Coup de foudre glacé

Hallmark has made clear two things: that Niall Matter can indeed skate on ice and that Rachel Leigh Cook remains as a strong leading lady.

While I was excited to watch this movie, I finished it a little disappointed. I thought the storyline was great -kudos to Rachel who was part of the creation of the story- I mean, there was a bookstore involved! Mary was an extremely relatable character and Adam was different to all the sweet/charming guys Niall Matter plays. However, I read in social media that the chemistry was crazy good. I'm sorry to say I didn't see it that way. They obviously got along great but it was not the same chemistry Rachel has with Brendan Penny of Niall with Erin Krakow. Yet, their job portraying their characters was good.

My favorite part about the movie was definitely the storyline/plot, which was pretty original compared to others, and Rachel's performance. You do want to watch this.

I realise this is made for TV and still it is quite cute and cuddly in it's execution. Is that the Hallmark mark? I suppose it must be. I found the dialog to be quite fluffy and nice and it has an atmosphere of playful banter that is just plain lovely. So as a movie that sets out to be what it is it's a winner.

I really enjoyed this movie. The initial conflict was totally relatable and understandable, and their slow appreciation for each other was genuine and well acted. The ending was great! I also can't help but love any movie set around a bookstore.

I can see reading other reviews that some love the movie, and others where kinda "mehh" about it. I am a single dad and usually watch these movies with my teen daughter. I have also reviewed several other Hallmark Christmas movies since I started getting hooked on them in 2016. Others in their reviews have outlined the plot so I shall not touch on that in my comments and instead focus on our impressions of the movie.

Speaking for both of us, we really enjoyed this movie. We found it more realistic and relatable then many of the other hallmark holiday season themed movies and we thought the chemistry between the leads was great. I have never been a Rachel Cook fan, and even in this movie it took a bit of time to warm up to her, although at the end of the movie I thought she looked very pretty. On the other hand I have always really liked Niall Matter in these types of movies - he fits into the characters they have him portray very well and we thought he hit a home run in this movie. My daughter is reminding me we saw him as the lead in another Hallmark holiday movie last year which we also enjoyed.

There were many occasions during the movie where we laughed, and otherwise we always had a smile on our faces. It was an enjoyable movie. I think most Hallmark fans would be charmed by this movie.

We felt this movie deserved a very good rating. Please note we rate relative to the genre. For a Hallmark movie this was a home run, and so it gets a 9 in that context.

I think this movie is the best of the 2018 Winter Movies by Hallmark. Not exactly a high achievement, but an achievement none the less. However, one criticism I would have is that it really ended king of flat and had a contrived (even by Hallmark standards) dramatic choice that in reality could have been resolved by one phone call.

The thing that set this movie apart is that it was actually funny, especially in the first hour. Even though Hallmark movies are billed as romantic comedies they usual focus on romance and not the comedy.

Also, this movie had a very good supporting cast of characters which is not always a given in this kind of movie giving the film some depth and some of its funny lines.

The other criticism I would have is despite being depicted as a "bad boy" the hero did not really seem as a guy who would keep getting tossed from games and dumped by teams. I mean he had a favorite book. However, that was understandable because Halmark does not want the heorine to fall for a loser.

All in all enjoyable, but not quite great.