Entertaining Christmas contains a new plot that is worlds better than most Hallmark plots - our leading lady Candace (Jodi Sweetin) is the daughter of a domestic media conglomerate Martha Stewart type named Liz Livingstone. This mostly works, except for the middle third of the movie. The love interest John (Brendan Fehr) is far superior to most Hallmark leading men, yet we get to see far too little of him and the need for him is questionable. Actually, the 'love story' is more of a forced sub-plot than anything and removing it all together would improve the movie drastically.
We find New York celebrity daughter Candice going to small town Vermont to help a little girl celebrate her dad's coming home from the army. The drama is that Candace can't cook, sew, or make a gingerbread house - even though the Livingstone Magazine says she can...Ut Oh! Poor Candace has to waffle around when the local townsfolk put the screws to her and demand she demonstrate her domestic skills. This is where the movie drags on and on. One scene of this was enough to prove the point, but hey we get like five of them.
Eventually some of the townsfolk figure out her little secret but kinda sorta not really. John happens to be both the uncle to the little girl that brought Candace to the town, and a local reporter. He spends most of his time writing a news article about Candace and we are led to believe he lets the cat out of the bag regarding Candace's homemaking skills. We aren't really sure what he writes because it is glossed over in the ending that all too quickly kinda sorta wraps up various plot lines. John has guts and tries to kiss Candace multiple times, but gosh darn he is foiled at the last minute every time. In fact, he is 0 for 3 until three minutes left on the DVR.
The town is 'Cedar Falls' which is a common town for many a Hallmark movie in 2018. Every time though each movie shows the town with different people and different diner restaurants. Actually, the last Hallmark movie that I watched that took place in 'Cedar Falls' had cut shots of downtown Toronto for establishing shots, but in Entertaining Christmas the town has shrunk to a tiny snow covered village. Cedar Falls must be a very special place.
All in all the acting was better in this than most Hallmark movies, with Jodie Sweetin coming across as highly believable (unlike Ashely Williams who is notorious for gregarious over-acting). Brendan Fehr is not bad as well, and the supporting characters of moms, aunts, and single elderly women are also well cast. I just wish this moving had some sort of wise old Grandpa figure - it was screaming for it. Come to think of it, since John had so little to do and made absolutely no sense, and the only dad in the movie was away in the army, replacing John with a Ben Kenobi type would do this movie well. Maybe next time...
We find New York celebrity daughter Candice going to small town Vermont to help a little girl celebrate her dad's coming home from the army. The drama is that Candace can't cook, sew, or make a gingerbread house - even though the Livingstone Magazine says she can...Ut Oh! Poor Candace has to waffle around when the local townsfolk put the screws to her and demand she demonstrate her domestic skills. This is where the movie drags on and on. One scene of this was enough to prove the point, but hey we get like five of them.
Eventually some of the townsfolk figure out her little secret but kinda sorta not really. John happens to be both the uncle to the little girl that brought Candace to the town, and a local reporter. He spends most of his time writing a news article about Candace and we are led to believe he lets the cat out of the bag regarding Candace's homemaking skills. We aren't really sure what he writes because it is glossed over in the ending that all too quickly kinda sorta wraps up various plot lines. John has guts and tries to kiss Candace multiple times, but gosh darn he is foiled at the last minute every time. In fact, he is 0 for 3 until three minutes left on the DVR.
The town is 'Cedar Falls' which is a common town for many a Hallmark movie in 2018. Every time though each movie shows the town with different people and different diner restaurants. Actually, the last Hallmark movie that I watched that took place in 'Cedar Falls' had cut shots of downtown Toronto for establishing shots, but in Entertaining Christmas the town has shrunk to a tiny snow covered village. Cedar Falls must be a very special place.
All in all the acting was better in this than most Hallmark movies, with Jodie Sweetin coming across as highly believable (unlike Ashely Williams who is notorious for gregarious over-acting). Brendan Fehr is not bad as well, and the supporting characters of moms, aunts, and single elderly women are also well cast. I just wish this moving had some sort of wise old Grandpa figure - it was screaming for it. Come to think of it, since John had so little to do and made absolutely no sense, and the only dad in the movie was away in the army, replacing John with a Ben Kenobi type would do this movie well. Maybe next time...