The Christmas Contract

This is a familiar setup for a holiday story: newly single woman takes home a ringer because her ex will be there with someone new. Warm-hearted family embraces the new man and swaps holiday traditions.

That's where the plot diverges from the usual: there's no heart-rending over deceiving loved ones, and the developing love interest is warm, believable, and well-paced. There's enough going on with the other characters and outside events that Our Heroine seems like a fully rounded woman, not simply a cut-out with a cute hairstyle and a vestigial career.

Our Heroine is positively luminous. She sizzles in this role, like a young Cybil Shepherd or Kathleen Turner, without once doing or saying an overtly sexy thing.

Of course there's the obligatory misunderstanding at the 3/4 mark, that you can see coming from way back. But the way it's resolved doesn't involve either of them doing anything cringe-worthy, and does evolve beautifully out of preceding events.

And I'd REALLY like to experience a Louisiana Christmas.

It's easy to get tired of the banal almost formulaic hallmark Christmas movies, but this is definitely one of their best IMO. I loved the chemistry between the 2 leads. Hilarie Burton's eyes literally sparkle when she looks at Robert Buckley, another actor with great charisma. The only 2 negatives that I noticed was, one, although the movie is called, "The Christmas Contract", they never read it before signing and there apparently are no conditions (so why the contract?). Secondly, other than Rocky, there are no Louisiana accents. The mayor in fact sounded like a New Yorker.. But these didn't detract enough from what I would call a very romantic movie and good entertainment.

Jolie (Hilarie Burton) is going home for the holidays and she finds out that her ex-boyfriend, who she has a long history with, is taking home his new girlfriend. So her best friend Naomi (Danneel Ackles) suggest taking her brother Jack (Robert Buckley) with her back to Louisiana to pretend they have a relationship.

I love One Tree Hill so I was looking forward to this. 5 people from the cast coming together for a Lifetime movie was everything (one was a surprise to me, even if he was only a couple of minutes).

The movie was good. The secondary characters were amazing. The chemistry was off the charts (of course, they are friends off screen). The plot was nothing special: we have seen this thousands of times. But Hilarie and Robert (Tyler, Danneel and Antwon) made it special for me.

My only complain was the loud music during certain scenes and the lack of scenes with Danneel and Antwon. I'm pretty sure any Hallmark/Lifetime fan will enjoy it. But One Tree Hills fans will love it.

(now give us a Joy and James movie please!)

Absolutely loved Danneel, Hilarie and Antwon. And of course the special guest star: the family business beers! Well, of course Tyler Hilton too.

Throughout my whole Lifetime (Hallmark too) Christmas film completest quest undertaken namely late last year, an interesting quest but very hit and miss, there was never the mentality of expecting a classic or the film in question to be flawless. Something that was never managed with Lifetime's output. There was always the expectation of seeing a film where one can see at least some effort rather than merely cash-in level. One could see that with enough of Lifetime's work.

Effort that could be seen with one of their better 2018 Christmas efforts. As far as their Christmas films go overall too 'The Christmas Contract' fares favourably, and is a contract worth signing if not quite a must sign. Anybody wanting originality and award winning dialogue will feel short-changed, but anybody wanting to see a film that doesn't take itself too seriously while seriously enough to stop it from being campy or something, a film that charms and warms the heart should find some worth in 'The Christmas Contract'.

As with much of Lifetime's output, it is pretty formulaic and predictable with the final quarter especially being very easy to figure out what happens next and in somewhat too neat a way.

Some of the dialogue, namely early on, is laughably corny and quite awkward. Count me in as another person that found the music too intrusive and over-bearing.

However, the production values still manage to be pleasing. It's not too drab or garish in photography, the editing didn't seem rushed or disorganised and the scenery has a real charm to it. Some of the soundtrack has a nostalgic feel to it. The dialogue does improve, the flow relaxes and it was sweet. Despite surprises being very few, the story still mostly engages and scores high on the charm and heart-warming factors.

Lifetime generally do better than Hallmark at having characters worth caring for, and 'The Christmas Contract' has characters that may not be three-dimensional but have likeability in their own way and don't have any negative character traits exaggerated. Hilarie Burton brings a lot of charm and energy to her role, as does Robert Buckley. They look very relaxed together and their chemistry came over to me as genuine. The supporting cast also do well, nobody overacts and nobody looks bored.

Overall, didn't blow me away but very pleasant. 7/10