12 volte Natale

No Spoilers:

Before I say these mean things allow me to first point out that the movie was pretty enjoyable and if you are looking for a light easy holiday movie and have already burnt through all the really good ones, then go ahead and watch this. It isn't bad, just not deserving of "really good" or "great". It is actually a little good. 5/10 would be "just okay", which is why I'm giving it a 6/10, because it wasn't boring and did make me smile some.

In the beginning of the film they showed her as being very shallow. They made the mistake of never showing her as having wised up. She continued to be shallow through to the end. Yes she wizened a little, but not enough.

The movie never really gets deep enough to allow Amy Smart to show off her acting skills (she is a proven good actor). Not much of anything very heartfelt happens. No tears shed. No real feeling of caring for the characters.

Some of the plot feels a bit carelessly thrown together as if with a mindset of "yeah this will fill in the basic romcom blueprint good enough".

Felt like another movie training people to think that everyone is mystically fated for "the one" and that marriage is everything. Ironically it actually tries, for a brief moment, to suggest that her obsession with marriage instead of enjoying the day was the cause of some of her past problems.

Anyways. I kind of enjoyed it, but it felt shallow like the main character.

This ABC family Christmas movie is better than some of the recent Hallmark holiday movies. The writing is sharper and the cast is likable - more A list for TV than usual. The Groundhog Day formula has been used in TV movies sometimes unsuccessfully, but here they got the right elements of Groundhog. Each repeated day is different enough and builds upon the last with sufficient humor and inventiveness. A young lady pining for her ex is set up on a blind date.

Amy Smart has enough vitality without being annoying and she pulls the role off quite well. Mark Paul Gosselaar is a likable enough romantic lead.

If you have to pick one Christmas movie to watch this one is okay.

This takes the concept of Bill Murray's movie Groundhog Day and adds a dash of Christmas Spirit... but only a dash.

It is basically a love story... Not just of Kate, but the other people that transect her life, and her coming-to-terms and accepting other people's love interests.

It doesn't have a dark side as Groundhog Day did where Bill Murray went through a few suicide days; Kate has a bad day where she gets grumpy with people, though the director shoots it with humour.

The only thing that concerned and irked me a little was the way Miles would just walk away when things got a little tough or strange. Wouldn't you want the love interest to have a little interest in his supposed love, give her some benefit of the doubt? What would the future be like with this type of man?

That said, I really enjoyed the film, though I wouldn't really call it a "Christmas Movie" as it's only set on Christmas Eve. It is a movie where you can cuddle up close with your loved one and just enjoy the lighthearted script (which made me feel good throughout the movie and made me laugh a few times too) with good acting and decent direction.

Don't get me wrong - I was expecting a complete rip-off of Groundhog Day with Amy Smart as the protagonist, reliving Christmas Eve & all the complications of rekindling an ex-love, a blind date as well as other friendships along the way. It worked better than expected and Amy Smart's natural sassiness & upbeat acting gave it a lot of positivity. What I think the film was missing, was just a depth of character in the feelings and conversations which worked so well in Groundhog Day, especially in the secondary characters. Even so - not a bad try and worth a watch. The all-round acting was good so will appeal to most people.

Amy Smart plays an insensitive woman who only cares about herself who is given the chance to make her life and the lives of others about her happier if only she stops being so self-centered. After falling over in a department store she bumps her head and re-lives Xmas Eve over and over (twelve times, to be precise) until she gets it all just right.

Normally I wouldn't bother with such fluff, but Amy Smart is gorgeous and really ought to be in more movies. The score is basically lifted wholesale from A Charlie Brown Christmas and there is not much atmosphere. You could basically transpose the story from December 24th to any other day of the year (Groundhog Day, for example) and it wouldn't be much different.

I wasn't once bored watching it though, and it's an acceptable addition to the holiday TV viewing.