Flipping for Christmas

I'm still stuck on the money. Marcus' character Bo doesn't have any. Ashley's character Abby is there doing a favor for her sister. The sister and her husband want to sell the house they inherited and co-own, Abby is there to help make that happen. Bo can't afford to buy them out of the house they co-own, but he wants to turn the house into a B&B. Converting an 8-bedroom somewhat rundown Victorian home into a bed and breakfast takes a lot money for renovations, furnishings, decorations, food, and to hire and pay a staff before it (hopefully) turns a profit somewhere down the line. Where is Bo getting the money do to any of this? Even if we want to believe that because he is a contractor he can do the renovations, he very clearly said he doesn't have money for much else besides his current business.

Bo's plan seems like a screw you to the recently deceased Frank's family as Bo is not related to him, he was the contractor that took care of the house and a friend. Also, it is Bo's plan, not Frank's wishes, this is what Bo has convinced himself that Frank would want, when that doesn't at all appear to have been the case, it seems Frank wanted his family and the man who cared for the house to share in the proceeds of the sale. Bo says he understands them wanting to sell and get a house big enough, not to mention extra money, to care for their aging father, but also won't budge on his B&B idea. He has attitude for days, acts like he's a majority owner, not a co-owner, swiftly overruling everything Abby suggests in furtherance of her brother-in-law's wishes to sell the house.

This setup doesn't make a lot of sense. And there's plenty more that doesn't make sense, this is just one I'm highlighting because it struck me as dumb to not at least have the Bo character thoroughly thought his B&B plan through if he was going to be so obstinate about it. The romance is weak, not because of the actors, but because not enough time is spent on developing it. The "flipping" they do through most of the movie is I kid you not, just painting the walls so not sure why we heard so much about "design" early on. There's also an additional conflict thrown into the mix related to Abby's day job that just feels unnecessary. And maybe if the time on that storyline was given to making the rest work, this could've been better (and would've allowed for less time spent on some of the movie's weakest and least likable characters). There's a lot going on here and little of it is great. This truly seems slapped together and no one bothered to go through to connect the dots and make this a cohesive script. I'd love to know when this was written, produced, and shot, because it feels very much like they lined up a great cast for what was at the time a good, if not fully fleshed out concept, but maybe got stuck during the writer's strike with a flawed script in desperate need of rewrites and they said, let's just shoot anyway as is and hope no one notices this is a mess because of the good cast.

Well, I'll very much look forward to seeing Marcus and Ashley again in the future, they did their best with what they were given and this doesn't detract from their overall appeal. Both have done very good or great movies in the past and will do better ones than this in the future. I'd suggest checking them out in the other Hallmark and Lifetime Christmas movies they've done in the past instead of spending time on this one.

I like both Ashley Newbrough (from Privileged fame) and Marcus Rosner. They look really great together and for the romantics is some flirty banter in this flipping Hallmark holiday romance...but I think the overall story might suffer from bad editing? Either that or there were issues with the writing.

I am going to attempt to summarize the story... Abagail's sister Claire and her husband inherit a house and talk her in to fixing it and flipping it (which is her profession). What they don't tell her is that they are only part owners and the other owner doesn't want to sell...he wants to fix it up into a bed and breakfast AND they want Abagail to convince Bo to sell?!?! (I still don't understand why that would be her job or even something they would ask her to do.) Bo is a pillar of the community, which is part of why he wants to turn the house into a B&B...to honor the previous owner. Meanwhile, Abagail has some big time developer that she is working with who gets wind of an available parcel of land that he purchases for development from the mayor...which will change the whole town? Then Abagail realizes that she messed up and figures out a way to prevent it...and keep the house as a B&B...which will bring in some money for her sister's family and help get her sister's house expanded by Bo doing some of the work so her mom doesn't have to live in the garage.

This story was choppy and a bit convoluted...with some things that didn't make sense. As previously mentioned, there was some fun flirty banter...they did look cute together and I can see them eventually having a great small town relationship (I don't know what Abagail will do for a living in their town? Maybe run the B&B with Bo?), but there are definitely better romances and better stories out there.

Did I mention that I love the house? I am so glad it is not being modernized. They do not make houses like that anymore and it would have been a shame to destroy it.

The characters were holding hot dogs at one point, then all of a sudden they had their hot dog-holding hands down by their sides and they stopped eating the hot dogs. In the next scene the couple are at the tree farm and the male lead is carrying an open wood tool box, but it looks like nothing is inside. When they reach the tree that is holding the ornaments, suddenly there are small discs of wood in the box and the character is pouring them out of the box into another receptacle. You really notice how little W cares about the plot, cast and continuity when you pay closer attention. My husband and I had a lot of fun looking for all the inaccuracies. It made up for the film having no plot. Which is what we expected: no plot. Merry Flipping Christmas!

So after watching this movie twice I have to say I still don't get it. There's no reason for the leads to like each other. There's no reason for the lead to even be there. The premise of the movie is missing. The sound track didn't always go with the dialog. Why does the female lead fall in love or even like her romantic interest? He is never nice to her. The story needed more. Why does a complete outsider have so much invested in a place she has nothing in the game? This review is all over the place because the movie is all over the place. I can't say it was time well spent to watch it twice so maybe this is a movie you can miss.

Don't let the title mislead you on this one. If you like Hallmark movies to witness a developing romance, you may enjoy this. It's really a traditional "opposites-attract", and, fortunately, they cast (and focused on) two Hallmark veterans, Ashley Newbrough (Abigail) and Marcus Rosner (Bo), both very attractive, onscreen. Marcus Rosner has earned a good reputation as an antagonist, and plays it well against Ashley's character, Abigail. She is a career-driven, big-city woman, and Bo, is a small-town craftsman, still reeling from a divorce from a young romance, making him a little disdained with the assertive Abigail. They clash over a house, that Bo partially owns and has an emotional attachment to, because his recently deceased guardian, Frank, had lived there for years. Abigail wants to rennovate it, only to "flip" for profit. They compromise, and decide to improve the home to decide the outcome, later. There may have needed to be some "filler" time, here, as a few script-free scenes were playful banter between Bo and Abigail, a paint and snowball fight. But, considering that Bo hadn't restarted mingling, and married too young, it isn't shocking he would "break the ice" (no pun intended) this way. Their relationship starts to warm as Abigail begins to admire Bo's heart - she sees his creativity (and taste) in finishing the home decor, without her opinion (hand-crafted), and his unselfish soul - he donates his time and talents to the community. Her heart begins to open and she empathizes for the town, when she realizes she inadvertently enabled her entrepreneur connections to develop the town. By movie's end, there relationship has believably evolved into a blooming romance. This is why I'd rate this a 6-star. In many of this season's releases, "Never Been Chris'd and "The Santa Summit", ie., there's no screentime devoted to evolve the characters beyond attraction. Your left being apathetic about the characters. I could easily have bumped my rating to a seven-star, but the screenplay, (ie. Background musical score), and most of the supporting-cast, was overly enthusiastic, which made the early scenes somewhat corny...