Noël à La Carte

Overall, it is a decent Christmas movie with some good acting, I thought. The story centers around Josie (played by Kim Shaw), a chef who heads home for Christmas to help her mother (played by Cynthia Gibb) launch her new bed and breakfast by developing a (holiday) menu. To her surprise, Tanner (our other protagonist in this story played by Clayton James), who is a well-known food critic and has a past with Josie's food, has also come to her mother's B&B to check out the new menu. The friction between the two slowly turns to romance as they increasingly spend more time together (e.g., discussing food and their past) at this charming little bed and breakfast. As other reviewers here have pointed out, the story is quite ordinary and predictable. To be fair so is much of the Christmas (romance) genre. That said, I did find myself pulled in by the film; it engaged me. The dialogue between Josie and Clayton was warm and heartfelt and so too were some of the other interactions in the film, for example, between Nolan (played by Jesse Kove) and Josie (and Josie and her mother). The appeal of the film for me was the acting. I thought Shaw had a very strong, convincing performance. James too had a solid performance. He had some nice dialogue with Shaw in this one. I thought the chemistry between the two was pretty good (unlike some of the other reviewers here). Was it brilliant? No. But I did think it was believable on screen. The supporting cast in this one, I thought, was great. Gibb had a good performance. It was also nice to see Michael Steger (as Stu, the photographer) on screen again (I watched him in 90210 and have not seen him since). The last 10 minutes or so were quite festive too with a bit of a musical performance by Shanica Knowles (as Iris); it is a shame she did not sing more in the film. All in all, although the story was unexceptional, the movie was engaging due to the quality of acting. I give it a 6.5 out of 10 stars. Well worth a watch if you are a fan of the Christmas romance genre.

Kim Shaw, Cynthia Gibb and Clayton James do a good job with what they were given. The rest of the cast did a good job as well, but do to the writing (or lack of), they just seemed to drift through the story. There are no interesting subplots, and the story is very surfaced and one dimensional, so some characters just seemed to have no reason for being there and it showed. The characters lack of purpose leads to a lot of empty, pretentious dialogue which leaves you searching for the fast forward button.

2020 was very variable to unimpressive when it came to Lifetime's Christmas films, and there was definitely the sense that the films were made in a rush with not a lot of preparation time. Yet enough of them were far from amateur-hour efforts and were still watchable all things considered. Lifetime just have done a lot better in previous years, although their festive output is very hit and miss it should not be dismissed outright as enough have left me pleasantly surprised.

'Christmas on the Menu' was though more or less what was expected, which was a watchable enough film with good moments and better than expected acting. But also one that is nothing extraordinary and does nothing new with pretty familiar plot tropes. Lifetime did a lot better than 'Christmas on the Menu', but also worse than what is a somewhat middling effort for them. Considering the difficult circumstances though, it did make do perhaps.

Am going to start with the good. The best thing about 'Christmas on the Menu' is the acting. Both Kim Shaw, though she overdid it at times early on, and Clayton James are very likeable leads and of the uniformly solid supporting cast Cynthia Gibb is a particular breath of fresh air. The characters are overused stereotypes but don't irritate or bore at least. Actually thought that the chemistry between Shaw and James was quite good and genuine once the relationship found its groove, have seen a lot worse lead chemistries in other Lifetime films.

The film also looks pretty decent all things considered and has some professionalism at least in its look. Especially the scenery. The music didn't sound too intrusive and some of the dialogue is cute, emphasis on some.

However, 'Christmas on the Menu' has its issues. The story never properly grabbed me, as well as being very predictable it is very thin on the ground and drags a lot from too much stretched padding and an uncertain feel most of the time. There isn't enough of an emotional core or charm which made the film come over as bland and lacking in substance too. The direction is competent in some parts but is disorganised and hesitant in others.

Furthermore, the script on the most part is too verbose and the flow is very stilted, had a feeling of it being written in haste and that it had not been proof read. The conflict completely lacks tension and it didn't actually feel like there was much at stake with the indifferent and too hasty way it's written in. A lot of ingredients in the story that are done very little with.

Overall, just about edible but didn't come over as cooked enough. 5/10.

Well done. I like when a Christmas movie doesn't feel like it was made as a school project. Some I seen habe been so awful but most are at least quality for the most part. As always, predictable but that's why we watch these. The cute little things and Christmas.

Maybe it's just me...or maybe I missed a scene, but it took me over a hour to figure out Josie and Nolan previously dated. I didn't know who this dude was for most of the movie.