Noël Actually

I must have a hundred or so hallmark, lifetime etc. Romance films on my drive but the leaden, stilted performances of the leads here and the sledgehammer multi race/culture/everything ism killed it for me in the scene setting. I'd like to throw the diversity and musical directors in a pit and leave them there.

If you watch a Lifetime or Hallmark Christmas movie and expect Oscar winning performances, your expectations are too high. I love cheesy Christmas movies. Love them. This is a cute movie! It's not slow like some can be and the stories, while they may be somewhat predictable, are cute. The supporting cast is good, in my opinion, too. I liked this movie.

I had high expectations for Christmas Reservations, I came out disappointed.

It follows the usual course of Christmas romance stories, the usual sort of Christmas cliche cuteness. The main characters don't ever really develop, from start to finish they never become more than one dimensional. Their lack of character development is compounded by a lack of script strength and story development, the unnecessary secondary characters get a lot of screen time and overshadow the main storyline.

Although the movie ends in a predictably cute way, the movie plods along much longer than it should and falls flat when compared to other comparable Christmas romance movies. Melissa Joan Hart and Michael Gross take their characters as far as they can very well provided the limitations of the script and story.

Not sure why there are complainers! It was much better than the traditional plot line that always has someone eager to spoil the romantic opportunity between the two main characters! This worked out with two adults deciding how to conduct their own lives! We get tired of the miserable mother plot lines!

The characters were all likeable and pleasant. There weren't obscure complications to their lives or personalities!

We enjoyed the Markie Post character in the story. It was sad to realize the health concern that seemed to be her issue in the story line wa S actually a personal concern and that she passed away two years after this film was made! She was a very pleasant strong actress and sorry to realize this was one of her last film rolls.

It was a pleasant Christmas afternoon film to watch as we prepared for Christmas ahead.

I'll show up to watch Melissa Joan Hart read the phone book. She won my heart and eternal loyalty with two of her early Hallmark movies: My Fake Fiance and Holiday in Handcuffs. This one isn't close to ranking with those, but it had enough positives to keep me interested in a film that was mostly by the book as far as the principal romance was concerned. Her love interest was very attractive, but the chemistry just wasn't there. That is deadly for a TV Christmas movie. However, the cast had some good secondary stars. Markie Post was reliable as usual. it's hard to believe she is almost 70 years old. Happy Birthday, Markie, by the way. The actress who played her sister fascinated with her bordering on insane grin and perkiness. They were named Tay and Kay. That was odd. Ted McGinley did a great job as a scruffy has-been silver medalist skier. Loved the Americanized Indian daughter and traditional grandmother story. But I thought her love interest was miscast. I love nerds, but... well, let's just say she could do much much better. Michael Gross was unexceptional. He was OK. There were some nice touches that added value: The back story of the Inn, the placards that introduced each "chapter," and the wrap up of all the stories was nicely done, with a bit of humor. Of course, as always, the sets looked like a Christmas bomb went off, but that's OK. I love to laugh at those crazy decorations.