Coyote Creek Christmas

Unfortunately, this storyline has been done too many times. I watched the whole movie.....but found it boring and slow. Big fan of Ryan Pavey, was really hoping for more.

6/10 - one of the most typically Hallmark Hallmark movies to have come out this year, hitting all the familiar beats and cliches that will warm your heart this holiday season even if it feels like one in a dozen with the same plot on the channel.

After some disappointments so far in the Countdown to Christmas, I was looking forward to this movie because it featured our (my wife and I's) favorite male lead in Ryan Paevey.

We immediately noticed the visually poor pairing with Janel Parrish, who is too young, short, and frankly, not in Ryan's league. However, Janel usually plays energetic, adorable characters, and so we hoped that her character would overcome the superficial disparity between the leads.

Unfortunately, this movie went the opposite way. Instead of Paige, the main female character, winning Dylan, the male lead, and us over with her charm, passion, joy, and kindness, she spends at least the second half of the movie angry at Dylan for no good reason, while he makes the situation worse, and even more unrealistic, by repeatedly apologizing for something that wasn't his fault. The final half hour of the movie is essentially Dylan moving heaven and earth to please Paige, even though there is no clear indication that she deserves it.

Maybe I'll sweeten slightly to this movie with repeated viewings, but my first impression is that this movie never overcomes this manufactured conflict or its rather one-sided resolution.

Unfortunately, we are seeing a trend in 2021's slate, at least early, that started in bombastic fashion in "Boyfriends of Christmas Past." The issue is that the female lead often represents a ultra-modern feminist view that every woman deserves a great guy, regardless of her actual actions towards that guy. The female leads are brimming with entitlement while the male leads are going into full simp mode. That is NOT romance.

Overall, this is a pretty ordinary and unoriginal (even for Hallmark) Christmas movie with some decent acting. It does, however, do a good job of getting you (the viewer) into the Christmas spirit via some festive scenes and some beautiful scenery, props, and sets. And don't forget Charlotte the marmot, you got like 'find the marmot' tradition in Coyote Creek. The protagonists in this story are Paige (played by Janel Parrish), a career-driven woman at an event-planning business where she has been feeling unappreciated of late, and Dylan (played by Ryan Paevey), a single father who gave up on love when his wife left him to raise their son Noah (played by Azriel Dalman). Both find themselves in Coyote Creek this Christmas holiday. Paige, who is looking forward to spending the holiday at her parents' Coyote Creek Inn and continuing its Christmas traditions, meets Dylan, who is there scoping out the 'mom and pop' inn as a potential investment for him and his brother's development corporation. And so our story begins, as the two start spending time together, enjoying all that this scenic town and inn in the Rockies has to offer during Christmas. Though the plot was predictable and unoriginal, it was pleasant enough and did keep me engaged (for the most part). However, as other reviewers have pointed out, the plot was overly complicated around the selling of the Inn. Simply put, it is unclear why the parents did not tell their daughter they were selling, especially if they thought she had no interest in returning to Coyote Creek. The acting overall was pretty good. I usually enjoy Paevey's Hallmark movies. For example, his performance in last year's, A Timeless Christmas, was strong. He had this warm and gentle vibe to his performance here, which I enjoyed watching on screen. Parrish was pretty good, though I had a difficult time connecting to her performance in some scenes. The chemistry between the two was much more 'low key' in this one than in other Hallmark movies, which potentially explains some of the reviews. I felt, it worked well; that is, it was convincing enough for this story. As I alluded to above, I enjoyed the Christmas atmosphere and feel of the movie, which is one of the things I like about Hallmark films. The find Charlotte the Marmot tradition was fun and cute. The 'Christmas around the World' theme at the inn was a nice touch. I also really enjoy those scenes where Hallmark has these educational moments by including information on and/or historical accounts of particular Christmas cultures and traditions. In this one, we learned about cobwebs on Christmas trees in Ukrainian folklore. All in all, it is an entertaining Christmas movie, not one of Hallmark's best but certainly not one of their worse.

First, Janel Parrish may be immature, but only 4 years younger than Ryan Paevey... (for those who hate the disparity in age between the two). .. Strongly agree with the many who disliked the pairing... Hallmark has often put a popular weak female lead opposite a strong male. Doesn't work for me as a viewer, and really did not work here. Am tired, as many are, of the Hallmark recipe of the loud, often obnoxious, teary girls/females as the central character.

Second, The strong male leads are Rare in the Hallmark universe, but thankfully still exist in good movies. Women, and men, need stories where both leads are believable. We need good stories and better directing. It can happen- and does- in "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" with Paevey and Italia Ricci.

Third, Hallmark writers are now so very often: repetitive, seemingly clueless, and inept ... might be because there is only 4 weeks between projects.... Still Bad.

Fourth, the last ones standing, the ones who release movies with this magnitude of errors, the directors and their studios.. How can you not see the problems, not notice miscasting, not want an original, cohesive script? How can you be so blind to so many flaws on the finished products?

Shame on Hallmark. (Hopefully with the changes happening now at Hallmark, GAC, Lifetime, etc. ,these problems will be lessened.)