A Holiday Boyfriend

All I know is i had to watch all the way past the credits in case there was a stinger revealing that Jacob, the male lead, was actually a serial killer. Kudos to Matt Merchant if he was playing this character with a background of cold-blooded murderer, because he was playing deep in the psycho waters. Get this man a proper horror film, post haste.

Usually these fims are either formulaic or badly done ego trips. This film, written and directed by the star, had some weaknesses in writing, but the plot was not contrived, the story developed reasonably, and the performances were (generally) excellent. The dynamic between the female friends was honest and natural. The male lead was a little stiff, but may have been written that way. I watched it to see what a woman-driven genre film could accomplish. Olivia Dunkley stepped beyond her stunt woman, action hero default to deliver an entertaining look at contemporary dating.

I had to give it a star to post the review. This movie is awful! The male role is not only a terrible actor, but he is creepy. The female role is also terrible and comes across desperate and pathetic. This is not to be compared to a Hallmark movie. It is so bad.

Yeah ... this movie is NOT award-worthy fare ... BUT ... there are cute moments in this QUIRKY-infested sort'a rom-com ... that hits on some not-often-covered relationship snafus people encounter ... but most don't talk about. The female-trio is almost high-schooli'ish (why ARE these women *friends*!?!). Matt Merchant delivers a very complicated performance of a clearly very complicated person. Michelle was the MOST normal persona + wrote+sang a decent closing song. You will neither harm nor exercise your brain with this one ... but it is definitely worth the time if you're in for some exceedingly light fare. As the credits show - this one got by with a lotta help from the writer/director's family+friends.

People usually fall into two camps. those who love Hallmark rom-coms and those who hate Hallmark rom-coms! I am more or less indifferent, but the wife loves these things and roped me into watching this last night. I must admit, I was pleasantly surprised. There is nothing new or surprising here, but it was engaging, hit all of the Christmas rom-com tropes and made me smile in the right places, I think! I can honestly say that I enjoyed it more than most of the movies that Hollywood thinks we all want to see around Christmas.