Um Natal Perfeito

Can you please get a hairdresser who doesn't give every female leading character ringlets?! Jeez, I'm SO tired of adult women with ringlets like young children! Can't any of them have grownup hairstyles? This storyline was better than so many that follow "they don't get along, now they seem to be friends, oops now they're thrown apart, now they're back as friends who can share a kiss in the last five minutes, because there's no time for it to go further". This had redeeming qualities and sense honour! Well done!

After many Hallmark Christmas films, this seems so...different. Sure, the recipe is the same, the ingredients are the usually ones but you feel and know and it is so obvious than it is not what you expect. Virtues are many, from inspired storytelling to performances and challenges for the young couple but the good point is the useful dose of realism. It is not exactly a fairy tale or the story from the dolls house. It is a film about family and love and happiness but the relation between Patricia and her daughter - in - law, the lost of job for conscience problem, the different parents of the couple, the misterious DVD "who you must see", the humor and the dialogues are a bit realistic. Each of them, all does it a special, real special Hallmark Christmas film. And that is, maybe, more than a beautiful virtue.

Hallmark Christmas films do have a tendency more often than not to be very predictable, cliched, very cheesy, too schmaltzy and over-scored, the worst of them also contrived and unrealistic. There have been many times where they have also been very cute, warm hearted, heartfelt, charming and appealingly acted. Really did want for 'A Perfect Christmas' to be all of those latter adjectives, as Hallmark have shown quite a number of times that they can make watchable films.

'A Perfect Christmas' is one of those watchable films, but to me it was an uneven film with a lot of good and a lot of bad. It has elements of the above mentioned positive adjectives. It also has too much of most of the negative things mentioned above. Hallmark have certainly done a lot worse, they have also done a good deal better. 'A Perfect Christmas', unfortunately not a particularly accurate title, was a middling effort of theirs, from its respective year and overall.

There are good things here. Both Susie Abromeit and Dillon Casey give their all to their material and are endearing enough, Casey especially in the much more likeable role. They do generate a sincere and never awkward chemistry and the central relationship does have a good deal of charm and heart. 'A Perfect Christmas' also looks great, beautiful scenery, charmingly festive decor and slickly shot.

One of the aspects that has always varied with Hallmark is the music, to me here in 'A Perfect Christmas' it suited the film just fine. The cast do do their best, with the only not so good performance coming from the mother in my opinion.

Conversely, 'A Perfect Christmas' really takes the idiotic aspect of the main character to extremes, to the extent that she becomes increasingly less likeable and becomes annoying. Her mess ups also become rather tiresome and the later ones are not amusing or endearing in the slightest. Really intensely disliked the mother, a character that has so negative character traits and so few redeeming merits again exaggerated to the point of being near-intolerable.

Do agree about the film stretching credibility a lot beyond breaking point, so it all feels ridiculous. Making it further difficult to connect more with a story that has good moments with the leads but overall feels far too over-familiar and contrived with a sometimes pedestrian pace. Few of the characters are interesting and nobody has much depth, the most likeable character here is easily Steve. The script has some light-hearted-ness and pathos, but it could have been tighter and can be too heavy on the sentimentality and cheesy. Everything is resolved too neatly at the end, common in Hallmark films.

In conclusion, watchable but far from perfect. 5/10

Cynthia and Steve are newlyweds and are about to spend their first Christmas together with their families. You can imagine it, it's a mess, and they encounter obstacle after obstacle while they are there.

I like it when Hallmarks offers us movies with couples who are already together or married. It was a cute movie, I enjoyed it. I got annoyed several times by Cynthia's mother in law. And I hate when the characters don't talk with one another and hide the secrets from each other. Communication is key, specially in a marriage.

I'm a bit surprised at the low rating compared to other Hallmark movies. What I liked was the variation in plot (as opposed to city person without Christmas spirit is changed by country person... sometimes magically is seems), the better chemistry between the leads, and better production values. I'll forgive the smart but goofy wife. I might note that this happens at Christmas but Christmas is not the main point, the problems of life could have happened at any time. On the down side, as others have pointed out the legal ethics portrayed stretched the boundaries some. I could imaging a tough boss but the outright meanness and lack of ethics was difficult to believe. Still, the refreshing match of the leads trumped all and hence the good rating.