A Christmas to Savour

One of those cosy Christmas movies you have on in the background whilst wrapping presents.

Festive production design, sweet story, solid acting.

A warm gingerbread hot chocolate.

Did the use a chef as a consultant on this movie, it's hard to believe, the good is ludicrous. The sugary food and sickly plot may give you diabetes. It's all standard stuff, from the cute meet to the blossoming romance and irrelevant sub plots but it will put you in a Christmassy mood if you aren't overly worried about realism.

The film has little going for it. A chef in the run up to Christmas goes on a week long cookery course with the aim to develop a Christmas menu! Yes because that's what restaurants do so close to Christmas when they already have decorations up.

Scarlett is a goddess among chefs, according to her own mind. She is right about everything. Only the most sophisticated dishes will do. And that is her attitude through more than half the movie despite the fact her business is struggling, her partner is trying to push her to new and simpler for the holidays, and she goes on a cooking retreat to gain inspiration.

The instructor of the retreat is a rival from her past, James, and she is resistant to everything he wants to pass on. It comes to a head about halfway and her creation gets no praise from the rest of the class, but she seems unphased. So, James' solution is to tell the entire class to take a holiday as a break from class. Finally, Scarlett and James spend some quality time. Even then, Britt Irvin and Zach Roerig have no chemistry. And I wasn't impressed with the acting of either of them. Usually at this point there is a budding romance that gets threatened by a conflict. The conflict does come and is the result of Scarlett's arrogance but there is no evidence of an actual romance despite the fact that the story continues as if there is one.

The story might have been mediocre, but the portrayals of the characters by the lead actors left it far worse than even that.

I mean, for a simple holiday movie, it's great!

The scenery is beautiful with all the city scapes. And the storyline was perfect for this type of movie. The camera work and editing was clean. The acting was acceptable. I liked the main character. The chemistry between the main characters was pretty believable. I liked the focus on living in the moment and not all this heavy weight pulling down the easy breezy feeling of the show.

What do you expect in this genre? If you are feeling like like a simple, fun, RomCom with food, then this is your flick. If you want a complex drama, go somewhere else.