Le gâteau enchanté de Noël

Erica Durance is a much better actress than her performance she gave here. As you can see in many other reviews, her hair is a hot mess to the point of being distracting. I actually had to look up her real age as the overall styling, including her wardrobe, makes her appear so much older and just sort of makes the whole plot fall apart.

Robin Dunne, as Gavin, carries a lot of the dialog and brings his typical natural charm to the screen. Overall I think Gavin's lines are also scripted better such that Dunne's delivery is easier to execute. Whereas for Erica, as Gwen, has the challenge of trying to deliver on a lot of poorly written lines.

There was some fun, holiday potential here about the magic of finding love at Christmas that falls flatter than baking a cake during an earthquake.

I thought it was super cute. Usually characters can be annoying but I really liked this one. Yes her bangs are distracting but I liked the storyline and message. I mean it's a hallmark type movie so what are people expecting? I've seen some that are so cheesy that I can't watch past 10 minutes, but this one I liked and was able to enjoy the entire movie. As usual the scenery was gorgeous and really got me in a Christmas spirit. That's what it's about. If you go in just wanting to feel the Christmas spirit, you'll enjoy it. If you go in with a critical eye then you won't. But like I said, there's definitely worse ones. This one is cute and nice characters, and even had funny moments.

I initially tuned in for Erica Durance, but I couldn't even last 15 minutes. Not worth my time. Lifetime Christmas movies are lackluster compared to Hallmark Christmas movies. They aren't as good.

Hands down the worst hair I have ever seen on screen. If I had been the hair dresser, I'd have fired myself and submitted my name as Alan Smithee for the credits. As a bonus, the bad guy's toupee looked like it came from the clearance aisle at Party City.

The plot won't even matter to you because all you see is the frizzy fried bangs. Between the brassy highlights and overly permed texture, it's like going back in time to 1987 in middle school when we were just learning how to use perms and curling irons, and still our hair usually turned out better than this! She should have stuck a dead squirrel on her head and called it a day.

Erica Durance and Robin Dunne has been good in other things, particularly Dunne, even when the film overall is not great. 2019's 'The Christmas Chalet' was proof that the two can work very well together. Lifetime have done many films over the years that have been worth watching, the best of them surprisingly very well done, though they have also done a number of duds. Was a bit ehh overall on their 2021 output, it could have been worse considering the circumstances but few films stood out that.

'The Enchanted Christmas Cake' is no exception to this. It is not one of their worst films from 2021 and Lifetime have certainly done far worse overall, but also not one of the best on both counts. It is certainly tolerable and has good things, but it does not live up to its enchanted name and instead is pretty bland. As far as 2021 Christmas films go from Hallmark, Lifetime, UpTV, ION, GAC Family etc, 'The Enchanted Christmas Cake' is one of the average middling things with enough good things but also a lot of bad.

Am going to begin with the good. Durance and Dunne do engage in the lead roles, with Dunne particularly bringing easy going charm and subtle charisma to his. They work very well together and the chemistry is natural and genuine as well as sweet. The supporting cast are also solid and don't overplay or phone in. There are moments of real charm and heart warmth and the film starts off quite well.

Furthermore, 'The Enchanted Christmas Cake' looks good. Loved the scenery especially, regardless of any authenticity being called into question there is a festive look to it and it looks picturesque. Personally thought the photography, while never extraordinary, complemented it nicely, not overblown while not basic either. The music is a nice enough fit and is pleasant music on its own, it doesn't make as much of a mistake as other Christmas films of being used too constantly or being too loud (something that a number of Hallmark Christmas films are guilty of).

However, 'The Enchanted Christmas Cake' could have been a lot better. The story on the whole could have been a lot more engaging. It has its moments, but the excessive predictability from doing nothing new with very familiar done to death ground does hurt it. Also thought that it dragged quite a lot, from the story being very thin and over-stretched, and the TV programme angle came over as contrived. As does the too convenient final act, with a climactic moment that occurs far too early.

Moreover, the characters do lose likeability. Durance's character is far too naive and indecisive and makes some really frustratingly dumb decisions. The dialogue is often awkward and has too many cheesy and overly sappy lines that induce cringing.

Concluding, one of those tolerable for one time watch but very average at best films. 5/10.