Romance de Noël

Predictable plot, horrible acting, totally formulaic. A total waste of time. The "bad guys" are over the top bad and the "good guys" are so sugar sweet that I felt like I needed some insulin. It's supposedly in the mountains at Christmas time but they apparently used some back lot location for a show set in the summer because there are leaves on all of the trees and summer flowers are blooming all over the place. The characters don't even bother to pretend it's cold outside and in some scenes one character will be in a t-shirt while another will be in a coat and scarf. And naturally the final scene has the requisite cheesy snowfall. It's like a movie put together by a bunch of teenagers for a school project.

There's two hours of my life I'll never get back!

This is a movie filled with marginal talents doing less than their limited best in a truly insipid film. I concur with previous reviews and offer this warning: stay away. Far away. You're better off watching a loop of a Yule log burning. Probably the funniest aspect of it is the way they kept showing Nicole Eggert from the neck up, avoiding any angles that might show how much weight she's carrying. Truth to tell, this is a cynical Christmas movie effort. The people who made it were just trying to exploit the public's insatiable appetite for insipid Christmas fare and can't accept the very attractive Nicole Eggert with extra weight on her.

All the comments about weather are true, but this is a minor issue because most of the holiday movies have this same phenomenon to some extent or another because it is well known that the movies are made year round. I am curious about all the scarves that Nicole Eggert wore almost constantly during the movie, yet usually without a coat, even indoors, and I wouldn't call any of them stylish.

I have a much bigger problem with Reagan. She isn't just unlikeable, she is hate-worthy. She constantly makes comments which aren't just rude, but mean. This woman is mean spirited even to her boyfriend. She and Rick never have any chemistry in this movie which you would at least expect in the beginning.

Lisa isn't much better, but at least she isn't mean. There isn't a lot of chemistry here either.

Rick has no idea what he wants. He stumbles into renewing his relationship with Lisa. One wonders how he could be a successful corporate lawyer.

The whole business deal is convoluted and confusing. The whole thing is just out there and assumed to be fundamentally bad. There are times during the movie where the biggest message I was getting was - all progress is bad and the way things are is good. This theme is overdone and made into a cliché.

There are too many meaningless musical interludes - fluffy filler.

There are many other problems which involve spoilers, so I'll just leave it at that.

During the Christmas season, wealthy land developer Tom Arnold (as Alexander Malone) wants to turn small town Fillmore into a ski resort. He sends future son-in-law David O'Donnell (as Rick) and snobby daughter Sarah Thompson (as Reagan) to seal the deal. In the town, which is suffering from a notable lack of snow, Mr. O'Donnell meets opposition from old law school girlfriend Nicole Eggert (as Lisa). It's nice to see veteran Patty McCormack (as mother Maggie). Neither the plot about the town nor the rekindling of an old romance has much appeal. Everyone has nice, snowy-white teeth.

*** A Christmas Proposal (12/21/08) Michael Feifer ~ David O'Donnell, Nicole Eggert, Tom Arnold, Sarah Thompson

"A Christmas Proposal" is a tired and worn out plot for a Holidays film. A small town boy (or girl) makes it big in the city and returns to the hometown with a fiancé or sweetheart in tow. They don't really want to be there but it's for business. That usually translates to a shady deal that the good guy (or girl) doesn't know about. So, naturally, he (or she) falls again for the childhood sweetheart left behind.

There's usually nothing hidden about these plots. It's just a matter of the viewers seeing how it plays out. The big city girlfriend or boyfriend is usually spoiled rich and disdainful of the "country hicks."

With no different or interesting angles in this plot, and nothing else exceptional about the script or even just very good in the acting, there is nothing to recommend this movie. It's not terrible but just very humdrum. For a Christmas film, this one is a little more risky. Although there's no nudity, the couple are sleeping together and not engaged. The little bit of scenic camera work earns it one notch more than otherwise - from three to four stars.