Christmas Casanova

Sure it's a hallmark Christmas movie, we shouldn't expect much, found it very slow and corny and very obvious in my opinion you could tell who was going to fall in love with who ! They should have just fallen in love and build a fantastic Christmas story. And build from that,

The acting was decent The set seemed pretty great, but that house they filmed It at was beautiful! That's the part that drew me In the most the FLOATING stairs are just beautiful, made the background great with that fantastic massive door. It was perfect just made the characters stand out a lot.

Well that's my Christmas review coming straight out of Toronto EDcritic

Let's see those stairs again in the future.

I loved it ! For fair actors job, for the charm of Fuad Ahmed, offering, especially in close ups , referencies from Aladdin to Prince of Persia , for eulogy of family and Christmas tradition, for llove dilemma and for humor, for the scene in park and for the some courageous moments, not exactly typical to Hallmark romcoms.

A film using the old, so familiar recipe but having few real good spices who suggest some realism and the air of 30- 40 s romances of Golden Age of Hollywood.

And this just matters.

So, without be fan of genre, I loved this chain of events created by a phonecall of vulnerable young man and the fair solutions to his doubts.

Genuinely loved this movie.

Yes there's still the overarching themes you find in all of these MOW Christmas films, but there were spins that genuinely left me excited to add this to my yearly watch.

1) The boss. Comedy chops were 10/10. Absolute scene-stealer.

2) The storyline of a Pakistani man participating in Christmas with a platonic female friend + her fam felt like a true depiction of my best friend. I never get to see his background represented in these so I was over the moon.

3) Female lead was so fun to watch. I loved the Bonnie character too!

4) Male lead is making me rethink the platonic part of my friendship with my aforementioned bestie because have you seen Faud Ahmed's dreamy face?!

The new 2023 Christmas season is among us. I really didn't like last year's Christmas Reel One Entertainment TV movies. They were overall mediocre with several outright train wrecks. This one is actually better than everything I watched from them in 2022 season, and with some fixes it could be easily above average.

Technically, it's fine compared to the technical train wrecks from the previous season. They used NYC stock footage but not excessive, and in the second part it was basically gone. They really carefully shot in Hamilton outdoors to pass it as NYC, and I would say it was mostly fine. However it had a bit of negative influence on the overall story. Music score is a mix of nice holiday music with no so nice melancholic one. Few scenes could have a bit less loud background music, but it's nothing like was the horror in the previous season. And really important, it was clearly shot in the late autumn or early winter, and not fake in the summer.

Cast is all right. First time watched Kalinka Petrie, and it was her first lead role. Almost the same I can say for Fuad Ahmed. I would say they were good enough. Nothing extraordinary, but they had some chemistry together.

Directing and writing are passable. Because they shot in Hamilton, story had to go in the direction of showing less know / hidden gems places in NYC, and that was so-so. Also, kudos to somebody from production team who decided to use Audacity even it was partially hidden in the close shots.

My only real issue with this TV movie is a semi-fake poster. Fuad Ahmed is ok in the poster, just as is NYC in the background. However, Kalinka Petrie is fake as she never wore that outfit in the move ever! Why do photo shoot if it was never used for once in the movie?! I don't remember I ever saw something like that in ROE TV movie. Furthermore, she only wore very long green skirt only once for a minute in one scene (hotel room), and that's it. She always wore pants, and most of time baggy one which looks bad on her as she is pretty looking so why ruin her? I mean, if you are going with commercialized Christmas, then do it properly. It doesn't have to be an over the top like Hallmark does it, but at least do something. I'm aware that some women only wear pants, and most actresses do that in ROE TV movies, and they even photo shoot them for the posters, and it's totally fine, I never complained about it.

And obligatory don't watch trailer (for some reasons here is only posted shortened version) as it's the ROE one and for some unknown reason(s) it shows whole movie compressed.

This is a solid holiday tv movie. Script is well written. Apartment and Christmas tree is not realistic for NYC (that huge-a$$ tree would easily be $400 from the sidewalk vendors during the holidays... IYKYK). Acting is surprisingly good across the board, except for male lead who sounds like a robot delivering lines. (His character also doesn't seem like much of a catch but he learns/gets better along the way...) The podcast boss is the best role. Hilarious. Fair. A little drunk. We love it.

Lovely to see diverse characters in main roles. Did not hate. It's a solid B if I was giving it a grade. Most enjoyable with a cocktail or three.