A Christmas Star

This movie is as good or better as typical Hallmark romances. I, too, was initially drawn because of Daniel Lissing, but I found Sara Canning every bit as engaging. (If you liked this movie, you might try "The Christmas Temp" with Canning and Robin Dunne.)

"No chemistry" according to some reviews? Hogwash! The chemistry was palpable (do you not speak " body language").

Weak script? Hey, it is a tradition romance: the plot and outcome were predictable the moment both characters were introduced. We watch it for the personalities and their chemistry. Sloppy astronomy? Very obvious, but I suspend disbelief with these movies anyway, so only a minor irritant.

This movie was a keeper for me.

Up and coming female astronomer in New York crunches data and figures out there is a 78% likelihood a yet undiscovered meteor shower event will take place on one of five days leading up to Christmas. And the prime viewing location is a peak just outside a small upstate community. So she gets clearance and takes a telescope with her to the location. (All filmed in Canada.)

Once there she finds a mixup with hotel reservations and is aided by a local family that own and run the hotel, she is put up and befriended by all of them, including a nice man who has been told his ranger job is being eliminated for lack of funding. As things unfold and complications with the Christmas festival and its bright lights make things a bigger challenge, the astronomer and the ranger begin to take a serious liking to each other.

My wife and I watched it at home on Amazon streaming. It is a cute story with attractive people, very much like a Hallmark movie. Just don't take any of the highly flawed astronomy seriously. Plus, they even got "reflector" and "refractor" telescopes mixed up in the dialog. But hey, it's just a movie.

Most of the reviews here are not helpful. Some of the reviewers don't even know what network produced the film, so how attentive were they? In my opinion this was a decent movie, with two good leading actors. I really like Sara Canning, and will watch anything she stars in. I also like Daniel Lissing, but I confess he was not as good in this one as in, say, A December Bride.

Sure, the plot of this movie could have been better. People have pointed out the technical errors, but these are common in romance movies. Depending on one's vocation or avocation, it is likely someone will spot mistakes in the technical aspects of films like this. But do you really watch romance movies for the technical expertise? I suspect not, and if someone is complaining about that, they are likely just bragging about how much they know about a given subject.

A good romance movie needs two likeable stars, an engaging story, co-stars that are not too irritating, and a happy ending.

The writers could have made this a better story with better word-smithing. The chemistry between the 2 main characters is also a bit weak. No believable spark.

It was a nice story and acting was good, but it was hard for me an old astronomer type to not ignore the "Literally Glaring" faults in the filming. Come on, massive lights at the mountain cabin with no electric service there? Roaring fire and lights right next to the telescope. Massive lights below and only turned off the extra Christmas lights.

Light reflecting off the atmospheric humidity would have destroyed any good telescope reading at the cabin. Total lights off for quarter mile and a flashlight only used to setup is all that is allowed. Been then and done this often. But then they could not film a true professional astronomer in action in total darkness.

So I let that all pass and enjoyed the story and good acting by all. They should have at least not placed 1000 Christmas lights on a remote mountain cabin. It did not look remote at all.

I do give them credit for at least trying an astronomical story line. GAC has been good with their stories and acting but too glitzy for this story to come true.