A Very Country Christmas

'A Very Country Christmas' was one of those films that was part of my Christmas film completest quest that has been happening on and off over-time after it appeared as a recommendation here earlier this year. Absolutely love Christmas, have said this quite a number of times in my reviews in the past but am trying actually to not make it as obvious now unless when challenged if a review for any Christmas film is negative. Did sort of like the idea and the title was cute.

Saw 'A Very Country Christmas' actually with relatively mixed expectations, excepting at least some degree of heart and charm while not expecting a particularly great story or dialogue. Watching it, 'A Very Country Christmas' had its moments. But it was a film that pretty much delivered on not having a great story or dialogue (neither were even good) and didn't have enough heart or charm. Not unwatchable but quite bland with a number of things working against it.

There are good things here. Gresyon Holt was an amiable male lead and has the one character to have any form of likeability or development (while being generally thin on both). The music and songs are very pleasant and nostalgic.

Furthermore, the scenery is suitably picturesque and beautifully photographed. Some parts are cute.

Unfortunately, the bad things outweigh all of them. Bea Santos is nowhere near as appealing, actually found her annoying and self-absorbed as a result of her overdoing her character's negative characteristics. And this is a character full of negative characteristics and quite blatant ones with not many redeeming merits to balance them out, to the extent that one wonders what he sees in her. The rest of the cast overplay and all the characters are one-dimensional (outside of moments of development with Holt's) in a way that's irritating (the villainous boss for example) or dull. Both in the case of the female lead character.

In terms of chemistry, there is none between Holt and Santos. Quite cold, takes too long to get anywhere and then rushes through when it finally shows some sign of developing and too much of a mismatch. 'A Very Country Christmas' is very cheesy in writing to the extent that the pong that exudes from it leaves a bad taste in the mouth. The story is a major failing, it's paper thin and beyond bland that is excessively predictable and moves very slowly to chronic dullness. This could easily have been 45 minutes at the maximum.

Concluding, watchable for one time only but mostly a failure. 4/10.

Celebrity hiding out trope.

I don't know if it was bad acting, poor directing, or lame dialogue, but most of the movie felt clumsy.

The plot was thin but instead there was a lot of screen time for Greyston Holt and Bea Santos together. I just wish that had resulted in great chemistry.

Some of the secondary characters were cliche. I wish the evil threatening boss wasn't soooo one dimensional in so many of these movies, but she wasn't the only one. And the other pathetic characters weren't really funny.

There were a couple of nice Christmas songs, more than just family around the piano.

I end up watching a ton of these Christmas romcoms around the Holidays. They are all pretty schlocky. This one is no different. The story-such as it is-is a predictable trope driven yarn that is a gentler version of A Star is Born ultimately. Yet, the leads are both appealing and the director keeps the proceedings moving. The film feels more high end than a lot of this subgenre. There's enough warm fuzzies and laughs present to recommend this.

First, I'm just going to touch base on my feelings about Deann's acting as Jolene. I've never seen her act before, but she really stole the show! Maybe because the part was so much like her in real life, I don't know, but she just blew me AWAY!!! She is just as sweet as the peach pie my Gran used to make, still as naturally beautiful as The Land Between The Lakes in Kentucky near where my folks are from, with a voice still as clear and fresh as "Strawberry Wine," and as poised and graceful as any Southern Bell EVER WAS!!! She as the heart of the film! That aside, they picked a REALLY great cast, they all seemed quite natural in the parts (except for maybe the mom/grandma & the Asian girl who kept breaking things while set dressing, I could see she was pushing it so hard that it became over acting, because she was uncomfortable,) and they really seemed to have chemistry! Even the little girl, she wasn't one of those annoying child actors who don't know what they're doing, won't take direction, and so the crew just gives up and uses them as little as possible, this little girl was a DOLL!! And I could totally see them as a family going forward! That's a lot of credit for her being so young!

I have never heard of Greyston Holt before bit I will be watching for him from now on. I have now become a fan of Deanna Carter