Un défi pour Noël

Did HeidiJean really see this movie? A great Christmas movie? Not even close. Dull, bland and completely lacking in imagination and heart. I kept watching this movie wondering who the hell thought that Carly Pope could play the lead in this movie! The woman has no detectable personality and gives a completely lackluster performance. Baransky was great as usual and provided the only modicum of interesting the whole thing. Probably her involvement was the only reason this project was green lighted to begin with. Maybe I'm expecting too much for a Lifetime movie played 15 days from Christmas but I sat through this thing thinking that with a different director and a recasting JJ with an actress that at least could elicit sympathy this could have been quite a cute little movie.

JJ Jenner (Carly Pope) is the assistant for the food critic at NYC magazine Glow Manhattan. She doesn't get along with her mother Lee Bellmont (Christine Baranski) who is always the center of attention. Lee shows up at her apartment out of the blue. She got retired for old age as a cruise ship dancer but she keeps it a secret. The food critic leaves for maternity, and the new critic is a drunken creep. He gets fired and JJ is the new critic. Lee berates JJ's boyfriend who reveals that he's been actually cheating on her. Alex Stermadapolous (Bobby Cannavale) cooks good food in an empty restaurant. He struggles to get notice without a publicist. JJ agrees to come by his restaurant if he pretends to date her mother keeping her busy.

Christine Baranski makes this something passable. She does a compelling character with emotional depth. The mother daughter relationship works because of her. Both Carly Pope and Bobby Cannavale do a reasonable job. The production is pretty much middle of the road TV movie. This is borderline watchable. I'm not always sure which side of the border however.

I'm a life time TV watcher, so i like always watch the movies, this one was good, the cast had chemistry, and it was a real feel good movie, and it has a great moral to the story.Carly Pope was great along with Bobby Cannavale and Christine Baranski!This movie really could have used a different name I think , maybe like "The Christmas Review" so people wouldn't think its just about food, because its about so much more.I think Carly Pope may be the next big thing, shes beautiful , natural, and so believable. If you haven't seen it yet and like Christmas movies that aren't too christmasy then I'll bet you would really enjoy this one.

Even though this is a story about a romance between a Food Critic and a Chef the alternate title for the movie is a better choice to describe the film (and then it's not the best) for a couple of reasons.

Firstly, though the romance is okay and it does add to the heartwarming atmosphere of the film it takes second place to the relationship between Mother (Baranski) and Food Critic daughter (Pope). I really did enjoy the cracked and broken relationship they have formed after the death of the husband and father and neither one knew how to cope with his passing. The only trouble is that it doesn't quite feel right and lacks in believability. Though each of the actresses is great in their portrayals of a happy fun loving Mom and a no-nonsense career-minded daughter; when the reason for their separation is revealed even their characterisations can't sustain the believability.

Secondly, the romance isn't really believable. When the chef asks for a review from the food critic she manipulates him into taking her mother out on dates, so as to keep her out of her hair so she can complete her column before the deadline. He takes Mommy out on a few dates and he likes her. Though the writer and director try to sideline the audience into thinking they could be a couple, they add a couple of scenes that show the Chef's slight (and it is only slight) interest in the daughter. What the story needed were a few more similar scenes where their relationship blossoms and blooms. Unfortunately, this doesn't happen and it makes the story and film feel awkward at times. This could have been a better movie.

This is one to watch if there's nothing else on or your snowed in during a blizzard and have caught up on everything else. Be aware that this is a Romance Movie set around Christmastime and not really a Christmas Movie.

I live for the Lifetime holiday movie schedule, and always look forward to the new movies each year. Sadly, this one was not nearly as good as some of the past winners.

Christine whats-her-name, the mother, as always gave a great performance. But the daughter and Alex were both really weak characters, and didn't leave much room for the actors to show off. I thought there were zero sparks between them. It's like we were supposed to think they're a match made in heaven just because they brushed arms a couple times, and both like books on WWII history. I watch these dumb movies because they're supposed to make you feel all warm and goo-ey Christmas-y inside. But this was just bland; Their first kiss didn't have any of the predictable goo-eyness that i expect from these movies... I dunno, it just left me feeling flat. So much so that i fast-forwarded through dullsville parts with my tivo. I never do that. Normally I rewind those scenes. And watch them again the next night. Yes, I'm a giant loser.

I won't watch this again next year. But some of the past made-for-TV holiday movies that I've enjoyed in the past, and I'll watch again this year include Picking Up and Dropping Off, Boyfriend for Christmas, Comfort and Joy....All cheesy and feel good....

PS I'm tired of all these lifetime movies being about women in 'high powered' jobs, and they illustrate this fact by making them hollow, shallow, vicious jerks. Like women making over six-figures can't like Christmas. Arghhh.... At least this one deserves credit for giving her an actual job description (food critic), wherein most of these movies just have these ditzes in tight suits, stressing about some vague work-related issue on a wireless earphone, saying stuff like "I didn't get my masters in marketing at Columbia and rise to the top of the marketing business to not close this deal"....just to show how successful and professional, and not into Christmas this character must be (problematic because first, a masters in marketing is an MBA; second, what the heck is a 'marketing business'?, and third, can we be more vague and touchy feely about women in business? Make them an accountant, for god's sake; at least that's a real job.)