'Debbie Macomber's Dashing Through the Snow' on paper didn't overly excite me. The title is fairly uninspired and the story formulaic-sounding. Yet my love of Christmas, the not overly negative reviews and having seen a lot of films and television episodes that sound nothing special on paper but manage to be executed quite beautifully in a way that was quite unexpected. Have no familiarity with the source material but still watched it anyway because of my Christmas completest sake and the always watchable Andrew W. Walker.
There were no regrets watching 'Debbie Macomber's Dashing Through the Snow', regret is a very rare emotion actually after watching a Hallmark Christmas film. At the same time, it was pretty much what was expected from reading the synopsis and from watching many other Christmas films over the past three years or so. Meaning that expectations were mixed prior to watching and my feelings on 'Debbie Macomber's Dashing Through the Snow' were pretty much mixed as well. As far as the 2015 Christmas films go, this is middling.
Am going to start with the good. The production values are pleasing on the eye, the scenery has an authentic Christmassy feel and the photography doesn't try to do too much while not being claustrophobic. The soundtrack is also suitably festive without being overpowering in volume or over-utilised.
Parts are amusing, parts are cute without being sugary and its good intentions are appreciated. There is a lot of charm here too. The characters are lacking in depth, but nobody irritates and they at least engaged. The acting is generally better than average, with very charming and heartfelt performances from Meghan Ory and Walker. Their chemistry is pretty much the same and they are natural together. Also liked how their relationship developed and how investable it was, and their development character-wise engaged too.
However, there are things that could have been done better. Will agree that the worst aspect is the FBI subplot, which was incredibly cheesy and ridiculous not to mention completely pointless, sadly there is too much of it. Found the agent characters very cartoonish and excessively stereotypical, and even Rukiya Bernard (usually a scene stealer) doesn't come over particularly well this time and resorts to some scenery chewing.
It did make 'Debbie Macomber's Dashing Through the Snow' feel very disjointed and like two films in one, one significantly better than the other and tonally too different to each other. No surprises here either. The comedy at times does fall flat and felt overdone and over-silly, it's the charming romantic relationship and their banter where the film is at its best. There is also a big revelation that came over as too cruel, especially when one sees how it affects the person that suffers the consequences.
Overall, watchable but undistinguished. See it for the leads and their chemistry but the FBI subplot and how badly it's executed is enough to make one tempted to change the channel. 5/10.
