Amore sotto al vischio

I was excited to see two stars of Chesapeake Shores team up in a Hallmark Christmas flick: Jessica Sipos and Stephen Huszar. The story is a bit thin: she's on a quest to find a magical Christmas bunch of mistletoe that belonged to her family, and she recruits him to help her. Still, since it's Christmas, we all make exceptions for silly plots and just enjoy the positive energy. Unless, there is none. . .

Jessica might be the most depressive Hallmark heroine I've seen. Her energy sucks everyone, including the viewers, down with her, although Stephen gives a valiant effort to buoy himself up. Her incredibly annoying sidekick also tries, but her efforts come off as spastic and mentally off.

They're supposed to be in a huge hurry to find the mistletoe and make it to her parents' house for dinner, and yet they saunter around town remarkably slowly and take breaks in their quest. They drink tea, bake cookies together, shop for presents, and take time out for a fashion show. How much of a hurry are they in? Seriously, folks. Jessica actually models different outfits for Stephen, prances around and dances. Personally, I felt the segment was a little inappropriate for the usual Hallmark fare. She flirted shamelessly and even wiggled her behind while making "cute" faces.

If the mistletoe is that important, why wouldn't they get to the mall as soon as it opens and be the first in line to speak with Santa? Instead, they stroll around at a leisurely pace, stand in line when the Santa stand has obviously been open for a while, then complain about what a long day it's been. It makes no sense. Not only is the plot full of holes and the screenplay irritating and repetitive, but the leading lady is just impossible to root for. She makes you wonder what Hallmark was thinking when it offered her a contract. She's incredibly insincere, with the one exception being when she thinks she's adorable.

I'm also surprised at the part of the script that talks about Stephen's character. He's given two traits: he used to be overweight, and he's a lawyer. It's supposed to be a huge shock that he'd traded fifty pounds of fat for muscle, and as soon as Jessica finds out, she starts looking at him with a twinkle in her eye. Doesn't that make her character shallow? And before she finds out he's earned his law degree, she makes fun of him for owning a thrift shop; afterwards, she accuses him of doing the exact same thing to her. In essence, two traits that show positive things about his character are only used to make her look bad. What an unsatisfying role for Stephen.

Unlike some of the reviews on here, I enjoyed this Christmas movie. I thought it was quite cute. The story centers around the conversation/dialogue between the two leads as opposed to the events in the story (or any sub-plots), which I found to be a bit refreshing, though I suspect this is not for everyone. However, I was not a fan of the Santa element in the movie, as it seemed a bit too much, I thought. That said, I thought the script - the dialogue between the two leads - was pretty good, well written. It was cute and, on occasions, it made me laugh a little. For example, the scene at the Aunt's house, early on in the movie, where the Aunt says: 'Besides, my nephew is better looking than that man, isn't he?' Then there is this long awkward pause before she (Harper) says: 'Your nephew is plenty good looking'. I had a bit of a laugh here. The changing scene was also fun and cute. The leads, Stephen Huszar as Luke and Jessica Sipos as Harper, I thought, had strong performances. The chemistry between the two worked well on screen, at least, that is how I experienced it. And again, the script allowed them to develop this thru-out. The supporting cast had a fairly good performance as well. Overall, it is a nice addition to UPtv's original Christmas movie lineup this year.

Christmas films can go either way, which has been my experience watching overtime the festive output of Lifetime, Hallmark and UPTV. They can either be well-meaning, charming, warm-hearted and don't feel too heavy. Or they can be too over-sentimental, cheesy, contrived and bland. There have been many films of theirs that have fallen in both camps and in the camp where there is a bit of both. And 'Mistletoe Magic' did have the sort of premise where the execution could have gone either way.

'Mistletoe Magic' does have elements of both camps, but actually is not too bad a film. While it is an example of a film that starts off badly and makes one unsure whether to continue, it did for me thankfully get a lot better and turned out to be a moderately decent film. Was not expecting a classic and didn't get that, but did expect in a way an at least average film that didn't have me wrenching my hair and teeth out. Luckily that was the case here with 'Mistletoe Magic'. Not an essential, but there is nothing massively offensive about it either at the same time.

As said, the film does start off very badly. It takes a while to get started and one also has to sit through painfully awkward dialogue, bad acting from the supporting cast and not really investing in any character. The story is very predictable, due to nothing new being done with familiar tropes.

The supporting acting is not always great (leaning towards the over-compensating type), especially that for agreed the boyfriend and the best friend. Very annoying "negative characteristics taken to extremes" characters that are overacted, particularly in the case of the latter.

Luckily, 'Mistletoe Magic' does get better in pretty much every way. Jessica Sipos and Stephen Huszar are immensely engaging in the lead roles, their characters are easy to like, believably developed without being complex and their chemistry is very genuine and always at ease. The relationship also plays a big part in the film and doesn't feel overused or underused, doesn't feel like it goes nowhere most of the time and then has a development just like that and rushes that and basically it develops at just about the right pace. Once the film gets going, the characters are more interesting and the acting generally improve excepting for the boyfriend and the best friend.

Furthermore, 'Mistletoe Magic' pleases visually in particularly the scenery. The music doesn't come over as intrusive, overused or drab, while not enhancing anything it doesn't distract from anything either and there is a sense of occasion. The script does flow a lot better later and doesn't get over cheesy or too schmaltzy. The story is predictable but also has a good deal of charm and light-heartedness, leaving me with a warm glow. The ending is not as easily prematurely telegraphed as it tends to be.

In summary, the early portions are a turn off but improves drastically. Not great but not dreadful on the whole either. 6/10.

I watch a lot of Hallmark movies, as well as movies on the UP TV channel, which are very much the same. Even though most of the time they are predictable, when I'm not in the best of moods or I just want to relax and not think too much, they still make me smile. However as much as I usually enjoy them, here I had one major problem - The two leads were quite believable in their roles, but all of the other minor characters were so over-the-top it was like their bodies were on helium. The super annoying neighbor, the aunt, the sister, the lovebirds at the Christmas tree shop, etc. It was like bad acting 101. There was nothing believable the way they interpreted the script and I don't understand why the Director didn't pause and ask them to re-read their lines as though they were honestly happy or honestly in love, and not playing a caricature. I really have never seen one of these similar movies that was so painful to watch the cartoon going on. But like I said, the lead characters were very good, and the storyline kept me watching. I was split down the middle so I gave it five stars.

The movie was alright. It was sweet and charming in places and I liked it.