Swept Up by Christmas

Interesting set up with a hoity toity auction house representative up against a cleaning service hired to clean the house while she is trying to decorate. Lindy Booth is excellent as usual with her ethereal beauty up against a manly man ex-military owner of a cleaning service. Dirt-force one. Cute name. Lots of fascinating scenes involving appraising antiques and deciding what to auction and what to keep for the family, good back stories involving Lindy's desiring to buy out the owner of the independent auction house against a conglomerate, the owner's estranged relationship with his famous singer daughter, manly man's back-story and wish to expand his business, etc. And in addition, if that were not enough, a very nice secondary romance with Lindy's best friend and caterer with Manly Man's disabled in a wheelchair veteran-partner. Full marks.

Lindy Booth is one of my absolute favorite actors. But in the beginning I was turned off by Gwen. She was incredibly bitter about Dirt Force One and Reed. She seemed to be looking for things to disagree about. Then suddenly (as is common in these movies), the bitterness turns to banter, mostly good natured. There's no transition to cooperation - suddenly it's there.

There are many of the common, even overused, elements for a holiday movie. Although it's not technically a promotion, Gwen's banking on success in the coming endeavor to allow her to buy the business over the competition. She has to decorate for the big event and ends up getting help from Reed because time is short. Tree shopping together. A festival. She has a disastrous relationship in her past. Reed is considering a move far away. There's a predictable sentimental moment in the works. All these elements are put together in an interesting way that has a fresh feel to it. It's all done well. And a nice ending.

There's a second romance in the story and it includes a man in a wheelchair.

Booth and Justin Bruening develop a comfortable chemistry. The acting is good all around. Background music is just right and not overpowering like some movies.

Sentiment is what Hallmark is all about, so it's no surprise when they make a sentimental movie. This film about an estate seller and a man who runs a veteran-staffed housecleaning service is just that. Lindy Booth is always one of my favorites, so I was glad to see she made a Christmas movie this year. I did not find the chemistry between the leads to be strong, but it didn't effect things much. Good supporting cast, especially the crotchety Alan, who I thought was great. I would rate this slightly above average.

This is a warm and touching Christmas movie with some great acting to boot. The story centers around Gwen (played by Lindy Booth), an antique appraiser, who is keen to own her own auction house. She is hired to appraise (and decorate) The Hawthorne House, a place she has fond memories of during Christmas growing up (especially at the annual Christmas eve party). She is teamed up with Reed (played by Justin Bruening), who runs Dirt Force One, a cleaning service that provides jobs for military veterans. The two have a bit of back-and-forth at first but end up working together to uncover the beautiful treasures of the estate, helping the owner of the house reconnect with his past, and, just maybe, falling in love with each other along the way. The movie has a warm and gentle flow to it, which I enjoyed. The script was also quite good; e.g., there was some depth to the story and the main characters were well developed. I found myself laughing a little at the back-and-forth between Gwen and Reed during the first half-hour. And I even shed a few tears towards the end when Alan Hawthorne (the owner of the house) wrote to his daughter (and some subsequent scenes). The acting overall was superb. Booth, a Hallmark regular, really did shine with her performance in this one. I found myself connecting with her from the start. Bruening too had a strong performance. The chemistry between the two was a bit more refined than your typical Hallmark romance movie, but it worked well for this story, and on-screen, I felt. The supporting cast was good. Vlasta Vrana (playing Alan Hawthorne) stood out for me; he had a convincing performance. The Hawthorne House was beautiful, and the decorations were gorgeous. The movie had a nice Christmas feel to it. All in all, this was a very good movie, a nice new edition to Hallmark's 2020 Christmas lineup. Well done.

I love Hallmark Christmas movies, but I find they fall into several categories. Some have relatively large casts with plenty of extras to provide atmosphere, while others are sparsely populated, with sparingly used music and extras. Usually, it has to do with the popularity of the main stars. While Lindy Booth has certainly been in her share of Hallmark films, this one sure was lacking in supporting cast members. A lot of time it was simply the two leads working by themselves in the house. Even at the party scene, the extras were all blurred, as there probably were very few. Unfortunately, this seemed to be a movie made on an extremely limited budget, even for Hallmark, and it didn't give off much warmth or holiday feel. I will skip future showings of this film.