Christmas by Starlight

Despite the fact that the setup for the story was crazy ridiculous, there are still elements of the same old plot lines. Annie marches off in her pajama bottoms to save the family café from being torn down by the evil developer. The irresponsible son of the company's owner needs to grow up. Annie turns out to be brilliant. I had to get over hating the premise, because really it was all just a vehicle to let Kimberley Sustad and Paul Campbell give the audience some delightful sparring and great chemistry.

Campbell is a veteran at the irreverent and carefree male lead. I'm glad to see Sustad is becoming a regular for Hallmark as the leading lady. And as many reviewers have noted, these two have been together before. Both of these stars are involved in writing for the movie.

As I said, there are a lot of the same old plot lines right down to the final scene in the movie. It's all predictable. There's no real surprises and the only tension is that one thing you know will get resolved somehow. But this movie is about the stars (not to be confused with the starlight).

The heir to a development company needs a legal babysitter according to his father and when he mistakes Annie for said legal babysitter he strikes a bargain with her to fake his legal council in return for him renewing the lease on her parents Starlight Cafe.

Annie's dog is named after Charles Dickens because Great Expectations destroyed her when she read it. Off the cuff our developer, William Holt, quotes Dickens, "I loved her, against promise, against reason, against hope, against all discouragement that could be."

When Annie gets William out of legal trouble with the preservation society she gets stuck putting on a high end fund raiser at her parents cafe The Starlight.

Can William hold up his end of the bargain?

There was cute banter in this fun loving holiday romance. In fact these two were both comedy and romantic gold.

"So what's your move, hotshot?"-William.

Though this is a Christmas-centric film, it keeps the focus on the central relationship. Like many Hallmark holiday romances, the inevitable resolution can be anticipated early on, but this film has a good energy, driven mainly by Kimberley Sustad's personality. She teamed up with costar Paul Campbell in writing this film, which may explain why they fit so naturally into their roles.

Kimberley plays Annie Park, a Chicago lawyer specializing in family law. When she discovers that her family's restaurant will be demolished to make way for a high-rise, she decides to confront the developer, Holt Enterprises. When she meets the son of the owner---Paul Campbell as William Holt---he hires her for a couple weeks just to assuage his father, who feels that William must constantly be monitored due to his irresponsibility. William promises to save the family restaurant in return, but can he deliver? Will he?

"Christmas by Starlight" is filled with the usual Hallmark touches, like abundant decorations, but it does not rely too heavily on the holiday schmaltz, allowing the character development to be its main focus, which is nice.

The entire cast is enjoyable, so it feels like spending two hours with a group of friends.

Annie is a family lawyer, Will is a bussiness man. His company is tearing down her family business so when she goesto talk to him, he "hires" her to be his advisor for a week so that he can get his father off his back.

Really enjoyable movie. Predictable? Yes, as usual. It's my second movie of the day and probably that's why i'm giving this a 8, and not appreciating this enough. I love Kimberley Sustad and Paul Campbell together, they are a great pair. They have amazing chemistry and besides they were part of the production of the story, which makes it 100 times better for me. Actors getting involved in the production deliver (same with Robert Buckley): we get a nice story, bits of their real life in both of them, and funny banter.

I hope I do not sound repetitive, but i'm really happy with the diverse cast.

My only problem with this is a technical aspect: Annie, as a lawyer, shouldn't have made a contract or a written agreement? It was literally my first thought when they made the arrangement.

I hope they work together again.

I like it for the crumbs of humor, nice acting, for fair portrait of maturization and the accent to family history and values. For the fresh ingenuity of story, to. And, not the last, for leading characters, well crafted, wise used. To be honest, exactly the honesty remains the main virtue of this different, in some measure, in inspired way, Hallmark film. Nothing fundamental changed but the story is more rich in nuances than you expect. So, I admitt, I like it.