Un Natale per rinnamorarsi

Amy Groening, who played Kayla, a divorced pet portrait artist, was the best thing about this movie. She's such a bright, bubbly, attractive actress. I wish they'd put her in a lead role. I didn't really buy her friends to lover storyline (they didn't really seem like a match) but I suppose when you live in a town with only 513 people (per the Welcome to Gracious sign) there aren't a lot of options. That same limited population would seem to be challenging for her business model but hey, it's Hallmark.

I wanted to start with something positive because I really like Kristoffer Polaha and Marisol Nichols. I can't remember seeing a bad Polaha starring movie (Dickens of a Christmas was great) and Nichols was effective in the Holly and Ivy tearjerker (although I hated Christmas CEO). But this movie was a bit of a downer for me and not really that enjoyable to watch. And there were a number of things that were just off about it.

For example, the therapist played by Hallmark vet Pascale Hutton, really didn't give this couple any good advice. She cleverly noticed that they weren't "connecting" (great insight) but the best she could do to help them out was to tell them to go out of town on a vacation? They need a new therapist.

There were also quite a few extreme close ups that seemed awkward.

Separate bedrooms? Ugh. Why bother leaving town? It's bad enough that unmarried Hallmark couples never have sex but this married couple really needed to share a bed.

Why didn't they call a company like Safelight? They had nearby branches and could have had that windshield fixed in one day. They fixed mine in a couple of hours.

There's evidence that suggests the dangerous outside ornament was being purposefully dropped on cars. If so, that's messed up.

Why yell and whistle at your dog on a parade float? Do you want him to jump off?

Polaha's character really seemed like a guy willing to try and make the marriage work, but Nichol's character seemed Hell bent for divorce (blame the writer and director, not Nichols). It was all tied up neatly but, like I said earlier, these guys really need a new therapist.

There was one beautiful scene though- the one where they're in town in a large gazebo like structure that was all lit up with no one in there but them. That was lovely.

I really liked the premise for this movie and the teaser for it. For me, the movie didn't live up to the promise.

The premise I liked is that our antithetical romance couple is already married. They have issues for which they are at times either unaware or in denial of.

The comedy often relates to the continuing series of incidents which annoy them on a 'get to know each other again' getaway. The problem is the things that annoyed them also annoyed me.

And let's face it, after a huge Christman ornament tied to a tree falls on their windshield, it would NOT be put up again to fall on a second windshield. The writers thought it funny, but it's just dumb.

It's a shame. I like Polaha and he's done a few good Christmas movies. Nichols is obviously a talented actress, but her two Hallmark Christmas movies have failed to impress us. It's not her, it's just the writing. And both were good story ideas that the writers failed to close.

I can't think of a movie with Kristoffer Polaha that was a dud until now. I loved Holly and Ivy which was the first time I saw Marisol Nichols so I wanted her to do well.

The story is extremely simple and basically a vehicle for a lot of humorous gags. I didn't find enough of them funny so I think this will be a movie that appeals to people who like that style of humor and leave other people like me wanting more. The story is totally predictable. Once you know the setup, it's easy to lay out what the outline for the rest of the movie is going to be. One slight exception is a side romance that totally lacked development and then bingo at the end, it's there. There are a lot of the usual Christmas activities that are so often crammed into these movies.

As for romance there's no chemistry. It was like two actors doing their parts alone or to a blank wall. The plot points were there for restoring the romance, but they made no sense because of the missing connection. It didn't help that Robby had a 180 degree personality change which wasn't really developed. It just happened. And Marisol Nichols, as Becca, lacked any emotional response to those efforts.

There are a couple of scenes which involve alcohol in ways that I think detracts from this being a family movie, but then I also think the subject and humor were probably above the level of children.

I absolutely love Kristoffer Polaha. I really liked Marisol Nichols in Holly and Ivy. Both Kristoffer Polaha and Marisol Nichols did an excellent job. All the actors did a good job. The dogs and alpacas were cute and entertaining. The overall movie was soooooooo boring. I only finished it because of Kristoffer Polaha.

The main problem with this movie was the script. It started out interesting and promising, but quickly turned to a snooze-fest. The best part of the movie was the commercials. I gave this movie a six only because it had Kristoffer Polaha, otherwise I would have given it a two. Won't be watching again.

This was really good. Combining a troubled married couple with existing Christmas movie tropes is exactly how you change up your movies while leaving the audience satisfied at the end. This was totally predictable but the journey was a lot of fun. Kris and Marisol had great chemistry and the supporting cast was awesome. It starts off a bit slow but if you stick with it past the first 15 min, it's a great movie.

There were some weird directing choices though. We don't need to see constant close-ups of one person when two people are having a conversation. It got to the point where it was a bit distracting but I still enjoyed the movie.