Country Christmas Album

Horrible acting by all except Hanna Barefoot, the female lead. She's great, as always. Male lead is an awful singer. Surely they could have cast a more talented singer/actor.

This movie is pretty normal quality for a Christmas movie in terms of storytelling, however the choice of singers left something to be desired.

The movie is about two singers who are partnered up for a holiday album to rejuvenate their careers. They navigate a budding romance while deciding whether to go on tour, leaving each other behind.

Neither of the characters seemed like they should have a career in music. Considering the musical talent a lot of these holiday movies manage to tap, it's embarrassing they didn't swing for the best they could get on this one. The actors did their best, but the songs were truly awful.

Nothing about this movie I could ever recommend. Writers should be embarassed for really weak lines. The male lead could have been replaced by almost any karaoke singer I've heard. By far, the very worst performance came from Mickey Gooch Jr. I now rate him the worst actor ever (and yes, I'm including Shelly Duvall in The Shining.) He was trying so hard to become the leading character with his horrible antics. I don't care whatever the Director may have told you, I would be ashamed to have my name listed in the credits. The plot is weak and not believable. Characters are not very well developed and the roles are very weak.

This movie is a refreshing change from the other hundred or so Christmas movies I've watched this year. The story is different and I thought maybe a little rough. The ending is abrupt.

The role of the ex-husband is interesting. I expected him to be a villain, but that didn't happen.

Most of the acting wasn't great, but I didn't think it was horrible. Hannah Barefoot was winsome and has a girl next door kind of beautiful. I didn't see a lot of chemistry between her and Evan Gamble. The fencing between them continued a bit too long and I never really warmed to Derek. Taylor Bedford as Mazzy does a decent job also.

There is a fair amount of singing Christmas songs, but more in bits and pieces than full length songs. They do 12 Days of Christmas with updated lyrics up to the 4th day. I agree with those who weren't impressed with Evan Gamble's voice, especially on O Holy Night. Hannah Barefoot is enjoyable to listen to.

Was it just me, or maybe my TV, or did the live performance of Winter Wonderland (an original, not the classic) sound washed out like in a cavern?

After watching this again almost a year later, I raised my estimation of it by a star.

I'd give it 6,5 stars but since you can't give it halfs and the other reviews were more negative than it deserved I rounded it up. I think it's pretty solid. It's not the best, it's predictable and fits perfectly in the guilty pleasure of bingwatching Christmas romances. I liked the cast the actress that played Tess was very likeable and real, not to overexaggerated like most leading ladies in Christmas romance movies. I do agree that in the beginning the romance felt a bit forced. Her tripping and him catching her and staring at eachother awkwardly for a few seconds, and the close friend side character telling them that they are in love(while you have hardly seen them interact yet) but the leads disregarding the notion. I do think they get there though starting at the thanksgiving dinner.

The best thing though by far in this movie has no to hardly any auto tuning and pitch correcting. Omg do I hate that in all the music (christmas) movies I've seen so far. They hire people that can't sing and then tune everything into oblivion till they all just sound like robots. So it's great that this movie leaves it real so that the songs and the emotion the actor puts in to it, fits in the moment it's filmed. Does that mean you can hear that Derek isn't as good as Tess, yes. But he isn't terrible by all means, we just aren't used to imperfections in recordings.