A Brush with Christmas

This GAF holiday romance is about two artists who have chosen other professions. Charlotte (Jillian Murphy) runs the family restaurant, but secretly wishes she had time to indulge her true passion: art. Wyatt (Joseph Cannata) does commercial building renderings, but has always wanted to explore his more creative side.

When Wyatt visits an old friend during the Christmas holiday, he meets Charlotte and they hit it off. Charlotte hopes to submit an entry in the local Christmas art contest, but tosses her unfinished canvas when she realizes she needs to devote all her time to the restaurant, where she is also the head chef. When her incomplete painting appears on a wall at the contest venue, marked "anonymous", she is puzzled. How did it get there? And how does she feel about that?

Burgeoning romantic feelings are kept in check by the fact that Wyatt will leave after the holiday. When, in fact, he receives an offer for a dream job in London, it looks to spell the end of their infatuation.

The two lead actors are believable in their roles. Also watch for Farrah Aviva, who plays Charlotte's friend and coworker, Ella, with enjoyment and energy. And Michael Strickland, who plays Wyatt's friend David in a role that is too small.

I really appreciated the fact that the artwork around which the story revolves is, in fact, worthy of attention, giving the story authenticity.

I love Christmas movies even if these types are cheesy and basically the same thing just with different actors. I just like the feel of them during the holidays. This is my first year watching movies on the GAC channel. I have moved away from Hallmark movies. This movie was missing chemistry. The male lead actor did not know how to act. The lines that they gave the actors felt flat and short. Some of the cuts didn't make sense. That zooming action they did on Charlotte when she was looking at the painting was a no. The ending with the people clapping was a please stop moment. That was cringey.

This film didn't work for me. It started with a poor script and dialog. The acting was stiff, IMDB doesn't list a director so I guess the actors directed themselves, that's the problem. The performances weren't natural, it's like the actors read their lines separately and they were edited together.

The leads Jullian Murray and Josepha Cannata are physically very attractive, but actors have to be able to deliver lines in a believable way so we buy into the story. It was plastic, I got no feeling from any of the actors. I blame the writers and director, if there was even a director.

If GAF wants to challenge Hallmark for the top rom-com network, they have to do a lot better than this movie.

We watched a total of 55 Hallmark and GAF movies this year, and I'd say between five and ten of them were movies we REALLY enjoyed.

This wasn't one of them. Very little about this story rang true for me, and the actors were mostly pretty flat. It would also have been nice if the writers knew ANYTHING about painting. Painters don't start a canvas and paint from left to right. LOL

We now have nine more movies to watch during the season, all DVDs or Blurays in our collection, of our true seasonal favorites. And we'll finish up that viewing with A Christmas Story and It's a Wonderful Life on Christmas Day ... with White Christmas our tradition on Christmas Eve, and Holiday Inn the night before that.

I wish all reading here a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

"A Brush With Christmas" is a wonderful movie. I'm not a big fan of art, but the art in this movie is great. The actors are excellent. The lead actors are great in their roles. All the actors are very believable. I don't like this movie as much as my favorite Hallmark Christmas movies (like "Call Me Mrs. Miracle." "Eloise at Christmastime," "Crown For Christmas," etc). But it is a sweet movie. A head chef at her mom's restaurant loves to paint, and to stop working at a restaurant, but is working at the restaurant to help her mom out. She wants to be a full time painter. She meets another artist named Wyatt, who found the painting that she threw away. The ending of the movie is great.