I will allow that the story is not a rehash of all the other Christmas movie plots. There are several common plot devices, but the basic story is not the usual.
But the story was clumsy and shallow. Lucas complains that Robin painted him shallow but he was. Poor rich playboy. It was obvious before he got out of the car that he was hunting her like a prize. And he used his position to blackmail her into spending time with him. Even her boss recognizes it. I never trusted him but at this point I didn't realize the half of it.
The couple got too deep too fast and I never bought it. There were a couple of montages that were way too perky. The pictures with Santa scene was ridiculous. There is almost no relationship building shown at the start other than a couple of overly personal conversations taking place way before real people would have had them. Clumsy. There were no middle of the road personal conversations. Bing, bang, boom, they were in love. Then after they had more or less seemingly cemented the relationship, we see them spending the time together that would normally be used in most romance movies to build the relationship in the first place. But even those were short relative to the whole movie.
The confrontation scene about Gerald Fortune is also clumsy. Lucas is all "anything for you" until Robin brings it up and then he goes nuclear and blames her for it all. Then it's like "get lost". Run Robin, run. The gist of the scene might have been somewhat realistic, but the way it was written was not. And it only magnifies how shallow their "love" relationship was to that point. I don't know why she loved him, but I don't question that a fraction as much as I question his commitment.
Of course there was a convenient explanation which allowed reconciliation. It gives Lucas an excuse for how he acted and even though he apologizes, he never would have without it. Even after his first attempts at apology, Lucas seems more like a manipulator than sincere. Even when he is trying to reconcile with her and apologize, he blackmails her over her job again and then again manipulates by bringing up the color purple as some kind of proof he knows the real her.. Again I say, run Robin, run. I give this relationship a month after they finish the campaign, maybe even before they finish it.
Then for her to agree on the spot. Unbelievable. Clumsy. It doesn't fit the scene to that point.
It's hard to tell if the acting is any good because of the clumsy way the story develops. I wasn't impressed with either of the leads other than their physical beauty. Dalton does look good enough to be a professional model.
Literally half the movie took place before they got to Paris. I see what another reviewer said about buildings being too white. They look they were whitewashed in editing. I compared to pictures I have and nothing in my pictures was that white. Then with 20 minutes (commercial run time) left, they are back in Montana. And Christmas is just a convenient backdrop to the story, not part of it.
There are a few nice scenes along the Seine.
UpTV is about life lessons. Frankly I'm not sure what that was in this movie. Obviously family is part of it but it fell flat given Lucas' manipulating.
As the movie was going on, I was ready to rate this 4 or 5 stars a little over half way through. But after that, my thinking was steadily revised downward. And most of that is due to the story, and Lucas' character.
But the story was clumsy and shallow. Lucas complains that Robin painted him shallow but he was. Poor rich playboy. It was obvious before he got out of the car that he was hunting her like a prize. And he used his position to blackmail her into spending time with him. Even her boss recognizes it. I never trusted him but at this point I didn't realize the half of it.
The couple got too deep too fast and I never bought it. There were a couple of montages that were way too perky. The pictures with Santa scene was ridiculous. There is almost no relationship building shown at the start other than a couple of overly personal conversations taking place way before real people would have had them. Clumsy. There were no middle of the road personal conversations. Bing, bang, boom, they were in love. Then after they had more or less seemingly cemented the relationship, we see them spending the time together that would normally be used in most romance movies to build the relationship in the first place. But even those were short relative to the whole movie.
The confrontation scene about Gerald Fortune is also clumsy. Lucas is all "anything for you" until Robin brings it up and then he goes nuclear and blames her for it all. Then it's like "get lost". Run Robin, run. The gist of the scene might have been somewhat realistic, but the way it was written was not. And it only magnifies how shallow their "love" relationship was to that point. I don't know why she loved him, but I don't question that a fraction as much as I question his commitment.
Of course there was a convenient explanation which allowed reconciliation. It gives Lucas an excuse for how he acted and even though he apologizes, he never would have without it. Even after his first attempts at apology, Lucas seems more like a manipulator than sincere. Even when he is trying to reconcile with her and apologize, he blackmails her over her job again and then again manipulates by bringing up the color purple as some kind of proof he knows the real her.. Again I say, run Robin, run. I give this relationship a month after they finish the campaign, maybe even before they finish it.
Then for her to agree on the spot. Unbelievable. Clumsy. It doesn't fit the scene to that point.
It's hard to tell if the acting is any good because of the clumsy way the story develops. I wasn't impressed with either of the leads other than their physical beauty. Dalton does look good enough to be a professional model.
Literally half the movie took place before they got to Paris. I see what another reviewer said about buildings being too white. They look they were whitewashed in editing. I compared to pictures I have and nothing in my pictures was that white. Then with 20 minutes (commercial run time) left, they are back in Montana. And Christmas is just a convenient backdrop to the story, not part of it.
There are a few nice scenes along the Seine.
UpTV is about life lessons. Frankly I'm not sure what that was in this movie. Obviously family is part of it but it fell flat given Lucas' manipulating.
As the movie was going on, I was ready to rate this 4 or 5 stars a little over half way through. But after that, my thinking was steadily revised downward. And most of that is due to the story, and Lucas' character.