Ensemble à Noël

6/10 - average family feud Hallmark channel feature makes for a worthwhile hour and a half

We've all seen this a few dozen times under different titles. Sometimes whether we like a Hallmark movie depends more on whether we like the people in the cast than any plot (or lack of plot). This must've caught me in the right mood, cuz I liked it. Wes Brown plays Wes Brown in every movie, so no surprise there, and Rachel Boston brought a bit less sugar than usual, which helped a lot. Supporting cast was mostly good (I did get tired of the mayor making speeches), and in the end, Everybody's happy. If only real life could be a Hallmark movie just once. I gave it a 7.

I like the leads together Rachel and Wes smile and act all lovey dovey. A lawyer and an MBA from rival inn keeping families join forces to outbid a big resort threatening their family inns. The solution to their troubles uses both their skills. If not for these likeable stars there might not that much to recommend this movie.

Just one of nice Halmark films about rivalries and final alliance against common enemy, all in the frame of love story. Not a version of Romeo and Juliet but a good option for Barta Heiner as the grandmother. So, just nice. And vechicle for a decent, in few scenes charming story.

It seems like the writers for this movie took a whole bunch of previous scripts and pulled out all the themes and put them into this one. Some of them are: save-the-family-inn, I'm-up-for-promotion-in-far-away=city, family-feud-keeps-us-apart, and traditional-town-Christmas-celebration, and small-town-values-beats-big-corporation. What was slightly unusual about this movie was combining the family feud with save-the-inns so that it was two inns to save instead of one.

The romance between Ryan and Julia takes a distant back seat to the family competition and business threat. As a result, it was a struggle for the leads to demonstrate chemistry together. Their relationship was more like peacemakers than romantic partners. I think the actors felt this and it showed a little in their performances. I say this with some disappointment because I am a huge fan of Rachel Boston.

I think the ending was pretty obvious and as usual for Hallmark, it tied up to many lose ends too neatly.