit of sadness to add depth even in a Christmas movie, but there is a lot of bereavement and divorce here to deal with, which of course the characters do. This could be a series of films, exploring different elements of Scottish history.

This was an enjoyable watch for a run of the mill Xmas movie set in the Highlands of Scotland (Fort William and Lochaber). The story was easy to follow and entirely predictable with almost no elements of surprise, with pleasant enough characters acting entirely within stereotypes.

The most enjoyable part of the film was spotting the Scottish cliches abundantly thrown around, from dancing in the snow with a piper in the background to the bonnie wee Scots girl with ginger hair as a secondary love interest (albeit more believable than the main relationship).

Scenery, as ever in this area, was stunning and there were plenty of shots of local landmarks to whet the appetite for more.