Coup de foudre à l'hôtel de Noël

This movie isn't Oscar worthy, but it isn't as bad as some of these reviews would lead you to believe. I've definitely seen worse on Hallmark. Like several others, this caught my eye because of Mena Massoud, who is as charming as ever. He's not in it as much as I would have hoped, but I liked the leading lady as well. It's a simple film with the typical lack of communication trope, but I enjoyed the sweet characters and lack of drama. Some of the set pieces were pretty rough - the fake snow was obvious and I was a bit confused by the roof dinner scene, since there was "snow", but no one seemed cold? However, it was exactly the type of movie I was looking for while wrapping presents. Low stakes, holiday themed, and a happy ending all around.

In the fairly recent "Riverdale" TV series Madelaine Petsch was cast as Cheryl Blossom, a smart, hard, mean, scheming person and she does a great job in that role. So I was anxious to see her in a quite different role.

In this Christmas-themed Canadian movie, set in Manhattan, she is Georgia, a smart, efficient, and kind manager of a small hotel with a dedicated staff friendly with each other. She is very good in her job and is working a side hustle, the possibility of becoming part owner and general manager of a new hotel. She needed to keep that from all the others for obvious reasons.

There are several interesting side stories. The chef at the hotel is interested in Georgia. An out-of-touch female pop singer comes to the hotel and hopes to rekindle interest among her fans. A prince from abroad has rejected his title and seeks to find himself a new life. And a couple of others.

Admittedly some of the characters and some of the situations are a bit too silly, but Petsch is really good in her role and holds everything together. The movie has predictably happy endings for everyone. So, while I can't rate this movie very highly, my wife and I were entertained. At home, streaming on Amazon Prime.

Main characters potential is very high.

Mena already an Oscar winner.

Although the movie suffer from bad scenes, camera position, lighting & decoration.

At a lot of scenes you see camera tilted 15 degree and in the next shot it's aligned but then back tilted.

Decoration is very home set. CG is very poor. There is nothing related to Newyork in this movie.

Script is very shallow. That even the most predicted phrases is not said completed.

All other characters are not worthy of rule in school play. To much facial expressions, childish acts.

This kind of movies u watch by mistake at Netflix or "in my case" due to my wife choice 🤣

In the beginning it wasn't too bad. The characters seemed interesting, and I love the actress that plays the older staff member.

However the last 30 minutes of the movie made absolutely NO sense to me! The entire time Mena Massud's character was pining after the female lead, all while she pays him no mind because she is trying to sell the hotel, then out of nowhere she has feelings for him??

I got the impression that the housekeeper secretly admired the other chef, at least that's the way it came across, so when he's on one knee proposing, it made absolutely NO sense!

The only characters that has some sort of buildup to their coupling was the older couple and the guy that lost his dog.

I went from wanting to keep this one saved in my PVR to wanting it to be over so I could delete it! Just so silly!

If you're looking for a movie that uses every used up repeated joke from other movies and extreme over acting then this is your cup of tea.

The writers jokes fell way below the line and this was way too impractical. Christmas decorations on a roof where a fire escape is? Or decorations all through stairs that are never used and only for random deliveries?

If you manage to watch past the security bag inspecting the prince who's not a prince bag of nuts you have watched way too much and in fact, every thing you think happens, happens.

Terrible one liners after terrible one liners. Amazon prime should be paying me to watch and waste those minutes of my life I'll never get back.