Christmas at the Amish Bakery

Needless to say that I had, indeed, never heard about the 2023 Christmas movie "Christmas at the Amish Bakery". Well, I don't have a habit of traversing in all things Amish, so there was that to take into account. Regardless, I had the opportunity to watch the movie here in 2024, as part of my December Christmas movie marathon, and opted to do so, without knowing what I was in for. Though, the movie's cover does ooze with the archetypical sappy Christmas presentation, but the 'Amish' part of the movie's title was a little bit off-putting.

Regardless, I watched the movie, and found it to be a watchable, though somewhat generic and stale Christmas movie. Writers Scott Kirkpatrick and Jennifer Snow opted to play it relatively safe and bet on the archetypical sappy Christmas tropes, for better or worse. Sure, if you enjoy the generic sappy Christmas movies, then you're in for a treat here. But I sat down to watch it as a casual viewer, so I wasn't particularly impressed with the storyline.

I was not familiar with the cast ensemble in the movie, and that is actually something I do enjoy when I sit down to watch a movie. I will say that the acting performances in the movie were fair, despite the fact of the actors and actresses having a generic and bland script to work with.

Watchable, sure, but hardly a memorable or outstanding foray into the Christmas movie genre. I found it to be a rather forgettable movie, and I bet that come tomorrow I will have forgotten about the movie. The movie definitely didn't have the contents to become a Christmas classic.

My rating of director Jeff Hare's 2023 movie "Christmas at the Amish Bakery" lands on a four out of ten stars.

7.1 stars.

This is the story of a city girl in Chicago, who grew up in an Amish family. She is now a writer and assistant, editor of sorts at a magazine, or whatever. She is assigned a task to make an original cookbook something much different. She decides to use her Amish family recipes, at least her boss tells her she should, so she goes home Amish country to see her family and create the cookbook.

There isn't a whole lot more to the story, she realizes that maybe she doesn't want to do the cookbook, her family isn't enthusiastic about it, they aren't privy to her intentions. The rest of the story is about her getting reacquainted with her family and falling in love with a man who has been helping the family. This gentleman also has a daughter named Zoe and she's a nice addition to the film.

There were many ways this could've been better, but they kept it very low-key and relaxed, not much tension, not much drama just a standard holiday spent in a quiet community.

This lovely story combines a few very charming and inviting features. The Amish are always a fascinating culture to learn about, always filled with loving , caring, kind relationships. The scenery is also so refreshing because the movie isn't taking place in a bustling city. And in this film, the many foods they prepared and showed were mouth-watering!

In this story, family relationships take front and center stage. The love between the Amish sister and her city sibling is so real, so beautifully expressed and portrayed that one has no doubt these two young woman truly care about one another. ..despite their very divergent life choices and styles.

That said, it is really difficult to imagine, first of all, what the hero of the story is doing on that farm. If he is there since he's widowed and owes some gratitude to the owner of the farm, we can accept that. Beyond that, one wonders how this actor ever got chosen for such a sensitive and challenging role. His acting is so wooden, so stiff,,that he often looks like a deer in headlights, almost as if he's forgotten his next lines.

The chemistry between him and the leading actress is non-existent. He is stiff, arid, and altogether wrong for the role. Even their Hallmark kiss at the end looks forced and uncomfortable. Where was the acting coach? The director? The story was so warm and so lovely, it was painful to watch this newcomer actor struggle to show any emotion.

Please forgive the sharp tone of this review. The story of this family was so warm and kind and sweet, it was simply distracting to see the lead actor so detached from every scene he was in.

This is a formulaic Christmas romance. The only thing that stands out is that the story is set in Amish culture.

The characters are stock figures without much depth. The two leads do not have on-screen chemistry. The dialogue is wooden and all too predictable.

It seems the producers thought adding the word 'Amish' to the title would make the movie more popular, or at least draw more interest. It worked with me, but the movie failed to deliver. This movie is a trifle, which I guess it was meant to be.

There are better things to do during this season than watch this movie. This movie is not recommended.

Absolutely loved this movie, it was so nicely done.

Felt so peaceful watching it.

The actors were all perfect in their roles.

It felt calm n had good family moments.

The love between the sisters felt so real.

The dad was kind n loving n gave good insight into relationships n forgiveness.

The sisters were both beautiful n also the main actor Dean was good looking lol, he was quiet n portrayed a grieving man.

I didn't find anything wrong with their clothing or acting, esp complaining about the snow.

The storyline felt real.

Different community's are different for a reason, we don't need to find every little flaw.

By the way main actress was named Sarah n Rachael was the other sister, n Hannah was the baby (named after her grandmother).

Just clarifying for the reviewer who was confused lol There was enough romance n I loved the quiet moments on the swing n their daily interactions.

Movie was different from the ordinary but we enjoyed it.