Flipping for Christmas

Marcus Rosner has become a solid lead at Hallmark, and Ashley Newbrough was in a very good Hallmark movie called "Small Town Christmas" with Kristoffer Polaha which, like many Hallmark movies, including this one, involves Big City developers trying to destroy the charm of a small town. And a flattering bikini shot of in her in her last Hallmark movie, Love in Glacier National Park, was apparently the first bikini shot of a lead ever seen in a Hallmark movie. The problem with this movie isn't the acting.

The movie starts with Abigail giving a pitch to a developer planning to break ground and start pre-sales on 100 units after the holidays. Abigail is apparently a "house flipper" and gives a generic speech about how her mom "loved interior design" and how she "provides families with beautiful homes, while always staying focused on profit and ROI." But none of that matters if she's going to be working as a realtor on pre-sales before the homes are even finished. Nevertheless, she shares her dad's quote that "you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when you're done" (it's a line that's used waaay too many times). That quote gets the developer's attention.

And Abigail's willingness to work "24/7" through the holidays is what convinces the developer to hire her to be his realtor. That's actually a BIG lucrative contract. But as soon as she gets the job, she leaves the city and goes home to help her brother in law fix up an old home he inherited from Grandpa Frank. When she gets there, she finds out that half of the property was left to a contractor named Bo who thought of Frank as a surrogate father.

Abigail (who has apparently decided NOT to work 24/7 through the holidays for the developer) agrees to work with Bo to spruce up the home despite an impasse on what to do with the home. Bo wants to turn it into a bed-and-breakfast and Abigail's sister and brother in law want to sell it, split the proceeds, and use the money to renovate their home to give Abigail's father a place to live. It's set up as one of the movie's Big Conflicts, but it's really a non issue. As any competent real property lawyer could explain, a court would order the property sold. Period.

Also, Bo has quite an attitude for someone who a) doesn't have the money to buy out his co-beneficiary and b) wasn't even related to Frank. And yet he dismisses Abigail's suggestions, pulls off her action item post it notes, and insists on changes designed to facilitate a bed-and-breakfast as opposed to a sale. Also, what exactly was his business plan for the bed-and-breakfast? Was he prepared to give up his work as a contractor? Who would run it with him? And did he understand he would have to share all of the profits with his co-beneficiary in the unlikely event they agreed not to sell?

Not only is he a dick at first, Bo inexplicably rolls paint across Abigail's sleeve in what I suppose the writer thought would be a "playful" moment. That and the ensuing paint war between two people who have literally just met, is supposed to seem "fun." It struck me as bad writing. But, remarkably, the stars still find a way to create some chemistry with each other despite a story line that fails to support a realistic connection between their two characters.

There are also more than a few good scenes. For example, I thought the scenes involving the remembrance tree were quite touching. I was also moved by a surprisingly emotional and well acted scene with Marcus Rosner, when his character reveals his back story and connection to Frank. Bo tells Abigail "Frank used to have this quote to help me see things more positively: 'don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened.'" It's a good quote, and though Bo attributes the line to Dr. Seuss, there is no written record of Dr. Seuss ever having said that. In 1899, German poet Ludwig Jacobowski wrote "Do not cry because they are past! Smile, because they once were!" Scholars regard that to be the earliest known version of the quote frequently misattributed to Dr. Seuss.

As much as I admired the acting, and a surprisingly creative ending, I couldn't buy into the premise that Abigail would suddenly abandon her business in the city (and her biggest client) to take on a renovation of an old home over an hour away as a favor to her sister and brother in law. And Bo's behavior towards Abigail in the beginning, and his insistence that the home be turned into a bed-and-breakfast without having the money to buy out the other beneficiary really bothered me. I was also stunned at the chutzpah of Abigail's assistant to contact the developer about a new issue without checking with Abigail first. And, assuming Bo was able to get his wish to run a bed-and-breakfast, and somehow convinced Abigail to stay in town with him, would that mean she would be giving up her entire successful business in the city? I hate when women give up successful and rewarding careers for a small town man they just met. And when did Abigail have the time to become a lawyer and look up obscure code sections? If she has the time to do that, she' should also probably review what it means for realtors to have a fiduciary duty to a client. She sure breached that duty.

