Much Ado About Christmas

It is such a good movie with a beautiful atmosphere of love, friendship and holidays. It was better than I expected, more than better. You just feel so good after watching it!

The leads Susie and Torrance sold this story as Haley and Claude. I loved their chemistry in this movie. Good Christmas movie to enjoy with the whole family!

It was interesting to see Shakespeare's pairs flipped. Beatrice & Benedict (aka Ben) are now the secondary pair with Hero (aka Hailey) & Claudio (Claude) moved to the primary romance. I found both pairs engaging and well matched. The location was lovely. Ditto sets, music, costumes. I thought it was a great premiere movie for the new GAC Christmas season. Congrats!

This is not a Hallmark movie but it has all the earmarks of one. Attractive single man and woman, they are quickly attracted to each other, a misunderstanding wounds the relationship, they have to work, with the help of others, to get things back on an even keel.

The setting is very nice, in the mountains and with snow all over, suitable for a Christmas theme. My wife and I watched it on Peacock streaming movies, we enjoyed it.

This is a very upbeat movie. In fact it is a little too Pollyanna. Among other things, there are a couple of shots of Susie Abromeit where her smile is pasted on as a little fake looking.

The story starts in a very vanilla way with almost no tension. The inevitable conflict is very predictable based on Haley's secret. There is the cliché failed attempt at an explanation. Then the secret is revealed to everyone in an unusual way which is kind of clever. This leads into a well done ending.

Abromeit and Torrance Coombs have so much chemistry it contributes to the overly cheerful vibe. It's almost too perfect. Acting is mostly good. The dialogue has some good moments. There are a couple of nice singing scenes including some karaoke which is actually good (as karaoke goes).

I'm glad that neither the boss nor the mother is an ogre. In fact I like mom and daughter's relationship.

The setting is decidedly British, even if it is apparently filmed in Romania.

This is a good kick off for GAC Family's Christmas season.