Let It Snow

Alan Thicke's corporation has bought the Snow Valley resort from its third generation and sends his daughter, Candace Cameron Bure, to survey it. She arrives in the middle of its Christmas season and finds love with both Jesse Hutch and the idea of Christmas in this Hallmark Channel seasonal romantic comedy.

It's a nicely written movie. Mr. Hutch is oppressed by four generations of tradition, including an elaborate series of events and recipes and even regular family guests which must be rigorously followed, with no room for the changes he wants to make. Ms. Bure feels rootless and enchanted by the order and beauty she sees about her. Add in some quite lovely camera-work of the snow-drenched landscape near Vancouver, and you have a fine holiday romcom.

Review Date 5/19/2019

I Have Reviewed OVER 500 "Christmas Films and Specials". Please BEWARE Of films and specials with just one review! For instance When "It's a POSITIVE" chances are that the reviewer was involved with the production. "If its Negative" then they may have a grudge against the film for whatever reason. I am fare about these films.

When Falcon Resorts acquires family-owned Snow Valley Lodge from retiring owners Karla and Paul, driven executive Stephanie Beck must spend the week before Christmas in Maine, preparing a proposal on the property's renovations. Determined to impress Falcon's president, her detached father Ted, Stephanie reluctantly departs her warm Arizona home to immerse herself in the lodge's property and decide how to change it to fit the hip, young Falcon brand. While preparing to rebuild the Snow Valley Lodge from the ground up, Stephanie butts heads with her property guide, Brady Lewis, Karla and Paul's son, who has decided to leave his family's business over creative differences with his dad.

A self-defined Grinch, Stephanie begins her stay at Snow Valley Lodge immune to Christmas sentiment. But as the lodge's festive traditions provide the Christmas Stephanie never had growing up with her distant father, Stephanie finds herself enjoying every minute. To complicate her professional duties even further, the combative feelings she felt toward Brady turn into romantic ones. With Stephanie's newfound Christmas spirit and unexpected holiday romance, she begins to question Falcon's overhaul. As her Christmas Eve deadline approaches, Stephanie must weigh her loyalty to her new friends against the complicated relationship with her father and decide if she should transform the lodge into a new winter hot spot, or embrace tradition and let it snow!

Now I do not know why this review keeps getting taken down? I thought the film is amateur hour in terms of story and acting but it is still worth watching because it captures the "Spirit of Christmas" so well.

Not a whole lot to say about this typical Hallmark movie. And to me that is a good thing. I'm kind of tired of the whole high-strung "grim 'n gritty super realistic" vibe of so many movies, and around Christmas I like my no-problem-everything-will-be-alright movies.

Hallmark delivers on that.

It's an enjoyable movie with actors that seem to really like what they are doing, and there's a constant undercurrent of a child-like happiness about Christmas. The leading lady conveys her slowly rediscovering of the joys of Christmas very well, with tons of odd 'n funny traditions thrown into one, giant basket, so to say. (just see what a "spinster" has to go through to see the man in her future in her dreams)

The Vancouver locations are fantastic. Snow aplenty, no need for fake snow, unlike some other Hallmark Christmas movies, and used very effectively for a bit of physical comedy.

All in all, an enjoyable (there's that word again) movie, and clean, non-convoluted entertainment.

This movie was so enjoyable and the cast was very believable. I felt I was at Snow Valley too. Stephanie and Brady (Cameron Bure and Hutch) are both great actors and worked well together. I appreciated Stephanie's humorous antics and the variety of activities both indoors and out for them and the other guests.

It was refreshing to not have serious conflict between the two of them. Instead, they both faced a similar and more realistic difficulty with their dads' expectations. They kissed before the very end of the movie which I liked and Brady supported Stephanie when she approached her dad near the end of the movie so they were working together as a couple. Quite nice to see.

I got so involved in the movie that I when it was over, I had forgotten the "real world" which showed me I really loved this movie.

So, is it sentimental and formulaic? Certainly, but what they do with that formula is something special. And the sentimentality never crosses over into corny. The leads are charming and wonderful to look at, but intelligent & thoughtful too. Filmed in a beautiful location with sets dressed in a lovely non-cloying manner, this film sets itself apart from the "regular" holiday fare just enough to actually be effective. I quite enjoyed it.