Mingle All the Way

Molly Hoffman has created a social app not for love but for business escort purposes. Matches agree to go to business Christmas events with each other. It's called Mingle All the Way. Her investors suggest that she use her own app before they put money into it. She keeps bumping into Jeff Scanlon who steals her Christmas present for her dad. Jeff is having trouble finding a Christmas date and he uses the app. The two combative busy business people get matched up.

In order to make the premise work better, the investor should be the one setting her up with Jeff. Molly would be forced to make the pairing work with the investor following them around on their first date. I actually really like app idea and its potential for rom-com. The leads are fine Hallmark material. This is really straight forward as are most of the Hallmark movies. They truly don't have any drama. It does have the right sentiments. This is fine for those who love Hallmark specials.

The "fake romance" trope is commonly trotted out in Hallmark Christmas movies. If there isn't one every year, there will probably be one the next. LOL This is one. However, they put a twist on it by having the pairing not be truly fake, but just a new app which pairs people who need plus ones for holiday events.

However, the creator of the app is challenged to use her own app, and of course it pairs her with a man she's already been at odds with ... twice. So we have the start of an antithetical romance which isn't supposed to be a romance in the first place.

This movie's script succeeds where many fail ... it puts the leads together in ways which believably sell the idea they might gain affection for each other.

There are funny moments and quite moving moments, such as when the male lead defends the female lead to her mother, and later when the mother takes that to heart and shows up to mend things with her daughter.

We recommend this movie and we'll watch it again. (In fact, I write this review after our second viewing. We also saw it the year it first aired).

I just can't think of anything I didn't like about this movie. Both leads sparkled and their chemistry was tangible. The supporting cast was great (loved Lindsay Wagner!).

I particularly liked the sub-plot involving the friction between mother and daughter and the device used to resolve it.

The male lead was a lot of fun to watch. Like most of the other actors, he really seemed to be having fun in the production. I always like to see that. Even though it seems like it would break the fourth wall, it actually takes me into the story even deeper.

As for other reviewers, I'm always surprised at the amount of analysis applied to Hallmark movies. They are formulaic. You knew that before you flipped on the channel. There are a few of their movies that have silly plots. This was not one of them.

Let me start by saying I love holiday movies. It's the only time of year that makes me realize I'm not actually dead inside. Although completely predictable as every Christmas movie is the same, this one still managed to be cute and charming. The main characters were surprisingly easy to watch and meshed well together, which is a component a lot of other holiday movies struggle with. This baffles me as I fully expected Jeff, the love interest, to run off with Molly's male assistant. Although I really couldn't get past that feeling, they certainly were fantastic in their scenes together. I recommend this one.

Molly has a business of her own, she owns a dating app. Jeff works in publicity. They crossed paths before even knowing each other. Then they got matched in her app and make agreements to help each other out in their professionals lives.

I definitely need to watch this a second time (may be edited later) but this movie was great.

The plot is nothing new (surprise!), we have fake snow, lies between the leads and everything you expect from a Hallmark movie.

Luckily, Jen's character wasn't as terrible as some of the other she had but what made this movie appealing for me was definitely the new face (Brian) he somehow made it refreshing and not so repetitive, and last but not least the chemistry between them was amazing.

Still need to watch it again though.