Christmas Wonderland

Heidi (Emily Osment) is from a small town but has resided in NYC for several years. Although she once dreamed of becoming an artist, she now helps run an art gallery for a very demanding lady. She paints on canvas very little. Yet, a call from her sister soon has her flying back to her little city. An opportunity too good to miss has come up for her real estate agent sis and her hubby so Heidi is asked to babysit for a few days. Once there, Christmas is fast approaching and her niece is preparing for a singing solo at the elementary school pageant while the nephew has a crush on a girl student. The crush has meant nephew can't concentrate on his studies so his caring teacher and hockey coach, Chris (Ryan Rottman) is trying to help bring his grades up. Wouldn't you know, Chris is also a former flame of Heidi's and neither of them has married! Soon, they are crossing paths as Chris is put in charge of decorating for the Snowball dance and Heidi is signed up for the same by her sis. Just what went wrong so many years before and is there hidden embers of love that can be flamed again? You betcha! This beautiful romance is one of the endless string of quality films by Hallmark, the pinnacle producer of modern romantic comedy. Osment and Rottman are two fetching and talented performers and backup cast, sets, costumes, script and direction all make for a winning view. Wonderland is wunnerful, wunnerful.

I watched this movie all the way through a week ago and literally could not remember it. Even after starting it and ten minutes into it again, I couldn't remember anything about it except that I had seen it. I didn't watch it all again, but scanned some and re-watched some of it for these comments.

The acting was fair at best. Something was missing in line delivery. The story was more of the same stuff recycled with nothing special to make it stand out.

The climax and ending didn't sell. Choices didn't really make sense. I will say one thing positive about it. They didn't magically tie up half-a-dozen or more loose ends in a nice overly neatly wrapped package so that everyone down to the Christmas mouse was happy.

There is also nothing really wrong with the movie other than less than stellar acting. It was still pleasant. If you aren't in the middle of binging dozens of Christmas movies and you have time for this one, it will probably be fine. But in the midst of Countdown to Christmas and Miracles of Christmas not to mention at least two other channels premiering several movies a week, this one is easy to lose in the crowd.

I really don't normally like to write a bad review as I take a movie for what it is, good fun. But I can't overlook the bad acting of some of the main cast, especially the lead actress. It's a shame because some of the secondary parts are good actors. As a Xmas movie it does what it says on the tin, it's feel good and set at Xmas suppose I shouldn't ask for much more, but there is better out there, trust me I've watched.

Pretty standard fair but Emily really shines. She may not be the most conventionally beautiful Hallmark actress, but she is down to earth and likable. Her acting in this was so natural and really brought a lot to an otherwise boring character. Her partner was good too.

The leading actor is more boring than the boring leading actress in my opinion. Hardly any emotion at all from either one of them. We watched the movie to the end but it was added to our "don't bother again" list.