A Glenbrooke Christmas

I adore Antonio Cupo and Autumn Reeser together. I got really excited when I saw that the first book of one of my all-time favorite series had been made into a movie. That said, less than 10 minutes in, I saw that they had strayed wildly from the source material except for the name of the town, which was originally in Oregon, and the names of the two main characters.

I decided to keep watching, trying not to compare it to the book and to enjoy it for what it was. I'm having a hard time giving it a fair rating probably because of that.

Autumn Reeser is delightful. Loved her character's personality and humorous comments. Felt like authentic conversations. I thought there was good chemistry with her and Antonio Cupo. The supporting cast was lovely as well. It didn't feel as stilted as some of the Hallmark movie casts. Also loved how the homeowner/caretaker was so sweet to Jessica. The cast and acting made this one work!

We'd watched the movie as it came out and thought it so-so, but I'm not sure we really paid that much attention the first time. With the yearly glut of Christmas movies these days, some of them tend to run together.

We'd just watched Love at the Thanksgiving Day Parade, which we think is an absolute hoot, and I noticed this film as the same lead actors for the romance, so we decided to give them a second shot.

It's not as good as 'Love at ...", but we did find it very watchable. Where "Love at ..." starts a bit slow and picks up speed and humor in the second half, we thought this one started out with lots of personality and lost steam in the second half, and the ending was just a bit too contrived.

It worth seeing, but this second time will likely be our last.

Finally a Hallmark movie that didn't make me want to use the fast forward button. Who would want to fast forward any of Ms. Resser? Antonio, not so much. I loved the performances by ALL of the support cast. Well written and beautifully acted. Autumn expertly and believably plays a rich woman incognito. Antonio played his part as written. It's the "little people" that made this movie work. Nice twist and turns and some new twists from Hallmark. A really nice movie which could have been a classic tear jerker. I'm just sayin'. Thanks Hallmark.

The actors did what they could with the smarmy script. The conflict was dumb and not necessary.