As both leads are Hallmark regulars, I was looking forward to seeing 'You, Me & The Christmas Trees'. Moreover, Hallmark usually does a good job with selecting quality openers for their Countdown to Christmas series. However, I was disappointed with this year's kick-off. Put simply, the movie fell flat. The storyline revolves around Olivia (played by Danica McKellar), Connecticut's evergreen tree specialist. Days before the Christmas holiday, she agrees to help Jack (played by Benjamin Ayres), a fourth-generation evergreen farmer, with a mysterious illness that has befallen his trees, threatening his family's business. Olivia, who is known as the 'tree whisperer', immediately gets to work but is baffled by the illness and ends up extending her stay in the town of Avon. She and Jack begin to spend more time together, sowing the seeds of romance between the two. One element of the story that I did enjoy was the science of saving the trees, which, as others have pointed out, was a new Hallmark twist. That said, the script was rather weak, I am afraid. As other reviewers have suggested, many of the scenes and dialogue seemed forced such as Olivia's problem with her family (and whether to stay or go) and the falling out between the two towards the end of the movie. The latter, especially, felt awkward and artificial. Though I did have a few laughs, the dialogue too was at times not very convincing. The acting, I thought, was pretty good overall; McKellar and Ayres both had solid performances. Ayres had a warm and gentle vibe, which I enjoyed. At times, however, McKellar's performance felt slightly off, as there were some awkward expressions here and there (e.g., the café scene with her parents towards the end). The chemistry between the two was not bad, but given their talents in such roles, I would have expected more from both of them. To be fair, the script didn't help, which might explain some of what I am referring to here. As another reviewer observed, 'it just didn't seem to flow smoothly'. The supporting cast was rather low-key in this one. Yet, I did find Jason Hervey's performance (as Dwayne) to be a bit...how shall I put this...odd. Though given his 'villain' status in the story, maybe this was what he was going for. The movie did have a warm Christmas feel to it, which one expects from Hallmark. For example, there was the Christmas Cocktail Competition at the Cider Mill. May I have an 'evergreen cocktail' please? Overall, it is a decent, run-of-the-mill, Hallmark Christmas movie. No doubt, fans of the Christmas movie genre will enjoy it. However, given its opener (kick-off) status, it was a bit of a let-down.
