Perfect Strangers

Lost at Christmas is a small scale Scottish film. An antidote to the schmaltzy Hallmark films from the USA.

This bittersweet film is as cold as the Scottish weather in December. I know I have spent the Christmas period a few times up in Scotland over the years.

Bubbly Jen (Natalie Clark) has gone to a small highland town to see her long term boyfriend only to discover he is married.

Meanwhile Rob (Kenny Boyle) has proposed to his girlfriend and has been turned down. What hurt the most is being told, she doesn't love him.

Both Jen and Ron meet at the train station but heavy snow means that all trains are cancelled. Wanting to get back to Glasgow on Christmas Eve is no easy task.

Jen gets hold of a car but needs to stop at an inn because of the worsening weather. Only the residents of the inn are not in the festive mood.

This low budget film has a strong Doctor Who connection. Sylvester McCoy, Frazer Hines, Caitlin Blackwood all appear.

I found the movie tries too hard to be unsentimental and realistic. You end up not caring too much about the love story part when too many people are morose.

The character of Rob is hard to like although he thaws later on. I was more impressed with Natalie Clark as Jen.

Lost at Christmas needed a sprinkling of fairy dust to brighten it up.

I was fond of this movie, mostly due to the exuberance of Natalie Clark's character and her unfailing optimism about the Christmas spirit. It really translated effectively and gave the film a buoyancy and life that I think would have been missing otherwise. There is something so annoying about her chirpy, uppity personality. It reminds me of girls in school who would thought that parroting false positivity 24/7 was a likeable and charming personality rather than what it actually is, which is painfully contrived. And then we find the opposite nature in Rob who is always dour and impossible to shake out of his depression. The balance between the overly optimistic and overly pessimistic character is a smart contrast and they play well off of each other, though I don't find their on-screen chemistry to be believable in a romantic sense.

Overall, this film is quirky and comforting and has just the right balance of humour, emotion, and Christmas zeal,

Yesterday I watched this idiotic Hollywood film with a Christmas theme .Such a difference ! This movie ,although low budget ,could teach the Americans a thing or two . The acting seemed so natural compared to similar American fare,the storyline was nowhere near improbable ,like some Santa Claus granting a disgruntled mother and wife a wish that changes her life .I mean this is so juvenile ! And yet people watch this crap . This simple Scottish movie with no big name actors delivers a very warm ,human story that does not need any American gimmicks to succeed. It is honest refreshing and I recommend it wholeheartedly.

I was not going to bother writing a review of this film until I saw all the 10 star reviews from people who obviously did not see this film. The giveaway was when they wrote things like "touching", "heartwarming" and "hysterically funny". Those are catch phrases one might use when reviewing a Christmas Romantic Comedy. However, this film is not funny or romantic, and with the exception of the female lead telling everybody it's Christmas (yay), it could very well be arbor day.

There is ZERO chemistry going on between the two leads. There is very little connection between anybody in this film. There are some weird things like the left/right business that turned out to be nothing. There is just a coating of slush on the ground, yet the last train couldn't get through. People (yes I'm saying it too) who claim to be freezing, yet don't button up their coats. A plow that's stuck in the garage because they can't get it out because of the coating of slush blocking the door.

Then, as a twist, nothing happens.

This was a decent Christmas movie. The story here is about two strangers, who are going thru some difficult times in their love life, coming together to find a way home for Christmas. What both don't realize, at the time, is that this journey home is more than simply catching a ride together. It becomes more about helping each other move on (and potentially work thru) their relationship woes (and the importance of spending time with others, even if they are strangers, during Christmas). I thought the story worked well for about the first 60 minutes or so. The dialogue between the leads was pretty good. There were a couple of nice scenes at the bar (at the inn) with some good conversation/dialogue between Jen (played Natalie Clark) and Rob (played by Kenny Boyle), our two protagonists in this story. I even had a few laughs during some of the scenes with Sid (played by Sanjeev Kohli), Ernie (played by Sylvester McCoy) and Frank (played by Frazer Hines). However, the story, I thought, broke down on Christmas morning. I am referring to the scene where Jen asks everyone to celebrate Christmas, they all say bah humbug, and she runs off into the woods (as opposed to running/walking along the road, which seemed odd, by the way). Shortly thereafter, Rob had an epiphany and runs after her, and when they get back, everyone is suddenly on board for a nice Christmas dinner. There is a big hole in the script between the first 60 minutes and the last half hour. The writers don't set the viewer up for the last third of the film. Thus, the final third seemed forced (or rushed). It is a pity, really. The acting, overall, was strong, I thought. Both Clark and Boyle' performances were convincing, and, as I noted above, they had some nice dialogue together. The chemistry between the two started to build up a bit on Christmas Eve, but, again, the writers could have done a better job setting this up before they jumped into bed together. For the most part, the supporting cast was great. As I alluded to above, Kohli, McCoy and Hines's performances were quite good (funny, I thought). The Scottish landscape in the film was a plus. There were some beautiful shots on the rolling hills. All in all, it is an entertaining Christmas movie, pretty good for the first two-thirds of the film.