This was a fairly enjoyable movie. Was it cookie-cutter? Definitely. It's an amalgamation of two familiar tropes, namely, big city girl comes back to her home for Christmas and helps with a Christmas show, and famous star connects with an ordinary person. In this case, the star and the ordinary girl already knew each other from high school, so she is not exactly wowed by his celebrity, especially since she was the high-school popular girl, while he was the high-school nerd. All the cliches were there, but they were combined in a configuration that made for a reasonably entertaining movie.
Brooke D' Orsay as Cassie was great. She's always wonderful in whatever she appears in. She's warm and engaging, and beautiful, of course. Kristoffer Polaha as big Hollywood actor Jake was okay. He seemed a bit wooden at times, but I think that's because that's how he's supposed to be, as a guy known best as an action star. It was fun seeing him go from playing Ebenezer Scrooge as Vin Diesel to playing him with more heart and emotion.
I liked the character arc of Jake, who at first seemed like the typical, egotistical Hollywood star. However, once you got to know him, you realized that he was a bit of a tortured soul, who wanted to make things right with his semi-estranged family, but didn't know how. I liked that family dynamic better than the romance between Jake and Cassie, which I thought was a little flat. I mean, it was okay, but nothing spectacular.
So, this was a film that was mostly fun and entertaining. Another feel-good Hallmark movie to add to the shelf. Nothing too outstanding or out of the ordinary, however.
Brooke D' Orsay as Cassie was great. She's always wonderful in whatever she appears in. She's warm and engaging, and beautiful, of course. Kristoffer Polaha as big Hollywood actor Jake was okay. He seemed a bit wooden at times, but I think that's because that's how he's supposed to be, as a guy known best as an action star. It was fun seeing him go from playing Ebenezer Scrooge as Vin Diesel to playing him with more heart and emotion.
I liked the character arc of Jake, who at first seemed like the typical, egotistical Hollywood star. However, once you got to know him, you realized that he was a bit of a tortured soul, who wanted to make things right with his semi-estranged family, but didn't know how. I liked that family dynamic better than the romance between Jake and Cassie, which I thought was a little flat. I mean, it was okay, but nothing spectacular.
So, this was a film that was mostly fun and entertaining. Another feel-good Hallmark movie to add to the shelf. Nothing too outstanding or out of the ordinary, however.