Dancing Through Christmas

I have made my feelings clear about these formulaic Lifetime Christmas movies.

They are made for those round the clock Christmas channels that start in September and minor television channels.

In Britain, this was shown on the BBC in the afternoon.

Michael Foster is a widowed father and a fireman. His daughter Lily likes ballet dancing and a video of Michael dancing with his daughter goes viral.

Michael gets the attention of Olivia. She is beautiful, single and is Lily's ballet teacher. They go on a date but Lily is not entirely happy that her father is seeing someone else.

The best you can say about this movie is that it is inoffensive. There is some romance, some music and plenty of schmaltz.

It is also far away from reality. Made in 2021, this is a world where Covid never hit.

The change of title, from the original "Dancing through Christmas" should tell you all. Lifetime should begin most of their seasonal movies with the disclaimer "Any reference to Christmas, and entertainment, is purely casual". At start, the movie is fresh and and charming. Then, it turns progressively more insipid and boring. It looks like the writer had a good spark, but could not find enough inspiration to fill the time allotted for the action. The cute moment of a single father dancing with his daughter is insufficient to carry the weight of an entire show.

A single father who is also a hot fireman gets caught on video doing a ballet dance with his young daughter. It is adorable. It goes viral and he is anointed America's Favorite Single Dad. He is inundated with women trying to date him and media trying to interview him. But he is a low key down to earth kind of guy and doesn't let his sudden 15 minutes of fame go to his head. Meanwhile, he meets his daughter's ballet teacher, and the attraction is mutual. The romance is mature, slow burn, and realistic. They are well aware that any relationship must be serious with no rush into a temporary fling. Although there are some humorous moments and some dramatic suspense, the overall tone to this one was serious and steady.

During one of their dates, she confides that her ballet studio is in trouble and she is being nagged by her parents to move down to Florida to live with them. I immediately thought, "Uh Oh here comes the "I need a big loan or I'm going to leave" scam. But then I remembered this was not a Lifetime movie, but a Lifetime Christmas movie. The other roadblock to their happily ever after is his young daughter. She starts acting up out of jealousy. The young actress is a highlight of this movie. She is adorable and sweet when required, wise beyond her years when required ("Dad don't patronized me!"), and a petulant little brat when required.

Thanks to some wise advice from his happy-go-lucky brother and a "woman-to-woman" talk between grandmother and granddaughter, the family roadblocks are removed. A neat resolution is also found to her financial trouble and it is one that comes full circle to the original viral video. The hint of romance at the end between Noah, the brother, and Olivia's best friend is very cute.

Even though it has the word Christmas in the title, this TV movie doesn't feel very christmasy. The movie started well, and the actors playing the father and daughter gelled, little did I know they were real life father and daughter! Unfortunately I found the second half rather flat. An okay watch, but didn't have the sparkle. With respect to other reviewers, I fail to see why Covid needs to be seen in a movie, it is rammed down out throats enough in the real world. Movies aren't real!

I felt the same about Nicola Posener and Brad Johnson in A Crafty Christmas Romance. Colin Lawrence was 50, Anna Lynne McCord 33 - DESPITE her real life choices - the clear age difference is visually and viscerally, yuck!

There are lots of young actors that she can be paired with, and more mature actors he can be paired with.

Also, McCord looked heavy-lidded, bored, depressed and zombie-like throughout the whole thing, her pale purple lip color didn't help.

Bianca Lawrence was a wonderful breath of fresh air, the rest of the cast made up for the bland, struggling storyline also.