On the 12th Date of Christmas

At first, our heroine, played by Audrey Hepburn lookalike, Mallory Jensen, got on my nerves with her lack of gumption, and too-sweet personality. At first I thought she was miscast as a girl with a mousy personality when she was so gorgeous. I guess she was, really, but the actress did somewhat overcome it with a nice performance. Then, to make it worse, Tyler Hynes, a favorite of mind, also got on my nerves. He was closed off, anti-social, and not a team-player. Even though he wanted a promotion to a position that necessitate the opposite of those personality traits! Oblivious. He, on the other hand, was cast perfectly, as he usually brings a gruff edge to his roles.

I stuck with it though and I'm glad I did. As Aiden and Jennifer started to work through their differences, and he learned to work with her, appreciating her talent, their opposite personalities added to their chemistry. Quite early on, Jennifer started to be more assertive, so it did not descend into never-ending frustration for me.

This was well written with an interesting sub-plot of Aiden's family home needing repairs he couldn't afford, and a very clever scavenger hunt through Chicago that the two were working on together. Definitely well above average.

Cute story with lots of imagination, loved the imaginative ways they interpreted the 12 Days of Christmas. The two main characters/actors are very likable, and the romance believable. Much better than some of the other holiday movies I've seen.

I want to create scavenger hunts around cities- sounds fun! This movie is current, even for a Gen-Xer like me. The acting/directing at the beginning was a little uncomfortable as the actors were acting or directed to act in very stereotypical ways - the grumpy work alone guy and the friendly insecure woman. It got better pretty quickly.

The lead actors in this movie have good chemistry. The pace of the movie is good and I enjoyed the story line. I had not seen Mallory Jansen in any other movies but enjoyed her acting, not overacting and not goofy. This movie is definitely worth the watch.

I'm glad to see a bit more creativity put into at least a few of the 2020 Hallmark Christmas movies. Typically the same plot is used over and over. But this one is unique and much better than average.

The plot involves two people who work for a game company who are put on a tight-deadline project to create a game for a new hotel in Chicago. They end up putting together a "12 days of Christmas" scavenger hunt that incorporates historic Chicago landmarks and neighborhoods. There were some clever poems/riddles as part of the game, and you get basically a travelogue of Chicago too. The leads were also both appealing and there was genuine chemistry with a nice romance arc.

This one deserves to go on regular rotation on your watch list.