With Love, Christmas

A touching Christmas Hallmark film. First - for the details. And for performances. And for the references to classic on-line talks. And, maybe, for story, who has the gift to use familiar ingredients in not bad manner. A challenge for a team , from its coherence to promote a product. Romance. A Secret Santa . And fascinating old fashion details. Result - a love story in Christmas time but special for me who, crying a little at its end, I discovered one of Christmas films from Hallmark who could be defined more than junk food for too young sensitivities. So, a real nice film.

I've watched this movie several times and thoroughly enjoyed it. Emilie and Aaron have enough chemistry to make it work. The scenery is nice. My only complaint is that in the last scene when Emilie is in that gorgeous red lace dress, the wardrobe director should have told her she has a very noticeable panty line. Some form-fitting formal wear show everything and this is the perfect example. Other than that, I enjoyed the movie.

With a plot more structurated than other Christmas movies, it results both entertaining and endearing. It's Christmas time at the ad. Company where Melanie works. And the invisible friend whom she has to give a present is one who does not care about Christmas at all. While she tries to find out what would he like for Christmas she begins to know him well...and in the meantime their boss pairs them for a difficult client's Christmas ad. campaign. Since the communication with the invisible friend is by whatsapp, he does not know who she really is. Will the chemistry between them still remain when he discovers who his invisible friend really is? Not much of a mystery really but nice entertainment and enjoyable picture with plausible players in a more developed than usual plot...and do not miss the fairytale ending! Recommended.

As part of my 2024 December Christmas movie marathon, I had the chance to sit down and watch the 2017 movie "With Love, Christmas", from director Marita Grabiak. Of course I had never heard about the movie prior to sitting down and watching it, but then again sappy Christmas movies is usually not my go-to type of entertainment.

Based on the cover alone, and with it being a Hallmark movie, it seemed that this movie would be particularly sappy. But I still opted to give writers Danni Hodson and Marcy Holland a fair chance.

And I am glad that I did, because "With Love, Christmas" turned out to be one the better sappy Christmas movies that I have watched. The storyline was well-written, and it had all the right contents to be a good, albeit archetypical, sappy Christmas movie. But isn't that something that Hallmark excels at, really?

The acting performances were good, and the chemistry between leading actress Emilie Ullerup and actor Aaron O'Connell was good. They carried the movie quite nicely, and I was rather impressed with their performances. In fact, the acting performances in general throughout the course of the movie were good.

"With Love, Christmas" looked and felt like a proper Christmas movie, complete with fake snow and all. If you enjoy the sappy Christmas movie genre, then you will definitely enjoy this movie, that I guarantee.

I was genuinely and wholeheartedly entertained by this movie.

My rating of director Marita Grabiak's 2017 movie "With Love, Christmas" lands on a well-deserved seven out of ten stars.

Cute idea. This was an unashamed ripoff of You've Got Mail right down to at least one crucial line. Melanie is a woman who has trouble saying no, but she also loves Christmas like no one else. Donovan is a pretty stiff guy who has absolutely no love for Christmas.

I love Emilie Ullerup, as Melanie. She is so upbeat and has a megawatt smile. For me, she was what made this movie enjoyable. Aaron O'Connell, as Donovan, does stiff and business like so well that he never really lightened up or connected. He talked about having a new attitude about Christmas, but he still came off as stiff. I also liked Melanie's friends and family.

I was generous with my rating because I did mostly enjoy the movie.