Destined at Christmas

The first GAC Family Christmas movie I've watched in 2022 was pretty good.

A fresh story: two people meet whilst shopping on Black Friday, feel a spark...and then are separated and spend the next month or so trying to find one another with very little in the way of detail about one another - all they each have is a first name. Of course, there are the usual plot devices that you get in these movies, like a few near misses between the two main characters and the introduction of and old/new love interest. Nonetheless, still a pretty good watch. I haven't seen Shae Robbins or Casey Elliott in a film before, but they were pretty good in this one. All in all, just enough original material to keep you (well, me) interested.

I wasn't familiar with either of the two leads but they both did a fine job. They had good chemistry right off the bat and that ends up being VERY important because they spend a big chunk of the movie apart. They keep trying to locate each other and there's mishaps where they keep missing each other. It would be extremely frustrating except for the fact that we did see cute scenes of them at the beginning and saw their chemistry that makes us root for the couple.

Even though I watch a lot of these made-for-tv movies, this plot was new to me so it kept me engaged and I couldn't wait to find out what happened next. When the movie ended I immediately wanted to rewatch it- it's that good. It's cute and fun and I definitely recommend it.

I like the movie, but it does have an issue in the plotting design.

The couple meets at the beginning of the movie, develop an affinity for each other, then are separated, each only knowing the other's first name.

They spend the rest of the movie trying to "detective out" the other's identity, plus of course a few near misses. That makes the plot dodge most of the Christmas romance cliches (except he of course is a single dad with an adorable daughter and no mention of what happened to his wife ... but they can't dodge them ALL LOL).

The issue is that after the very early minutes of the movie, the leads can't appear together again until, or course, the very end. I don't think that's a spoiler. ;-)

I like the story and the characters, but a lot of the scenes don't build the story and just fill time. It's worth a watch but I don't see it being on our repeat list despite the fact the ending was well done.

When Kim and Theo lost each other at the sporting goods store because the power went out, why didn't they just wait at the front door to meet back up again?

Very obvious ending that they would finally meet up again and start a relationship. Reminded me of a bad Serendipity, where the viewers get frustrated because the main characters keep missing each other and everyone in their circle meet the person that they just keep missing.

Particularly bad acting by the child playing Theo's daughter. Absolute train wreck. Nice scenery. Shot in Utah. I didn't recognize any of the actors in this movie, including the main characters.

I don't recommend this film.

I wasn't too sure about this movie in the beginning, the plot was bumpy and I wasn't sure where it was going. The story line of both characters searching for each other over most of the movie, was very tiresome. And it's odd that two people didn't discuss what they did for a living when they had breakfast in the beginning, they're young and obviously they work. The dialog was better than average, I didn't cringe when listening to it.

This movie didn't have a dominate female lead with a male in a secondary role, this was a story about Kim and Theo. It wasn't another formulaic story about developing an app or something in sales, Kim and Theo were both settled in their careers.

Shae Robins and Casey Elliott had chemistry onscreen, the supporting cast wasn't as good.