Una sposa per Natale

My goodness. As I am writing, this movie has a 5.8 rating. How anybody could choose to watch a movie called A Bride For Christmas and come away disappointed with this movie is completely lost on me. I mean, what were they expecting? Were they perhaps caught off guard when there was a wedding/Christmas theme? I was expecting a bride, and Arielle Kebbel was a really, really good one. She so reminds me of watching Katherine Heigl in little movies like this one she used to make not too many years ago. She is adorable here, which is what I was expecting in a movie where "Bride" is prominent in the title. I was expecting a wedding and I was expecting Christmas. Past that I was hoping for a well written script. This one is sweet, thoughtful and pretty clever considering it sticks to familiar story lines. What it comes down to is whether you want to watch a well made movie about A Bride For Christmas or you want to watch something else. When I sat down for this movie, I was expecting they'd show me a sweet movie about a cute bride at Christmas. Given those parameters, this Christmas movie highly exceeded my expectations.

My wife and I have not seen every made-for-TV Hallmark movie, but we have seen several dozen. I can't remember a better Hallmark movie than A Bride for Christmas.

This movie has a lot of strengths. It has lead characters Jessie (played by Arielle Kebbel) and Aiden (Andrew Walker) who are unusually attractive and likable. Indeed, Andrew Walker has a striking resemblance to a young Tom Cruise. The acting by Kebbel and Walker, and by all the supporting actors, is excellent. The dialog is reasonably realistic. The camera work is quite good and adds interest. The musical score is also very good, effectively enhancing some of the scenes.

The plot is predictable (as in all Hallmark movies) and we've seen certain plot elements before in several well known rom-coms (The Runaway Bride, 10 Ways to Lose Your Lover). But given those drawbacks,the movie does an excellent job of telling its story. The inevitable "change of heart" on the part of Jessie and Aiden proceeds at a slow and realistic pace and the actors convince us that there is romantic chemistry between the two lead characters. The lead and supporting characters all behave in realistic and believable ways.

While watching A Bride for Christmas, my wife and I repeatedly said to each other "This movie is good!" We thoroughly enjoyed it and will watch it again.

I've been binging on Hallmark movies this Xmas week. I know many use the ole formula. I look for best rated, good chemistry and stories that sound to be most interesting dare I say 'different' i.e. story lines, locations. We all agree that from the starting gate we know this is Runaway bride run amuck. Super damaged goods. Then, Aiden makes a crazy, horrid bet. I mean, he's going to prank an innocent young woman with a false marriage proposal. OK...we suspend disbelief that he could be so cruel, especially when he's matched with Jessie who has herself basically done this to three guys. Did I mention that Jessie is drop dead gorgeous! Sort of a Jessica Alba clone, I think.

Since I know how all Hallmark movies end I am taking a break, with about 15 mintues to go on this one. I had to stop when the idiot screen writers commit the same 'crime' I've seen too often. In K-dramas they use an easy tool. The screen goes dark and voila, signage on the screen says ONE YEAR LATER! I'm not listing any of this as 'spoiler' because it is basically not possible to spoil such Hallmark movies. We know from scene one, 100% that the two will wind up together. Therein is the HUGE plot hole. This and similar Hallmark movies show a proposal and no engagement or no period of engagement. Totally insufficient time to know one another. I mean propose after weeks of 'non-dating', one kiss, and voila, time to buy the wedding dress and plan the wedding. Please, Hallmark, use the fade, then ONE YEAR LATER or even SIX MONTHS LATER before we see a wedding dress, wedding plans or an actual wedding. This might give them time to actually 'date.' In this and other Hallmark movies the eliminate all dating going instead from one kiss to marriage. Totally unnecessary if done right.

That was a bet I wouldn't regret either. I've seen Mr. and Mrs. Charming (Andrew Walker & Arielle Kebber) in other Hallmark movies and they make a cute couple in this one. I would watch this one again. Mainly because I missed what happened during the poker game. This is a solid 7 star movie IMHO!

What a wonderful and pleasant surprise! My daughter and I watched this movie on and we both loved it - we taped it and left it on so I could watch it again. Jessie reminded me of Jennifer Lawrence - she was that good - all of the actors could transfer easily over to the "big screen"! I never saw any of them before in anything but will make a point to follow their career from now on - It was like an old Doris Day/Cary Grant movie... Loved... Loved... Loved it! I'm trying to find where Jessie got the dress that she wore to the art gallery :-) Any ideas on who made some of her clothes would be greatly appreciated... wanted to see much more- any chance a sequel is in the works?