A Suite Holiday Romance

A lot not to.

A Suite Holiday Romance is a royal, mistaken identity, lost-love flashback all rolled into one.

The focal point is the still lovely Jessie Schram as Sabrina, a writer assigned to ghost a biography of a famous art collector. This requires her to stay in an upscale hotel, where she has a late night meet-cute with Ian, a British guest at the hotel.

As this relationship develops, we also learn the story of Grayson the art collector, and his relationship with Charlotte, whom he loved and lost. I really like the way they did flashbacks with the parties in the room watch their younger selves, almost like a theatrical version of A Christmas Carol. Very creative.

Schram is a little more dramatic in this part, I thought, although there is a scene towards the end where she bubbles over like the Jessie we're accustomed to.

Dominic Sherwood as Ian is a generic English person.

Al Sapienza as Grayson Westcott, the art collector, is excellent, and Gino Anania as young Grayson and Megan Best as Charlotte are charming together.

The prince played by Adam Hurtig was weak, mostly because of an embarrassingly bad British accent, and Bailey Chin as best pal Anna was a little on the irritating side.

For agenda fans: in the 70's, tv shows started writing in roles for a single black character for no reason. Eventually, they became known as "token blacks." Hallmark is now doing the same thing with homosexuals: they're there just to have one there, if only for a moment. And there is...for a moment.

There is also a mixed-race couple, for those who care.

It was a decent movie, a little wonky towards the end, perhaps, but worth watching once.

Seven.

A visually attractive movie set in an elegant hotel. The dialogue is able to be dense because of the compact physical settings, mostly within the hotel. More like a play than many Hallmark movies. Also, part of the story takes place in flashbacks within the same hotel setting, without visual cuts from the current scene. Well written story except I was disappointed by the intensity of the classic "Hallmark turnabout" at the 3/4 mark. It was too jarring, and I think they would've done better with smoothing it out and making it more romantically developed.

Two paralell love stories; Sabrina Post, is assigned to be a ghost writer for a book about the memoirs of a famous art dealer, Grayson Westcott. Grayson tells Sabrina his tale of love found and love lost. Meanwhile, Sabrina meets a British gentleman, Ian Turner, who is in New York involving a charity event. Its a case of mistaken identity as Sabrina assumes Ian is someone he's really not. A romance blossoms between the two but it gets complicated because of this miscommunication. Do the two couples find a way to experience true love despite past mistakes they've made?

I think Jessy Schramm is miscast as Sabrina, there is something about her performance that is lacking to make this movie an enchanting tale that it's supposed to be. Dominic Sherwood gives a good performance as Ian. However, there is a lack of chemistry between Sabrina and Ian which makes it difficult to believe their romance possesses the "glow of love" others supposedly see. Adam Hurtig as Lord Spencer Braxton is also miscast, this isn't a guy that you can picture as having every woman he meets fall in love with him. Al Sapienza is perfect as Grayson Westcott the art dealer. I love the back in time flashbacks, and one of the love stories has a bit of a surprise at the end, while the other is about what you've expected. It's not a bad movie, and the luxury hotel setting is goregeous, but there's just something lacking to make this movie special.

Another poor script along with some questionable casting, ruined it for me. A few actors and actresses have the skills to transition into scriptwriting, but not all of them. It has too many subplots running. Jessy Schram is a good actress who is under utilized, I especially like her in comedy.

This is the first time I've seen Dominic Sherwood and he did well. Hallmark often uses non-British actors and actresses in roles requiring an English accent (mostly RP) and the accents are generally really bad, Sherwood's accent is authentic. Lords and Ladies in the UK ARE NOT ROYALS, they are peers which are below the royals. Writers need to do research, that's part of the job of writing a script.

Filmed in Winnipeg which is a nice location, but it's not NYC. Another recent Hallmark film, "The Snow Must Go On" was also filmed in Winnipeg and is a much better movie.

Jessy Schram is a good actress and she valiantly performs in this movie which is full of ridiculous characters and situations. It's a very expensive looking movie with attractive sets and costumes but it is very inconsistent. At times, utterly silly, at others, very touching.

It's like the writers didn't know which way to go with this story. It's annoyingly far fetched at times, like when the two present day characters are actually watching what happened in the past. And then there's when Schram's character goes to the bar at the swanky hotel in her pajamas and bathrobe for a sandwhich. That's all we need here in the US where people are already going to the mall and the grocery store in their PJs and slippers - Hallmark is now telling them it's OK to go to the hotel bar in your nightgown ! Yikes !