Once Upon a Holiday

This rating and some of the review is probably going to sound like it has been written by somebody who hates Christmas and criticises anything Hallmark and festive. Far from the truth on all counts. Have seen some surprisingly good Hallmark films, festive and overall, and have liked some of the Christmas films seen recently from this year because they succeeded in charming the viewer and warming the heart regardless of the cliches and formulaic storytelling.

'Once Upon a Holiday' is not one of the best of my recent Christmas film viewings seen as such a fan of Christmas and needing some serious distracting from health woes. Neither is it one of the worst. Somewhere in the solid middle if anything. It is certainly watchable and much better than the basic plotline looks like on the page, with some things noticeably done quite well. 'Once Upon a Holiday' is also not a great film either, with some obvious flaws that are as noticeable as the good things. So not a must see but far from a must avoid as well.

Will start with 'Once Upon a Holiday's' good things. It is nicely photographed and has a quite magical atmosphere in its best parts. Always love nostalgic festive soundtracks, and 'Once Upon a Holiday' is no exception to that. There is nothing mean-spirited about it, it is generally very charming and it does warm the heart enough.

Did like the nice subtle humour present in the film, there is an easy-going chemistry and Paul Campbell is a very likeable male lead. Greg Evigan is the standout in a more than serviceable supporting cast.

For all those good things, 'Once Upon a Holiday' does have debits too. Briana Evigan really doesn't fit her role, the voice and attitude sounded and felt all wrong and like the role needed somebody more at ease and looked and sounded younger. The dialogue has its moments but really could have done with more energy and too much is very forced and cheesy. The location never looked authentic and at times had a cheap look.

Predictability is inevitable in festive Hallmark films, but the predictability here was excessive with at times contrived situations and stereotypical characters and the pace was like the dialogue, more energy was needed. The ending was cute but quite pat.

Summing up, watchable but not great. 5/10

Quite enjoyable.

A princess eludes her handlers to have some time for herself and meets a man who helps her in more ways than she originally imagines.

Worth a view!

I dabble in the Hallmark Christmas movies, but they do have to meet certain strict criteria: appealing and not too affected female lead, male lead who's not a total doofus, not too complicated a story line, or too overly contrived or unpleasant. This hit the spot very nicely, Evigan is a particularly attractive lead and Campbell does quite well as the humble, honest worker who happens upon Evigan on the run from her position of European princess. Okay, so this owes a lot to Roman Holiday and other runaway royalty movies, but you might notice originality isn't on my criteria list. Both Evigan and Campbell seem very into their roles and very natural, this sort of fits the Hallmark romantic comedy format to a "t". Even Briana's dad gets a role as royal retainer. Enjoy.

It sounds like something Hallmark's done before: a young royal away from home during Christmas meets normal person and falls in love---but this one actually felt...right. Paul Campbell's light humor brings us a mildly-magical holiday movie we really can't resist. Simple jokes reflect back upon a golden heart, revealing all he wants is make sure she's where she needs to be. After all, she's the only happy Holiday he knows ;) It's an easy story, no breakups, no unnecessary drama, no tears, as it all wraps up neatly in a perfectly cozy Christmas way. And with Briana Evigan gracefully doing her part as a princess with a passion for photography. It'd be shame, though, if she never got her camera back. With all those blurred photos of random NY buildings..

Not sure why there is so much hate for this charming and pleasant Hallmark movie.

As long as you understand what you're going to see going into one of these made-for-TV movies, and overlook some of the obvious discrepancies, Once Upon a Holiday is a nice Christmas movie, featuring Briana Evigan as Katie a princess who finds herself on royal duty in New York City in the lead-up to December twenty-five, and Paul Campbell (who is always excellent) as Jack, your NYC Average Joe, who - rather precipitously - runs into Katie on a couple of occasions and shows her around the city, at first now knowing who she really is...and you probably have a pretty good idea of how the movie will end.

Absolutely a movie with plot holes and inconsistences, but it is saved by the performances of Campbell and Evigan, who have a warm and easy chemistry. Once Upon a Holiday is an above average Hallmark royal film.