Natale a prima vista

38 year old Kevin Mc Garry plays 32 year old hockey player Scott Briggs. He's stuck playing in Idaho Falls, light years away from the big time he longs for.

Kim Matula is Ashley, a New York real estate agent who is home for Christmas. They have what is pretty much the opposite of a meet-cute, then it is discovered their debit cards were switched at an airport kiosk. Both suffer embarrassment as a result, then discover Briggs is actually staying at her family's guest house.

Matula shines in the Hallmark movies with her strong yet vulnerable characters in addition to her attractiveness. She's every bit as good as she was last year as an angel.

McGarry is well-known to Hallmark fans, but not one of my favorites, although he is good here.

I'm noticing a lot of new faces in the supporting casts this year, probably to fill the gaps of those who have fled to GAC. Some are better than others.

This movie is a step up, if only because Matula is so good. There are some funny moments, especially if you like hockey, and warm ones as well.

It's a 7, but Matula makes it an 8.

This movie is probably typical Hallmark fare if you've never been to Idaho Falls, but as someone who grew up there (and someone who's watched plenty of Hallmark movies), I gotta say that this movie exemplifies what people don't like about the genre. They make Idaho Falls look like a blend of Jackson Hole and Park City with the giant hockey arena and people who have a guest house. Neither of those things exist in IF (except maybe at Frank Vandersloot's house). If you're gonna set a movie in a real place, don't just throw a dart at a map-use its actual character. If you set a movie in New York City, you don't keep referring to a Griffith Park; that's essentially the setting sin this movie makes, the kind that fully takes you out of it. If they set this in a fake place, most of that problem takes care of itself. Also, for all the Idahoans out there, can we learn to say Boise correctly? Pretty please?

I remember feeling like last seasons Hallmark Christmas movie lineup was so much better than previous years. Not as many predictable story lines as in the past. More stories were actually very interesting. After watching this movie, it's my opinion they've kept up the new tradition of crafting a story with actual believable events and endings. Both leads were very good and it's obvious that Keven McGarry can actually ice skate (as I imagine lots of Canadians can). I didn't give this a 10 rating since I felt, as with lots of TV movies and especially Hallmark, the actual sporting event scenes are played out in almost slow motion so us viewers can feel te drama and not miss what's happening. That being said, this movie is well worth watching. I'm looking forward to the next countdown movie!

Kevin McGarry has mastered the role of an easy going and likeable male lead in a slew of Hallmark movies (although here the first impression of his impatient bell ringing character Scott Briggs is awful).

Scott arrives in Idaho Falls (a real town with 68,000 people) around the same time as Ashley Durreau, played effectively by Kim Matula. She learns, at the airport, that her boyfriend poached one of her clients (she's a commercial real estate broker) and learns he is not joining her for the holidays. Thankfully, we only get exposed to the boyfriend for the minute it takes Ashley to break up with him. I've grown tired of the ex showing up unexpectedly later in the movie to make some misguided grand gesture. Not here.

I didn't know Kim Matula until I watched her in one of Hallmark's top tier movies ("Ghosts of Christmas Always" which came out in 2022). She's quite lovely and was as engaging in this movie as she was in "Ghosts." Ashley and Scott have some good "getting to know you" scenes and, refreshingly, never fight with each other. They're both at a crossroads in their respective lives/careers and it all seemed believable (although it sounds like Hallmark blew it on accurately depicting Idaho Falls). I just wish Hallmark didn't always force their stories to fit into an unrealistic compressed time frame. Hallmark couples invariably meet, hang out, fall in love, overcome a huge obstacle, and make life changing plans all within a week. Ugh.

Kevin McGarry actually starred in a rare deviation from the compressed time frame formula last year in "My Grown Up Christmas List" (with his fiancé Kayla Wallace). But that movie was a rare exception to the "jam everything into a week" rule. This movie would have been better if it covered two holiday seasons (with one of those "One Year Later" transitions).

Aside from that pet peeve, the only other glaring contrivance was the credit card incident. Most people have more than one bank card and cashiers never do two transactions at the same time. I also noted a filming error when Ashley brought her luggage to the car at the airport. No one puts her luggage in the car before closing the back hatch.

Those are all relatively minor complaints. This was a very pleasant and enjoyable movie with an appealing couple to root for. I was also intrigued by the story of 32 year old Scott Briggs going to Idaho Falls to play for a mid-level minor league team, while living in the shadow of his estranged NHL legend father. I thought the hockey part of the story was especially well written and, at times, quite heartbreaking.

This was a better than average Hallmark Christmas movie enhanced by good acting all around. And I really like Kim Matula.

Now that the Christmas season has begun, I'm hoping we'll get a new lot of romance movies. This just came out and the first is many season movies I'll be seeing. This movie captures the same old formula, but it's an interesting and new plot. Not typical for this genre. I think the beginning was cute, the middle was a little thin and felt drawn out, but it's got moments of developed background history, which add to its charm. The lead female is a fresh personality on the stage and we always love this male lead.

Because this movie steps out from the cookie cutter mold enough to catch my attention, I've rated this Hallmark romance movie a star higher than most their movies.