Pride, Prejudice, and Mistletoe

Having recently read the book Pride & Prejudice & Mistletoe, I was expecting this movie to be a film version of the book. But other than the names of the characters and Darcy's occupation, the book and movie really had nothing in common.I'm not sure why the plot was changed from the book but it didn't seem to improve the story. I started watching it and just turned it off rather quickly. It was just bad.

These two are adorable! Luke and Darcy are childhood debate partners that had a healthy rivalry in their youth and meet after a long absence. The Sparks still fly as this handsome couple help Darcy's mom put on a charity event which was dumped on her at the last minute. Luke is a great listener and helps Darcy work through her New York work issues. Meanwhile, Luke is a chef who has just purchased his first restaurant and donates his catering to the charity event. The build up is great...there is a fun on-going joke about mistletoe and how can a couple go wrong with "jingle bells" as there song. Cute, cute, cute!

I love Lacey as an actress in these movies. She brings spirit, animation, heart and relatability to these movies. I love Jane Austen as well and had such high hopes for this movie. There was just so little use of the Jane Austen story line used. I realize that this is based on a book that I have not read, but with so much opportunity from the original novel, how could it be ignored. "Unleashing Mr. Darcy" did a great job in using the material with a modern twist. I wanted to see real conflict between the leads. I like the idea of the reversal of the roles, but where was the pride and the prejudice. Darcy's refusal to accept help just did not really get the pride concept across. The Fitzwilliam family could have been more snobby and Darcy could have been more superior in her attitude with Luke. Luke could have had an embarrassing family and could have stood up to Darcy in a way that woke her up. Where were the misunderstandings about each other and then realizing that they were both wrong as they got to know each other. It was all there for the picking. It was an easy, enjoyable movie that had the potential to be great. I know those scripts can happen again and will be excited to see them.

The only bizarre detail remains ...the title. Jane Austen novel is missing in this case and the title is only a pretext for a decent romance, with few nice scenes, with expected twist and the decision who, always, remains unrealistic. It is an ordinary Hallmark recipe Christmas film . Not great but far to be bad acting, a nice Fitzwilliam family and a sort of seductive darcy. So, just nice.

Honestly I really do not know where to begin, but this movie was completely boring, there was absolutely NO chemistry between lead actors - I'm talking Zero! I love LC but this movie was not for her. Through just about the entire movie, she always looked depressed, sad, confused and even bored. Her character fell completely flat. I must mention seeing Mark Weibe in a supporting role was really sad, he was so great in A Very Merry Mix Up with AW... he had all of possibly 5 lines in this movie, there wasn't even any chemistry AT ALL between him and his brother. I'm so sick of the all the fake snow, it's so ridiculous already, cmon Hallmark, why can't you film during a true winter season, why must you make us suffer through all the fake flakes? Even the way they dressed LC was wrong, all wrong... and her makeup - with all the red lip stick was awful. She's absolutely adorable and beautiful but .... NO, her makeup was all wrong. I had such high hopes for this movie because I really love watching LC. I was so bored and so disappointed Mark Weibe didn't have a stronger character and a larger role. It was like they just threw him in there for a few minutes to stand around and do and say nothing, he's so much better than that. I could go on and on... in my opinion, this movie was not good. Sorry Hallmark, you missed the mark on this one.