Il miglior Natale della mia vita

Lifetime's Christmas films are very inconsistent. There are some surprisingly good ones, where regardless of their predictability they manage to succeed in being light-hearted, charming and undemanding fun. But also some failures (though not often as bad as the worst of Hallmark), where the characters are not likeable, everything is forced and shallow with implausibility too in some of the worst cases, the acting and writing being weak and basically with just nothing to them.

'Christmas Unleashed' is neither one of the surprisingly good Lifetime Christmas films or one of the failures in my view, though that is not going to be the feelings of all that like or dislike it more than me. If anything it's in the middle of the pack category, being watchable with nothing really to be offended by, it's cute and there are a fair share of good things. While also not having an awful lot that is exceptional, and generally 'Christmas Unleashed' needed a stronger story and a different male lead to work a lot better than it did.

There are quite a number of pluses. It's nicely shot with some nice picturesque scenery. Vanessa Lachey struck me as very likeable and had a lot of charm about her. The other cast standout is an amusing Jayne Eastwood, who brings some welcome levity to the film. The dog is absolutely adorable.

Furthermore, there are moments that do warm the heart and are charming. The music doesn't etch in the memory unforgettably, but it is pleasant and fits at least.

Unfortunately, there were also quite a number of minuses in 'Christmas Unleashed'. Christopher Russell doesn't look comfortable in the male lead role and doesn't seem sure of what he was doing or what was going on. He and Lachey's chemistry is non-existent but it lacked spark. The supporting characters are very sketchy and only Eastwood stands out out of the supporting performances.

Writing sounded rather forced and the flow doesn't feel smooth enough, it can be very cheesy and the more sentimental moments are close to mawkish. The story is very thin, lacks freshness and tends to feel very stretched out, so the film can feel rather dull and padded. It's also rather repetitive and some things are either underdeveloped or completely forgotten about.

Overall, not awful. Not great. Just okay-ish. 5/10

It was okay until the introduced the 2 married men. I guess Lifetime feels they need to include homosexuals in all their Christmas movies now.

Skip this one.

With the amount of stress and uncertainty that is going in the world right now (COVID19), this was a nice film to watch...even in April. It's what I would consider a fluffy movie. No major drama, no nudity and no swearing. It's a film where it shows a community really taking care of each other and loving each other. Sweet film! Side note: Someone had mentioned in their review that the movie showed two married men and because of that, it was not a family friendly movie. I can attest that it does show a lot of married couples who love each other so, if you're cool with that, great! Again, sweet film.

A rekindling of an old romance makes a typical story with bit of a dog thing thrown in. He is a vet and she is a lawyer who moved away. The pushy family is quite funny. They fall in love again as they look for her missing dog.

There is some diversity included in this holiday movie here. The lead actress Vanessa Lachey is half Filipino. There is a same sex couple in town.

The movie is a retelling of the relationship of Max and Becca (and Henry) from when they met until they parted years ago. It is told with flashback scenes and montages. In between they search for Henry who isn't lost so much as deliberately leading them around to bring them together. Smart dog, huh? When the story isn't doing one of those two things, then Max and Becca are pining together over their lost past. The story doesn't have any surprises, and little tension, but it is told nicely.

The leads have good chemistry. They dominate the screen time which means the movie is more about relationship than story. The acting is mostly good.

BTW: why do so many reviewers assume all Christmas romance movies are Hallmark? The Lifetime logo is all over the movie and the promo photo.