Il était deux fois Noël

Who needs all those bells and whistles when the cocoa is sourced ethically. Umm. Is that really a line?! So in the hometown storyline she goes home and wants plain hot chocolate because the city girl stays away from sugar. But I'm the Chicago timeline the Chicago girl rolls her eyes to the plain hot chocolate?!

This is one example of some of The inconsistencies in this movie. It's a bit confusing of a timeline and how things are happening.

I think the casting was good. I like all of them. I think it's the script and direction they're working with that just isn't working for me on this one.

I was looking forward to this one but it meh falls flat.

I thought it would be a ground hog, family man, it'sa wonderful life style plot.

It's not. The concept almost made me not even want to watch it, but I did. Two tales, two different timelines, two different mains. All happening at the same time.... Or something. So weird.

Didn't love it. The main character played the role well, and the couple had some chemistry, but I think the screenwriter could've used some help .

Also, Candy canes dissolve in water. It's not gum.

They Did NOT need to cut off her hair...🙄 if they wanted a reason for a makeover, they could've at least used some red and green gum in her hair.

This is one of those movies that starts off with an interesting premise, bounces around in confusion, and just takes an agonizingly long time to wrap up. It manages to hit the point of no return, where you might feel you've already invested (wasted?) sufficient time to justify sitting through the inevitable. Your reward is the slow, inexorable (excruciating?) suction into its sappy, sloppy, conclusion where our protagonist chooses to surrender her career to a drama king "for love".

If you're in the privacy of home, you're inclined to yell at the TV in frustration.

And for a rom-com, it's not that funny. I gave it a 4 because the leads really did try to make the best of a rat's nest haircut.

Speaking of which, for gawd's sake, you get a candy cane out of your luxurious hair with hot water, not by having your meddling, inept, yakkity-yak MOTHER hack it out with kitchen shears!

I don't understand why so many are confused by or stymied by the dual timeline but I have my suspicions.

The key to which reality she's in at any given time is even minor attention to the detail of what she's wearing. The split screen at the start gives a big clue- in one reality she's wearing a winter white coat while in the other she's wearing a bright white coat. I won't even enumerate the many others.

The movie was cute and I didn't hate it but it was another mediocre Hallmark by the numbers romance they work into everything (over-achieving, over-dressed women, frequent , very long commercial breaks, etc.) complete with the picture perfect ending.

If only we all had these problems...two sweet and attractive guys like you and your successful at your job and have a loving family to go home to.

Emma (Katherine Barrell) is a beautiful successful architect living in the city, but heading home for Christmas...or at least she is supposed to. This is where the story splits, in one scenario she makes her flight home and gets to enjoy Christmas with her family and the sweet boy next door and in the other she misses her flight and ends up spending Christmas Eve in the city with a dreamy lawyer who works in her building.

Honestly, I get why it ends the way it does...but I kind of liked the dreamy lawyer Max played by Evan Roderick. It was nice not to have any villains in this split scenario.

It was kind of a middle of the road holiday romance, but slightly different than the usual Hallmark fare...so maybe worth a watch.