The Christmas Aunt

I typically love LMN Christmas movies and I try to catch all the new LMN ones, but this just fell dry for me. Of course Keshia Knight Pulliam is always wonderful but I think it's the script. I had to rewind this movie 4x to get through it. It just did not keep my attention.

Lifetime has outdone themselves this year lot better than Hallmark even with their 2 channels.

This is a warm, sweet and wholesome Lifetime Christmas movie. The storyline was quite predictable as one expects from Christmas romance films, but it kept me engaged, for the most part (maybe a bit slow at first). There are several real sweet scenes; e.g., the scene where Rebecca (played by Keshia Knight Pulliam) sets up the exhibition for Drew (played by Jarod Joseph). The acting, overall, is good. Keshia Knight Pulliam had a very pleasant performance; her presence on screen was very warm and calm. Jarod Joseph's performance was convincing too. They had good chemistry as well, which is important for a romance film. The supporting cast was great, I enjoyed the performances by Nyla Alleyne as Maggie and Gabriel Jacob-Cross as Dan. Very cute performances indeed. I do have one critique: the writers should have known that the 12 days of Christmas start on Christmas day; they are not the days leading up to (and including) Christmas day. This is the 2nd Christmas movie I have seen this season where this mistake is made; I am surprised how many people do not know this. Finally, the scenery, props, and sets were quite festive, which added to the Christmas atmosphere. Overall, it is a nice little edition to Lifetime's Christmas movie lineup this year.

Christmas films can go either way, which has been my experience watching overtime the festive output of Lifetime and Hallmark. They can either be well-meaning, charming, warm-hearted and don't feel too heavy. Or they can be too over-sentimental, cheesy, contrived and bland. There have been many films of theirs that have fallen in both camps and in the camp where there is a bit of both. And 'The Christmas Aunt' did have the sort of premise where the execution could have gone either way.

'The Christmas Aunt' didn't strike me as a great film and is pretty uneven. It is also not a waste of time and definitely worth an at least one time watch for primarily Lifetime Christmas film completest sake and the performances. 'The Christmas Aunt' struck me as scraping above average if with a mix of quite a lot of good and some pretty bad things, and somewhere in the middle as far as Lifetime's variable 2020 Christmas output goes. There are better films of theirs from this year, but also worse.

A lot is good here in 'The Christmas Aunt'. It looks good, with lovely scenery complemented nicely by the nicely framed and never cheap photography. There are some amusing parts in the writing, some of it is over the top but endearingly so rather than forced. The direction has a good feel for the Christmas spirit and seems to understand the genre and be at ease with it.

Story isn't perfect, but it is mostly very heart-warming and charming while not taking itself too seriously. Really liked Keshia Knight Pullium's composed and warmly charming performance and similarly the sympathetic one of Jarod Joseph. Their chemistry is warm, sweet and very natural. Nyla Alleyne and Gabriel Jacob-Cross are also very likeable and breaths of fresh air agreed. All the performances are fine in one of the better acted 2020 Lifetime Christmas films, and the chemistry never looks stilted.

However, there are things that don't come off well. The story tends to be thin, with some very contrived in writing conflict later on and once again another hastily resolved and too neat ending.

Cutesiness goes into overload and also would have liked more subtlety and personality in the music.

Overall, above average and really quite decent. 6/10.

Finally some good acting. This one has different situations to overcome