A Crafty Christmas Romance

The scene they go to Central High School; the sign on the outside reflects the school opened in 1932. However, when they go inside and talk with the lady inside, she said the school opened in 1949. What????!!!!????

So, this is my 3rd Lifetime Christmas movie of the 2020 season. It was pretty difficult to get thru, I must. I found myself multitasking (e.g., grabbing for my iPad) several times, especially during the first 45 minutes or so, which is not a good sign. Don't get me wrong, the story was sweet, and the script was not that bad, though the dialogue at times was a bit 'cheesy'. However, the acting, i.e. the performances by Nicola Posener and Brad Johnson - fresh faces on the screen for me - were mediocre at best. A couple of very awkward scenes included, for example, the one where she accused him of taking the coin and the one at the end of the movie. The chemistry between the two was also quite lacking, which is not good for a romance film. I had to LOL when reading the following by another reviewer on here: 'The two leads were as wooden as a couple of planks.' Indeed, this is a nice way to sum it up, I am afraid. I mean, I am a fan of Hallmark/Lifetime Christmas movies, but, unfortunately, I would not recommend this one, even to fans.

It's not that this movie is really bad. It just lacks anything to make it good. It's bland.

The story is a fairly standard found-mystery-letter-quest. The search is pretty normal. There are no real surprises start to finish. The only tension comes from a misunderstanding that didn't really make sense on the offender's part to begin with and then was blown up out of proportion. It could have been resolved with a timely "I was wrong", but what effort was made in that regard seemed half-hearted.

Actually, a lot about the characters seemed half-hearted in terms of acting. In terms of effort, Mandy was passionate about her quest, but I didn't really feel that from Nicola Posener. Likewise in her feelings for Jonah. It didn't seem like she ever looked or smiled at him with any passion. Brad Johnson seemed half-hearted about everything. The best actor of the leading three was Renny Grames, and her part as the BFF was definitely secondary.

The dialogue was frequently boring. It was often too mundane and lacked any wit to spice it up.

To me it's sad because the writing in this movie does one thing as well as almost any. I often lament that a movie dilutes the screen time of the two leads in the romance with other people or sub-plots. This movie has them together almost non-stop until the misunderstanding. And the characters make a real effort to get to know each other. Somehow, that didn't translate into chemistry.

Then there are plot holes. A contractor whose business is in trouble spends way too much valuable time running around with a virtual stranger on a wild goose chase. He has no insurance for accidents. He promises to cook Christmas dinner for his parents yet clearly knows less about cooking than anyone on Worst Cooks in America. And his cupboard is empty. Mandy ignores her business equally, but at least her BFF is there to fill in. When searching for records on a very common last name, they find 4 unique results, all of whom are relevant.

And the thing that irritated me the most - if you are going to center a story around a coin, learn something about coin collecting. The first "expert" Mandy consulted used "proof" and "mint" interchangeably. They are entirely different types of coins. No one with any collecting familiarity would do that. Wear on a "proof" coin would reduce the value exponentially and they were tossing that coin around pretty freely. The first thing anyone with any collecting experience would have advised would have been to put the coin in a special protector, even if it had some wear, and probably would have done it himself immediately. But then a key plot point couldn't have happened.

He's not the 60y/o actor Brad Johnson that populates first in search. He's Robyn Lively's (Teen Witch) brother-in-law, her husband is 50y/o actor Bart Johnson. Despite this, and despite him cleverly hiding his age, Nicola Posener was born in 1987, she's 33! He sure as heck ain't, and it shows.

The May-December casting turned me and my family off and we didn't finish the movie. They're working actors, I don't blame them, I blame casting that clearly spent #metoo binge-watching Porky's movies. She's this flawless-skinned, impeccably made-up, YOUNG, fit, sophisticated, YOUNG, woman with highlights; and while soft-spoken, charming and gentle, he's waaaaaayyyy older looking, with well-worn skin, and a hockey player's beak, lol! They don't even look like neighbors.

Unlike others I thought they had chemistry. His character was upbeat, nice and fun, and they connected well. I thought she strained to convey warmth and felt Ms Posener miscast for the Rockwellian setting and tempo. I'd like to see them both again, just cast with better leads in more suitable stories.

I take on board everything reviewers have said so far about this film - & they're pretty correct. It's a bit amateurish, the leads don't have that spark together , the dialogue's pretty wooden & the age difference between the 2 leads doesn't feel right. However, for me, the naïve storytelling & enthusiastic acting , coupled with Brad's nice-guy -always-cheerful approach didn't make the film bomb. Overall it's a so-so rating for a so-so film and a win for the nice good guys out there !