It's a Christmas-themed Lifetime TV movie. Those descriptors should be just about all you need to know exactly what 'My Christmas inn' is all about, and one can predict most of the plot, too. These are movies only for those viewers who are receptive to the utmost feel-good kitsch and artifice. If that's not you, don't bother watching in the first place. But if you're open to the style this represents - it's precisely what you'd expect, but at that, not bad!
The screenplay is effectively recycled from X number of any other such Lifetime or Hallmark channel features, with light flourishes of comedy or drama to complement the unending warmth. Characters, dialogue, scene writing, and the overall narrative are all nothing we haven't seen before. Familiar themes and ideas present: big city protagonist discovering small town charm; workaholic insistence versus meaningful hard work; discovering love, comfort, home. The accompanying soundtrack is characteristically upbeat and lively, with occasional touches of swelling strings as appropriate for more heartwarming scenes.
Assessing performances in films with so much flat, sparkly, campy inauthenticity is difficult. I suppose the most one could say is that the actors on hand all do a good job of making their ever-smiling characters as believable as they could be - wholly leaning into the heartfelt sentiment along the way. Some of the stars here I've seen before, most not so much; I recognize without a doubt that pictures like 'My Christmas inn' are easy paychecks - but there's no rule that says every movie has to be a groundbreaking artistic masterpiece, is there?
I repeat myself, but what it comes down to is that this is a roundly recognizable, unremarkable, lighthearted slice of cheese full of holiday cheer, and modest plot progression and character growth. It's not an earth-shattering tour de force, but sometimes a pleasant piece of uncomplicated, uninvolved entertainment just hits the spot. Anyone who isn't already on board with TV movies of such unwavering, happy-ending candor won't find anything here to change their mind. Yet for something a little different, a change of pace from the hard-charging drama and action that cinema broadly represents? 'My Christmas inn' is honestly pretty enjoyable.
