Actually really wanted to like 'A Sweet Christmas Romance' more. Love Christmas. Lifetime have proven more than once that they can do decent Christmas films, and that is including in their very variable 2019 output. The premise sounded quite sweet. And was very intrigued in seeing Adelaide Kane again, best known to me as being one of the best things about the generally disappointing final season of 'Once Upon a Time'. So it did have potential.
Which it didn't do enough with. The premise at first seemed like a change of pace but very quickly became very ordinary and lacking in spark. 'A Sweet Christmas Romance' has its moments and good things, have very rarely considered a Lifetime Christmas film irredeemable and it takes a lot for me to consider one or any film/show etc that. It also has too many very big flaws that sadly outweigh the good things. It could have been a decent inoffensive watch, but to me 'A Sweet Christmas Romance' was mediocre and mostly doesn't hit the sweet tooth enough while also at times being too sickly.
Shall start with 'A Sweet Christmas Romance's' good things. It looks professional and decently made, the scenery is attractive at least and complemented well by the never drab or static photography. The music isn't as intrusive as can be the case with Lifetime (though Hallmark actually do it worse).
Greyson Holt does what he can with his overused stereotype of a character, and manages to make him charming and not stiff. Loretta Devine is going to divide, and has divided, people, on paper her performance sounded like one that would have gotten on my nerves but count me in as another person who felt that she became the best performance of the film and gave it some kick when she appeared.
Kane however was a disappointment. This is yet another character of all my Lifetime/Hallmark etc Christmas film viewings where the female lead has negative character traits exaggerated to an insufferable degree, and Kane's performance is a mess of trying too hard and at other times being dull. The chemistry between her and Holt does have moments where it is obvious they somehow care for each other, but it could have done with more spark and that would have been helped by the relationship itself being fleshed out a lot more and not evolving at too fast a rate. The direction is get the job done without distinction in quality.
The writing overall is pretty much a mess. Very cheesy and stilted often and the sentimentality at times gets sickly. The story is paper thin, very predictable, pretty slow and often contrived with not enough warmth or charm. Not to mention the very that's it abrupt ending that is at odds completely with what came before.
Overall, lacklustre. 4/10
