A Brush with Christmas

This GAF holiday romance is about two artists who have chosen other professions. Charlotte (Jillian Murphy) runs the family restaurant, but secretly wishes she had time to indulge her true passion: art. Wyatt (Joseph Cannata) does commercial building renderings, but has always wanted to explore his more creative side.

When Wyatt visits an old friend during the Christmas holiday, he meets Charlotte and they hit it off. Charlotte hopes to submit an entry in the local Christmas art contest, but tosses her unfinished canvas when she realizes she needs to devote all her time to the restaurant, where she is also the head chef. When her incomplete painting appears on a wall at the contest venue, marked "anonymous", she is puzzled. How did it get there? And how does she feel about that?

Burgeoning romantic feelings are kept in check by the fact that Wyatt will leave after the holiday. When, in fact, he receives an offer for a dream job in London, it looks to spell the end of their infatuation.

The two lead actors are believable in their roles. Also watch for Farrah Aviva, who plays Charlotte's friend and coworker, Ella, with enjoyment and energy. And Michael Strickland, who plays Wyatt's friend David in a role that is too small.

I really appreciated the fact that the artwork around which the story revolves is, in fact, worthy of attention, giving the story authenticity.

"A Brush With Christmas" is a wonderful movie. I'm not a big fan of art, but the art in this movie is great. The actors are excellent. The lead actors are great in their roles. All the actors are very believable. I don't like this movie as much as my favorite Hallmark Christmas movies (like "Call Me Mrs. Miracle." "Eloise at Christmastime," "Crown For Christmas," etc). But it is a sweet movie. A head chef at her mom's restaurant loves to paint, and to stop working at a restaurant, but is working at the restaurant to help her mom out. She wants to be a full time painter. She meets another artist named Wyatt, who found the painting that she threw away. The ending of the movie is great.

I don't know what happened to GAF this season! Last year, they made some really good Christmas time films to put them in head to head competition with Hallmark! This year, they fell flat on their faces with the movies!! This one is no different!!

The writing is flat, lifeless!! It has no "spunk" that last years had!! The actors have ZERO chemistry between them! It's not just the leads but EVERYONE that interacts here!! People that "knew" each other for years have nothing between them!!

The reason this gets a four star is for the location and set designer!! The lights you see as the drone goes down the street near the end showing Christmas lights was perfect!! The very next shot of an arched walkway & the lights were perfect!! Other than that, this film is a skip!!

Like others I have spent the last month and a half watching Christmas movies, GAF if I can get access, Hallmark, Lifetime and CBS. There are only a few that I must comment on and this is one. The story is cute, the female lead character is talented, thoughtful unlike some of them whose reasoning ability is missing or can't carry on a coherent conversation, and the male lead has a neat profession. Why I must comment is the MOTHER image. Not clear, but think she is to be the CEO of the restaurant with female lead and daughter the head chef. As a leader she is useless, her facial features never change. Monotoned, she is supposedly mooning over Patrick but even that is lifeless except for the ridiculous eye batting, Patrick by the way does have life and character. Maybe her lines were lame but she could have given some spark to them, at least shown some emotion but essentially she is one drab annoying actress. On the plus side, hope to see Joseph Cannata in more movies and TV series.

I dig the leading two, but 'A Brush with Christmas' is very dull.

It dragged to watch, it really did. It's your standard made-for-television festive flick, so includes all the cheese and cheer that you would expect. The story, though, is just told in such an uninteresting way, not helped by the (usual) heavy predictability either. I did, as noted, rate Jillian Murray and Joseph Cannata as a duo, they are (relatively speaking) well cast. That's the only positive I've got though.

Amusingly, you could easily write another movie based upon this from Brenda of Home Cooking's point of view - one two-week back injury and she loses her catering contract to a half-arsed wannabe artist, unfair if you ask me! There's just no loyalty in the food industry nowadays...