Unwrapping Christmas: Tina's Miracle

I know not to expect too much from Hallmark Christmas movies, yet I was still underwhelmed. The actors were awful, the storyline was ridiculous, and the chemistry between the romantic leads was non-existent. It's a good thing that there are three more of these crapfests in the Unwrapping Christmas movie series to watch. And yes, I'm still going to watch them because I'm a glutton for punishment and there's always a teeny, tiny, itsy, bitsy chance that one of the four might be tolerable. I love a good Hallmark Christmas movie but sadly this was not one of them...

Why, oh why do I do this to myself???

I enjoy these movies. I really do. But I am picky about my leads. They need to have chemistry, the men need to have personality, and being able to act is a huge must. These Unwrapping movies are just awful. Where did they find these guys??

This one in particular, the male lead talks like English isn't his first language. He is not believable as a father or the owner of some huge company. Natalie Hall is fine but she needed someone way better than this guy. The writing is not good, however, and a lot of the supporting cast can't act either. Just pretty awful all around. This one is so bad I do not plan to suffer through the other three.

6.6 stars.

This is the simple story of a woman who is trying to save an historical building. We've seen a variation of this trope at least 50 times in Hallmark movies.... Save the manor, shop, building, landmark, etc...

In the opening scene we see not one, but four female leads. There is no mystery that this is the first of several movies in a series. I figured, since there are four leading ladies, there must be four films in this "unwrapping" franchise. I see only three listed, but that simply means it's a couple weeks too early to list the air date of the fourth. I noticed that the most notable female of the four is not starring in the three listed, so I assume she'll get the fourth installment (the currently unlisted one). If one is released each week, the fourth one will be in early December. The first week in December is usually an important week for Hallmark releases.

This particular story begins very sluggishly, but it starts to grow on you gradually until the conclusion, which was somewhat endearing. But in the end, this film is right in the middle of the pack. If I had to pick a quintessential average Hallmark movie, this one is one of a thousand that blends in to the woodwork. I don't plan on returning to watch it, but it was nice for a one time viewing. It was not a total waste of time, if you are wondering.

They have a great cast of female leads for the first three stories. I don't like Cindy because to me her performances always seem forced.

So far I like the stories. This one was interesting as a mystery of sorts. I already watched the second and I see that each story is cleverly woven together with the others.

I don't care for three of the four male leads though. Not everyone can pull off the haggard disheveled look and the guy in this movie is one of them. His background story was a bit muddled and I didn't get the story of his company. So I may watch it again. Overall I liked it and love the women's relationships with their families and each other.

Of course I had never heard about this movie, as I usually don't bother with Christmas movies. But every now and again, with years apart, I go all in and spend all days in December up to the 24th watching sappy Christmas movies. And 2024 would be one such year, and thus I happened to stumble upon the 2024 movie "Unwrapping Christmas: Tina's Miracle" as I was essentially sitting down to watch any Christmas movie I possibly could.

Was I expecting much? No, not really. I mean, the movie's cover is a bit boring, so I didn't really have any grand expectations. Not that I normally have high hopes for Christmas movies, as they tend to be rather formulaic and generic; once you've seen one Hallmark Christmas movie, you've essentially seen them all. But still, I opted to give director Max McGuire the benefit of the doubt.

Writer T. Booker James put together an enjoyable and entertaining script and storyline. I will say that the movie actually turned out to be an enjoyable Christmassy movie, for better or worse. I was genuinely entertained, and surprised of course, with the outcome of the script. Sure, it was generic and formulaic, but it was sappy enough to actually make it work and stand out in a vast sea of similar Christmas movies.

Of the entire cast ensemble, I was only familiar with leading actor Alec Santos. I will say that the acting performances in "Unwrapping Christmas: Tina's Miracle" were good. And there was a good on-screen chemistry between leading actress Natalie Hall and leading actor Alec Santos.

I am sure that the diehard fans of the sappy Christmas movies out there would really enjoy this 2024 movie.

My rating of director Max McGuire's 2024 movie "Unwrapping Christmas: Tina's Miracle" lands on a six out of ten stars.