Expresso de Natal

I cannot believe at my age I am using "cute" to describe a movie I like, but yet there it is. I really liked this movie. Best One I have seen so far this year for the Christmas batch. Both of the leads were excellent, and you cold see them slowly becoming attracted to each other in a very heart warming manner. Sure it was derivative of Planes, Trains and Automobiles, but all of these movies are derivative of something, and at least this one went for a classic and not just another schlocky paint by numbers plot. I was waiting for the scene where the state trooper pulls them over in a burned out shell of the pet grooming van, but alas... probably for the best though. Anyway, i thoroughly enjoyed it and highly recommend it!

I was looking forward to Cross Country Christmas when I saw both Rachael Leigh Cook and Greyston Holt at the top of the bill. I enjoy Cook's Hallmark movies, and I recently saw Holt in A Very Country Christmas this season. Both usually have convincing performances in this genre of film. So, there is no surprise then to read that I enjoyed this one too. Overall, it is a cute, fun, and engaging Christmas movie. The plot is similar to UPtv's 'Dashing Home for Christmas' (another entertaining movie this 2020 season). The story here revolves around Lina (played by Cook) and Max (played by Holt) whose flight home for Christmas is forced to land (far from home) due to a winter storm. And so, Lina and Max team up to find a way home for Christmas. From delivering Christmas trees for a ride to stowaways on a cargo train, their journey is a fun and warm one, as they help each other and the new people they meet along the way. The plot, of course, is predictable and has been done before as some of the other reviewers here have pointed out. That said, I thought the script was strong. More specifically, the dialogue between the leads was engaging, it pulled me in. And in the end, for me, that is what is most important. There was also a distinct difference between the personalities of the two main characters, which worked well, I thought. What made all the above possible was the quality of acting, which was, overall, excellent. Cook had an impressive performance. She had this warm and friendly vibe to her portrayal of Lina (it was quite adorable, as another reviewer described it), which made it easy to connect to her character, to Lina. Holt had a strong performance as well. He did a good job playing the more reserved character of the two, which, again, added some nice contrast. The chemistry between the two was maybe not as strong as some of the other performances this year (Jill Wagner and Lucas Bryant in The Angel House come to mind). To be honest, I did not notice it much while watching the movie. It was only when I came here and read some reviews that I started thinking about it. What was noticeable was that there was no final kiss between the two at the end, a hallmark of Hallmark movies and the TV romance genre more broadly. Finally, the movie does instill a lot of Christmas spirit and cheer; it should get you in the mood, as it were, for the season. All in all, it is a warm and fun Christmas movie (with some quality acting), a nice new edition to Hallmark's 2020 lineup. Highly recommend.

I love Greyston Holt, I want to grab those ears and ride him through Christmas, but the lead female on the other hand would drive me crazy.

It's a cute version of a story that we have admittedly seen before and it could have been dealt with better. It didn't have that warmth that others have had.

I wasn't in a rush to turn it off, so it can't have been that bad. Greyston is just so lovely, why would I, but other than that there isn't much to talk about.

5ish.

This was definitely not my favorite. In a year where Hallmark really brought forth some consistent quality in their Christmas movie slate for the first time in a while, this stood out as merely okay.

If you love Rachael Leigh Cook, then I think you'll really enjoy this movie. If you merely like her or find her more annoying than charming some of the time, then this might be a bit of a struggle to get through, especially the first half. Because despite there being a decent number of characters in the movie including a steady co-star, I felt the movie was largely a vehicle for her, she really dominates this movie. And though she has her good points, some of what is meant to be charming or quirky, just came off as annoying for me.

A note about the chemistry. I'm not all that familiar with Greyston Holt, really only know him from a Christmas movie he did last year with Adelaide Kane that was pretty good. But he was good here and Rachael play well off one another. They also very likely have pretty good chemistry. The problem is that the writing and/or directing don't put them into situations where that chemistry is showcased. They feel more like somewhat familiar travelling buddies that might eventually become real friends at the end of this than ones that will end up as a couple. Not the fault of the actors at all. This high school classmate setup is hardly new, so many ways they could've gone about bridging the gap between that history and a romance. But they don't start to make that transition until the second half of the movie. And when it does begin to happen, it's more forced than it should be, essentially a non-romantic dance and the cousin's wife mentioning sparks that we don't actually see. What we do see is good banter between the two throughout, which does work well in a friendship context. But what we are shown in terms of their budding romance, is rather tepid because it just wasn't made a priority until the final 30 minutes of the movie. But once they focus on it, it works.

But I will say, and a point in the writer's favor, that some of what I found annoying about Rachael's character was something she owned up to and apologized for and it didn't happen in response to something major or at the end of the movie, just something she finally realized and admitted. Kind of rare for a Hallmark movie, so it stood out as being a nice, different, more grown-up approach than we typically see. Her character became considerably more likable at the back-end of the movie after this happened.

This is not a movie to avoid at all. It's not bad. But for me, not great. And with so many other great Hallmark movies this year, hard to recommend making this a priority to see unless you're a big Rachael Leigh Cook fan.

6/10 - Hallmark's take on a Planes, Trains, & Automobiles type flick only works thanks to Rachael Leigh Cook's endless charisma