Christmas Lovers Anonymous

I actually enjoy the Hallmark quality movies but this one is "porno acting" quality. I don't get the sense the actors knew who their characters were while filming and constantly kept trying to change the way they talk. Save yourself the trouble and watch an ACTUAL Hallmark movie.

Katrina gets fired and dumped just before Christmas so she writes a book attacking Christmas and the book takes off. Trouble is, she still loves Christmas at heart, but can't celebrate it publicly. Hunter gets assigned to write an article about her and the book. They both sign up for a website Christmas Lover's Anonymous. Hence a variation of You've Got Mail. Many similarities follow.

Katrina is spacey. Her book stems from a temper tantrum. She is impulsive. Hunter is not particularly appealing either. There is no chemistry between Brooke Burfitt and Houston Rhines but that is not surprising given that their screen time together comes from random encounters rather than extended time together.

The dialogue is flat. The acting is fair at best. The story is just not that interesting. There are no highs or lows or surprises. The entire feel of this movie is that it lacks the polish.

There is a sequence with both Hunter and Katrina getting ready to meet where both are figuring out what to wear while talking with their closest confidents. It has all the usual. "This one? No. That one." "You like him." "You like her." "No it's just a meeting." The entire sequence was juvenile, flat and not funny.

In the You've Got Mail takeoffs, it annoys me when one of them says "I hoped it would be you." Is it stealing or homage? In this movie, the line is obvious, but slightly different.

This movie was not as captivating as many Christmas movies and, unfortunately, the ending was too abrupt leaving an empty feeling instead of the "feel good" emotion these type of movies are designed to create. The plot was interesting, but the relationship wasn't developed enough to be believable and heart felt. Even seeing the reporter with his sister and niece was a concept that seemed to be dropped from the storyline. And, her reaction when finding out her online connection was the reporter was unremarkable, too. Good actors but the story fell short. The whole movie was a bit of a miss!!!!!

This movie is probably the worst Christmas movie I have ever watched, and I watch them all on Hallmark, Lifetime and Great American Family who provided this movie!!

The story premise wasn't the problem, although it could have been fine tuned, but the acting was like a community theater group, not actors appearing in a made for tv Christmas movie. I knew it was bad in the first five minutes but I watched the entire movie hoping it would get better. I imagine the seasoned actors that Great American Family acquired from Hallmark cringed when they watched this movie, if they even watched it. I believe a movie this bad makes me question their credibility working for a network that creates a movie like this!

There was something very weird or off about the way this movie looked and sounded. I kept watching it (off and on) in order to figure it out. It seemed very amateurish and produced on a shoestring . It was like it was done with one camera, almost like a cell phone. It was like they shot the movie and then had it redubbed. There was no or very little background noise except for a faint tinkling melody. There was no action or anyone running around, or interacting with extras. The actors just talked at each other, like they were taking turns reading their lines. During a break, a voice came on that essentially thanked viewers for leaving Hallmark and "coming home" to GFam. Desperate and divisive. Like an us versus them mentality. Not exactly Christian or in the spirit of Christmas. But an attitude I guess I would expect by those who are the money behind this network. I'm going to rate it but am giving them the benefit of the doubt since I didn't see the whole thing. Basically another weak version of the "you've got mail" plot.

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