A Christmas Tree Grows in Colorado

An average, run of the mill Hallmark movie. I figured out an answer to their conundrum about the tree in the first twenty minutes. The cast was generally competent, the material ordinary. The little girl was especially a treat.

I am getting a little tired of people getting upset here about Hallmark not sharing their bigotry. Christian values involve loving ones neighbor and in Hallmark films the populace usually does that quite nicely. Those are the values I hope my now grown son has. I believe he does.

People spouting off about family values should start by looking in their own backyard. In the Hallmark world, they most certainly act as Jesus would have...with love.

"All boys want to be firefighters or cowboys. I'm tragically allergic to horses. So firefighter it is."

"Glad to see you don't scorn all Christmas trees." "If you are here to critique my tree decorations, you are a little early."

This was a slightly different entry in the Hallmark holiday movie offerings. Our two main characters were very antagonistic right from the beginning...hostile and challenging throughout...I had no idea that there was a right way or a wrong way to make a snowman or a snow angel. This lead to the first angry kiss I have ever seen portrayed on Hallmark. (And this is by no means a complaint, just an observation that took me by surprise...and I have watched a lot of Hallmark movies.)

"Oh my gosh! I love them so much!"-Claire

Kevin our single adoptive father and firefighter, and our protagonist who works for her father in the mayor's office meet when she decides that the tree in his front yard would be perfect for the town square tree lighting event that is going to bring in tourists, put Brooklyn, Colorado on the map and completely revitalize their economy. Kevin whose fire departments' budget is getting cut by the city's mayor's office does not agree...and the Sparks fly.

Lots of great one liners..."oh, I sent Santa my list weeks ago." "I approve this message.""my entire political career comes down to a tree."

And then there was an awkward moment that was actually handled well (and another first to my knowledge on Hallmark)..."I haven't done this in awhile." "Dinner?" "Go out on a date." " I'm gay. I think you're awesome." "But I'm not your type." At first I thought this scene was awkward, but the way it was recovered was genius and so natural. Can I just say how natural it is for someone new in town to be looking for a friend and someone to show him around without there being a sexual or relationship aspect?

I applaud Hallmark for trying something new and I think it worked. Another good looking cast with great supporting actors. One to add to your list to watch.

5/10 - unlikable characters, a bland storyline, and a lack of chemistry tanked the success of this Hallmark Countdown to Christmas entry

This movie is a knock-off of Miss Christmas. There were some minor differences that gave it a slightly different feel, mainly how the mayor got involved. I preferred the story and the leads in Miss Christmas.

While Rochelle Aytes and Mark Taylor had chemistry, it did not compare to Brook D'orsay and Marc Blucas. Aytes' Erin began the movie with too much arrogance and entitlement as the mayor's daughter. Eventually, as is almost always the case in these movies, her character softened and became likeable, especially in her relationship with Claire. Claire's backstory and appeal as a character helped make the movie more enjoyable.

The aspects of the story surrounding the politics were frankly insulting. I don't want to spoil and say exactly what aspects those were, but I think they would be obvious to anyone who viewed the whole movie.

The title is on the corny side but was appetising and cute enough. There is absolutely nothing novel or innovative about the story, but there was the potential if done decently it could have some charm without being too sweet. Hallmark Christmas films are a very mixed bag and one should never expect too much from them, but they have shown more than once amidst all their average and less efforts that they are capable of above average and even surprisingly good festive films.

'A Christmas Tree Grows in Colorado' left me a bit mixed in terms of what my opinion on it was overall. It is a long way from being a terrible film in my view and served its purpose as a just scraping borderline average, inoffensive film. Other Hallmark Christmas films are far worse written, acted and looking and ones that bored, annoyed and insulted the intelligence more. Sadly, 'A Christmas Tree Grows in Colorado' didn't strike me as particularly good either, with a lot of the usual flaws apparent. It does have good things.

Which are going to be mentioned first. Visually, 'A Christmas Tree Grows in Colorado' looks quite good with it being shot and lit well and while standard the settings were appealing at least. The music has some affectionate nostalgia that does give off a festive vibe. Some of the film is heart-warming and sweet, with good intentions evident and doesn't feel too heavy.

Best of all is the acting. Rochelle Ayrtes and Mark Taylor are immensely engaging leads, particularly the former who has some very heartfelt moments, and personally did think that their characters had likeability and were interesting. Despite having very sketchy roles, the supporting cast also excel. Grace Sunar is a real delight and on the way to having a promising career if she continues acting. They do have a nice natural, genuine chemistry together, it's standard but there is spark and charm with them.

However, 'A Christmas Tree Grows in Colorado' could have been better. There could have been a lot more development to most of the characters, with too many of them being sketchy and the film provides very little variation on nearly every character cliche in the book. Or at least that's how it felt like. The story doesn't have enough to it. Actually don't mind awfully that it was very formulaic.

What bothered me a lot more was that it was very unimaginatively executed, was really not much of one at all, had some fairly contrived situations and the film gets so sweet (too much so) in places it was almost sickly. Everything with the tree started off well but got ridiculous later. The script is similarly thin and quite routine, tending to have an awkward flow and was excessively cheesy and schmaltzy. By the end, which while sweet can indeed be seen from miles off, of the film it was one big pile of sloppy mush. Pacing can be a problem, with the story being too little a lot of the film crawls along and feels over-stretched. The direction is only functional at best and can be on the leaden side of things.

Overall, watchable but merely average. 5/10.