A Glenbrooke Christmas

The main character of film is Glenbrooke. This makes it beautiful, special, just seductive. The rich girl in the town of his mother , the bell of church represents another good point, like the fireman returning to his birthplace and telling to children The Night before Christmas. The romance - yes, it is present. But better are the drawings from notebook.and not less significant, each actor giving his best, especially the elders. So, a film like a hot cocos cup, with some reasonable cinnamon.

There is a romantic Christmas story in the town of Glenbrooke that says if you make a wish while the church bells are ringing on Christmas Eve, your wish will come true. It is said that Jessica's mom, who grew up in the town, made just such a wish to one day be married to Jessica's dad.

Jessica's parents passed away and she has been raised by her wealthy grandfather. She is on the cusp of taking over her grandfather's real estate dynasty and before all the craziness begins she decides to take one last Christmas vacation to where everything began for her parents...in Glenbrooke. She also decides to use a fake name do no one will know she is a wealthy heiress.

Her first encounter in Glenbrooke is when she almost runs over the town fire-chief (Kyle) and his boxes of cookies...aka the ginger-apocalypse. Not having ever lit a fire she ends up meeting the fire chief the second time in his official capacity when she forgets to open the flue and the cottage she is renting (which coincidentally is the one her mom grew up in) fills up with smoke.

Jessica ends up being surprised at how friendly and well informed the towns members are as to the goings on around town...like her arrival, smoke and ginger-apocalypse! Lots of Christmas events going on around Glenbrooke, but the one disappointment the Christmas bells are not functioning due to a burnt out motor.

Our fire-chief is more than meets the eye, he had an engineering degree from MIT, but grew up in Glenbrooke and wanted to come home.

Initially a little awkward at the start of the tree trimming, but this romance did grow and become more natural.

Can we send the ugly Christmas sweaters back to the purview of the fun uncles and spinster aunts?

"Well, I am pretty sure romantic and fire station have never been used in the same sentence."-Jessica.

Jessica ends up getting roped in to helping at the art center and organizing a fundraiser to get the bells up and ringing by Christmas.

Will Kyle be ok with her being a millionaire? You will have to watch and see in this sweet Hallmark holiday romance.

Not my favorite of Hallmark's Christmas films...but still a good one and worth a watch.

Finally a Hallmark movie that didn't make me want to use the fast forward button. Who would want to fast forward any of Ms. Resser? Antonio, not so much. I loved the performances by ALL of the support cast. Well written and beautifully acted. Autumn expertly and believably plays a rich woman incognito. Antonio played his part as written. It's the "little people" that made this movie work. Nice twist and turns and some new twists from Hallmark. A really nice movie which could have been a classic tear jerker. I'm just sayin'. Thanks Hallmark.

After being pleasantly surprised by the previous Christmas and Mysteries Hallmark film 'The Christmas Bracelet', despite a underwhelming first act, part of me was eager to see 'A Glenbrooke Christmas'. Despite the subject not being as appealing. 2020 was a mixed bag for Hallmark, though could have been a lot worse considering the circumstances, with some real surprises as well as some average or less ones. Not too dissimilar to previous years.

To me, 'A Glenbrooke Christmas' is towards being in the weaker end of Hallmark's Christmas films for 2020, while being nowhere near one of the worst films overall. As far as Hallmark goes, 'A Glenbrooke Christmas' is an average middling effort with good things but with not much that makes one go wow. If asked whether it's recommended, my answer would be a small y but only as a one time watch rather than one of those worthy of repeat viewings sort of films.

Beginning with the good, there is nothing to blame the production values for. The scenery is truly lovely, magical even at its best, and appropriately festive. Makes one want to go there and definitely at Christmas. The photography complements them beautifully.

There are moments of affectionate nostalgia in the soundtrack, with sprinklings of Christmas song favourites. Although it took me a while to warm to her character, who was a little too neurotic to begin with, Autumn Reeser gives a committed and charming performance. Matching her in the charm department is Antonio Cuopo, whose performance was a little more consistent and quite liked its subtlety. The supporting cast are fine, zesty Latonya Williams standing out.

However, a lot of things could have been done better. The chemistry between Reeser and Cuopo could have been a lot stronger, it was too underplayed and could have done with more warmth. The writing for the romance doesn't help, did find the romance rather underdeveloped and erratic in how quickly it moves, taking too long to begin with and then rushing too conveniently. The conflict is contrived and predictable, it takes a while for anything to progress and any development comes out of nowhere and is rushed through.

Did feel that the characters in general were underwritten and little more than typical Hallmark cliches, while Reeser and Cuopo do well it took time for their characters to connect with the viewer and relax (particularly Reeser's). Furthermore, the story is dull as dishwater from being way too thin and excessively predictable from being the same formula as with most Hallmark films with all the long well worn out cliches done to tired effect. Some of it is very repetitive too, the final act is contrived and lacking in realism and the ending is too neat and can be seen from miles away, Hallmark really do need to get some new ideas. The script is very stilted and is full of cheese and sugar to the point that it leaves a bad taste in the mouth. The music generally is on the drab side.

Overall, alright but not much more. 5/10.

We'd watched the movie as it came out and thought it so-so, but I'm not sure we really paid that much attention the first time. With the yearly glut of Christmas movies these days, some of them tend to run together.

We'd just watched Love at the Thanksgiving Day Parade, which we think is an absolute hoot, and I noticed this film as the same lead actors for the romance, so we decided to give them a second shot.

It's not as good as 'Love at ...", but we did find it very watchable. Where "Love at ..." starts a bit slow and picks up speed and humor in the second half, we thought this one started out with lots of personality and lost steam in the second half, and the ending was just a bit too contrived.

It worth seeing, but this second time will likely be our last.