Un Natale di ricordi

I was disappointed in Ali Leibert in this one. I loved her in A Gift to Remember, but there was just something different about her in this go round. The character's personality was just as sweet and overly nice, but she just didn't connect with me and I can't quite put my finger on it. I found the character of Mrs. Henley very irritating as well. She is taking care of her nephew during the season because both of his parents are deployed. He was behaving like a perfectly nice if a little reserved kid, and she was all worried and hovering just because he didn't behave all joyful and Christmas-y every second. She just wouldn't rest until he conformed to her expectations of how happy he was supposed to be. She was not disappointed. The kid was bouncing off the walls by the end. I also think the young actor was mis-cast. Perhaps he was supposed to be adopted. Peter Porte was just fine. In fact, he kind of saved this one for me.

Darcy and Aiden are magical together in this Hallmark Christmas movie. A year later you still have Chaucer's book store, their wonderful friends Luigi and Mrs. Henley, and Bailey the dog. In this movie, they try to save a historic landmark. Darcy and Aiden are so cute together and are so enjoyable to watch. I would have liked a different story line other than the Christmas Village gift...maybe something about surprising Darcy his "real" Christmas gift. All the actors are charismatic and made this a memorable Christmas movie.

I watched it with my Mom. It was just as good maybe even better then the first one we loved. Has a great story the movie was on point it was a really good movie. Everyone that likes Hallmark movies will love it.

Found myself liking the first film a lot, actually was not expecting to and certainly not to the extent it turned out. It is a perfect example of the equivalent of not judging a book by its cover as it did turn out to be more than the typical Hallmark film that was in all honesty expected. Actually do like a number of Hallmark's films, though they certainly did a lot of average films and misfires, and the 'Finding Father Christmas' sequels proved that they could do sequels well.

'A Gift to Cherish', or 'Cherished Memories: A Gift to Remember 2', sadly is not near as good as the first and shows that there were Hallmark sequels that were not good or necessary. It is a long way from being among the worst that Hallmark has ever done, but it has almost all the common flaws of Hallmark's films that the first film on the most part avoided and is devoid of what made the first work as well as it did. It was almost as if in places that the first never existed.

Is it an entirely bad film? No. The production values still manage to be pleasing. It's not too drab or garish in photography, the editing didn't seem rushed or disorganised and the scenery has a real charm to it. Some of the music has some pleasant nostalgic moments.

While they were better in the first film, with more of a natural chemistry, Ali Liebert and Peter Porte are still engaging in the lead roles and bring everything to the material without trying too hard. The ending was quite nice.

Sadly, the rest of the film isn't so much. One of its biggest problems is that it's pointless. The ending of the first film actually had finality, a sequel would have been necessary really only if there were still loose ends and if it was abrupt which was not the case. The sequel felt too much like a tack on, and like Hallmark feels like every film of theirs at some point should have a sequel. It is further pointless when it bears very little correlation to the first, almost like the first had not happened and like the sequel was starting from the very beginning. Most of the time the music could have been used less and toned down in volume and the direction is routine at best.

Hallmark have a lot of recurring flaws, and 'A Gift for Christmas' corrected most of those flaws (other than the predictability) and one of the few Hallmark films to do so and avoided them. That is not what 'A Gift to Cherish' did, instead it was like watching another average at best standard Hallmark film. The dialogue here is too cheesy and full of sentimental mush and awkwardness. The story is not just very predictable, it is also pretty paper thin with the slower stretches being uneventful and very dull until the end. Also found it lacking the charm and heart of its predecessor and that it needed a lighter approach to its material. The chemistry between Liebert and Porte was very winning in the first, it was far too distant here and almost like they didn't know each other.

In conclusion, disappointing and below average sequel to one of Hallmark's hits. 4/10

Unfortunately, this was a movie whose sequel did more to harm than help. The first movie was charming and sweet, and more significantly, had all of its loose ends very neatly wrapped up. Why Hallmark chose this movie of all of them to continue, I can't understand. The sequel's biggest flaw is that, aside from the same characters and background settings, it has virtually nothing in common with with its predecessor. The plot of the second movie is completely disjointed from the first, focused mainly around the rescue of a rec center that means absolutely nothing to the audience. Not only is this trope horribly overused, but it definitely didn't fit into this sequel.

To make matters worse, whatever chemistry Darcy and Aiden had between them in the first movie has completely evaporated in this one. For the majority of the movie, they seem like little more than friends hanging out rather than a loving couple.

If you enjoyed A Gift to Remember, do yourself a favor and skip the sequel.