Inn for Christmas

The usual ... girl goes home and runs into old boyfriend. They're still attracted to each other. Guy's old girlfriend is two-faced. Same old story line...

Twist: Girl is friends with a rock star - but I'm not really sure what that had to do with the story. Seemed like fluff. I guess the rock star helped bring guests? Never really explained why she was there ...

Jonna Walsh is just a tad bit too perky. Jesse Hutch is stiff. I guess that might be why they aren't "a-list" actors ... even on Lifetime.

I use, very often, the term nice for define Hallmark movies. In this case , correct sounds some better.

First for supporting actors beautiful job.

Second for main actors, beautiful and good workers for the nice sparkles of characters.

For fine define of values , from friendship and love - in various forms- to the fair decision and the feminine version of Peter Pan syndrome.

But the story ? You know it so well than it becomes a sort of pretext. Nothing serious, same recipe and same ways for craft it but the nice portraits proposed by. Art Hindle, Jayne Eastwood,Tammy Isbel and especialy Kelly Van der Burg are just beautiful and. Jonna Welsh and. Jesse Hutch are pretty in many senses, reminding , in fair way, old classic fairy tales.

Have said many times about my love of Christmas and getting a lot of pleasure out of in particular watching films, cartoons and specials during this period, something that most years has been much needed. Wanted to see some more festive films that were more recent, lower in budget and were not childhood favourites, so in a way to broaden my horizons and have been doing so since November 2019. The idea of the film did sound predictable and similar to other hotel etc-set Lifetime/Hallmark films.

Despite being a very uneven film, with a great first two thirds but a very disjointed and odd final one, 'Inn Love by Christmas' is one of the better 2020 Lifetime Christmas films. Have said in my reviews for other films from the batch reviewed already (some way to go before completing) about 2020 being a very mixed but far from terrible year for Lifetime Christmas films, and 'Inn Love by Christmas' compares favourably compared to some of the others from the batch.

'Inn Love by Christmas' is not perfect by all means. It is let down by the underwhelming final third, which is muddled and over the top odd as well as taking un-realism to extremes. With it being so inferior to the rest of the film, it makes the film feel disjointed. There is a twist that is very jarring and predictable, as well as adding absolutely nothing and introduced far too suddenly.

Also adding nothing is the villain, who is too much of a cartoon and felt shoe-horned in and out of place. The ending is too convenient, forced and too pat.

Much is great though. It looks lovely, with scenery that captures the festive spirit very well pleasingly shot. The soundtrack also adds to the atmosphere and is easy to remember, the music does vary in Lifetime films and can be intrusive but it wasn't here for me. The script mixes amusing comedy, sweet romance and not too sentimental drama with ease and good balance, having personality too. The direction is more than competent and seems at ease with the genre.

Furthermore, despite having an underwhelming final third, the rest of the film is very well done. Charming, heart-warming, light-hearted, with momentum never being a problem. Jonna Walsh and Jesse Hutch are very engaging leads in roles that are not too perfect or over-negative, while Jayne Eastwood is great fun. The chemistry between the leads is warm and genuine.

Overall, really liked most of the film but the final third lets things down significantly sadly. 7/10.

Mandy Leeds (Jonna Walsh) is a regional manager at a hotel conglomerate in Miami. She's visiting her grandmother (Jayne Eastwood) for Christmas. She runs into old rival Lucas Menzino (Jesse Hutch) who stole her rental car. The rivalry continues when both end up chasing after the same local hotel.

Their rivalry needs better banter. They are too nice and too bland. There is no heat in the rivalry and the inevitable relationship. Instead, they seem to be low-simmering and stalling the inevitable conflict. Then there is the hotel. They need an interesting looking hotel. If they're fighting over it, it needs to be the central piece. This is Lifetime trying to fight back against Hallmark. They are certainly not doing anything more than that with this one.

The leads, Jesse Hutch and Jonna Walsh, playing Lucas and Mandy respectively, are really very engaging in their roles. They have very good chemistry and great banter. Most of the supporting cast, from the best friend to the grandmother and the inn owner, fit very well into the movie and are quite likable. If the movie had sort of kept to this initial script, then I think it would have come off as a better movie overall even if it's something we'd seen before.

But they throw in a few ill-advised twists and diversions that really affect what was seeming to be a good watch. The closest thing this movie has to a villain is poorly conceived along with poorly written in the storyline. The character was too remote and unincorporated into the movie to have the influence they ended up having in throwing a wrench into the storyline. There's a "secret" revealed at an inopportune moment that didn't appear to be an actual state secret given that the female lead openly divulged this info to 3 characters in the movie before the reveal, didn't tell them to keep that info to themselves. This was more strange that bad, and it made you think less of the female lead that she was openly deceiving someone who trusted her after initially appearing to be upfront. And lastly, a truly jarring twist that though you might see coming as I did, makes it no better when it occurs. It's a strange twist for what they appeared to be trying to accomplish through most of the movie and it's like they suddenly inserted a game cheat code and fast-tracked everything to get to the finish line.

There really are some very likable and engaging parts of this movie. The former high school rivals getting to know one another again years later and liking what they see is a tried and true storyline that works and does so again here. Actually, the movie was good (I'd have probably rated it an 8 on a Hallmark/Lifetime TV movie ranking scale) through the first hour and 40 minutes or so. It's a shame the writing became rough and disjointed at the end and prevented this from having an ending that was more reflective of the movie as a whole.