So after watching this movie twice I have to say I still don't get it. There's no reason for the leads to like each other. There's no reason for the lead to even be there. The premise of the movie is missing. The sound track didn't always go with the dialog. Why does the female lead fall in love or even like her romantic interest? He is never nice to her. The story needed more. Why does a complete outsider have so much invested in a place she has nothing in the game? This review is all over the place because the movie is all over the place. I can't say it was time well spent to watch it twice so maybe this is a movie you can miss.

Don't let the title mislead you on this one. If you like Hallmark movies to witness a developing romance, you may enjoy this. It's really a traditional "opposites-attract", and, fortunately, they cast (and focused on) two Hallmark veterans, Ashley Newbrough (Abigail) and Marcus Rosner (Bo), both very attractive, onscreen. Marcus Rosner has earned a good reputation as an antagonist, and plays it well against Ashley's character, Abigail. She is a career-driven, big-city woman, and Bo, is a small-town craftsman, still reeling from a divorce from a young romance, making him a little disdained with the assertive Abigail. They clash over a house, that Bo partially owns and has an emotional attachment to, because his recently deceased guardian, Frank, had lived there for years. Abigail wants to rennovate it, only to "flip" for profit. They compromise, and decide to improve the home to decide the outcome, later. There may have needed to be some "filler" time, here, as a few script-free scenes were playful banter between Bo and Abigail, a paint and snowball fight. But, considering that Bo hadn't restarted mingling, and married too young, it isn't shocking he would "break the ice" (no pun intended) this way. Their relationship starts to warm as Abigail begins to admire Bo's heart - she sees his creativity (and taste) in finishing the home decor, without her opinion (hand-crafted), and his unselfish soul - he donates his time and talents to the community. Her heart begins to open and she empathizes for the town, when she realizes she inadvertently enabled her entrepreneur connections to develop the town. By movie's end, there relationship has believably evolved into a blooming romance. This is why I'd rate this a 6-star. In many of this season's releases, "Never Been Chris'd and "The Santa Summit", ie., there's no screentime devoted to evolve the characters beyond attraction. Your left being apathetic about the characters. I could easily have bumped my rating to a seven-star, but the screenplay, (ie. Background musical score), and most of the supporting-cast, was overly enthusiastic, which made the early scenes somewhat corny...

Marcus Rosner is always cute. Very handsome.

Scott Yamamura is a good actor.

There's absolutely no transition from the bickering and disagreeing between them to the flirting. Like, what the heck happened? They can't just suddenly become different characters. There has to be some sort of getting there. Did not enjoy their story.

They have a paint fight AND a snowball fight? That's too much. Whoever wrote this should have been a little more creative with the flirting.

Ashley Newbrough does a good job portraying grief at the Christmas tree when she writes Mom on the ornament.

The main actors' attempt at chemistry is over the top and obnoxious. It would have been better if they were a little bit more natural about it

The father's advice conversation was kind of weird and all over the place. Wasn't into it. It could have easily been better written.

The scene in the back of the truck with three pillows was too over the top. Looks like he's about to freaking propose to her. But he just happened to whip that together for a business dinner? Get out of here.

Some hallmark movies have gotten better about having drama and misunderstandings that are a bit more believable. This one is one of the ones that still struggles to have a fight between the characters that is believable. She told him it was a innocent thing she did and he gets all bent out of shape. It's just too much. The fights need to be a bit more believable.

I love how this sister is folding laundry in a scene. That is just so real and relatable. Often these houses are just so spic and span and look like they're not lived in. So that was a nice small touch.

Overall, meh.

Abigail is tasked by her sister to "flip" a house his husband half inherited and sell it, there she meets Bo, who inherited the other half of the property. Problem is both have different intentions about what to do with the house and Abigail somehow has to fix that.

First things first, I'm now finding out Ashley characters is names Abigail. Secondly I still don't understand if she is a realtor or an interior designer and why has her sister asked this of her. The only thing we see her doing is painting the house, which I believe, as an interior designer, you have someone else do.

So, the plot is not the best. Some things at the beginning are simply dumb. (And some at the end too, they fixed the problem of the house because they "fell in love"?) However, as the movie moves along, some things do make sense. Personally, I really liked the leads conversation about grieving someone and how it affects us, going through that myself. Things start to make sense then, it's like they bonded over that.

I thought they had great chemistry. At least, there was good banter. The actors made this kind of salvageable.

Remember when Marcus Rosner used to play the main character's ambitious ex boyfriend who would show up to propose only after she moved on? I'm so happy he gets to shine as a leading man.

Anyway, I had big hopes for this one and was disappointed.