Best Christmas Ball Ever

The dancing, music, costumes and locations are amazing in this movie which is grander, slightly meaner and sexier than the cosy Hallmark style. I totally identify with the leading lady's situation, trying to have a fresh start and with new interests etc after a traumatic experience. It makes sense that she's not super skinny like the regular dancers who train all the time, and all the clothes look great on her - costume department did a lovely job in both the casual and formal wear.

I also enjoyed the subplot of her adopted or half-brother looking for his wider relatives, but I understand why some viewers think the script could have explained that set up more - is Amy adopted? I'd be quite happy to see a sequel continuing the family research on all sides.

The uncle belonged to her brother, but he was not her uncle? So why was he the uncle of the brother but not her? Unfortunately I got stuck with that in my head for the entire movie so I missed most of it 😂 This movie in America was called the Great Christmas Ball and was enjoyable to watch on Christmas morning.

I have to admit that the big reveal at the end of the movie was going to occur much earlier.

Anyway, I hope someone can explain to me why the uncle was her brother's uncle, but not her uncle. That really left me wondering for the entire show. Was that her half brother? Was he adopted?

Fun, brainless movie. WWE for women.

Plot sets up an interesting circumstance that leads to a fun romantic back and forth. Well developed by the lead characters.

In the movie's opening scene, our lead character Amy (Elisabeth Harnois) discovers her boyfriend's desire to have an open relationship and the fallout serves as the vehicle to launch her journey from Chicago to her brother's place in Vienna. She decides to get some ball tickets at a dance studio in Vienna. While there, a wealthy instructor Lukas (Christian Oliver) immediately wants her to be his replacement partner for a midnight ball dance competition without knowing how well she can dance. Romantic interests follow and the story follows the formula quite well to the end.

Including the unbelievability of the opening premise of this movie, there are some unsettling aspects to it. There are three men who have a romantic interest in Amy and all are quite aggressive in pursuing Amy and placing her in difficult scenarios to resist their advances. Amy would be drawn in by their attention then suddenly realizing what was happening become quite creeped-out by the situation. I'm not sure if the director intended these scenes to play this way, it was how Elisabeth Harnois interpreted her character's response to the advances or just the actors taking some artistic interpretation on the scenes. Most versions of these movies have a slow progression of "not interested" to "he's the one" by the last 5 minutes. Amy's character went back and forth in every scene and this pendulum made the movie feel quite uncomfortable to watch at times.

Overall, this movie is very much a hybrid between Hallmark's 2020 version of Christmas in Vienna and Christmas Waltz storylines. Not sure who stole whose idea on this one or if somebody at Hallmark hated this movie so much they decided they could do it better. Christmas Waltz features much higher dancing quality, set decorations and very strong chemistry between the lead actors. Hallmark's Christmas in Vienna version features a better and socially correct version of our subject movie's story. Either of these films would be recommended over this one.

The story line is pretty decent and I didn't expect the view of Vienna is that impressive

Every pros and cons of the movie have been mentioned. The Dance scenes are so amazing. Thanks for the camera team. Steady !