User Reviews

The actors in this movie were so awkward especially the two main characters. There was no real chemistry. The movie seemed very choppy and seems like a bunch of people from a local community theater trying to throw together some amateur movie. The Christmas decorations were a joke and looked like they came from Dollar Tree. I can't believe the main character Merry got paid 12,000 for hanging up a few crappy garlands and pre-made bows. It's a sweet storyline and it could have been much better but overall it was embarrassing and awkward to watch. My husband came in to the living room to watch it with me and was laughing and saying how poorly acted it was. The part where Merry gets locked out of the house and falls asleep in the snow and her boss / love interest finds her and puts her in bed instead of calling 911 when she could have died from hypothermia. That part was super awkward.

How bad is 2021's Deck the Heart? Let me put it this way, how bad is a hurricane? Bad, catastrophic. "Deck" is a holiday movie but it doesn't feel enough like one. Perhaps it's the budget, perhaps it's the vexatious, drawn-out scenes of people conversing, perhaps it's the sometimes creepy non-Xmas music inserted during pivotal moments. Perhaps as to say, feasibly.

So yeah, Deck the Heart has its "heart" in the right place (ha-ha). I mean the film has good intentions. You know, celebrating Christmas, having it as a time of giving, celebrating family, blah blah blah. That's not the problem here. The problem is how it's made, all misguiding and "Don't Stand So Close to Me"-like.

The romantic leads in "Deck" are good-looking people but the male looks like a middle-ager while the female looks like a college student who is cramming for her doctorate exams. Yeah, non-computing. When they kiss at the end (this occurs in all the Hallmark Xmas flicks), it almost looks criminal, like it was a dare or something. Yup, no mistletoe is gonna help this situation.

Taking place in Maine and showing snow one day and then showing no snow the next (uh-huh), Deck the Heart is about a NYC businessman who inherits his late grandfather's house. According to his grandfather's wishes, he must host Christmas there for his family. The rub: he decides to hire a party planner to do it with a budget of $12,000 (wha?? Could've fooled me based on the end results).

Joe Kurak plays said businessman Chris Ackerman while Ashley Brinkman plays said party planner Meredith Block (or Merry because well, you know why). Chris and Merry eventually fall in love (duh) but their scenes together and their dialogue exchanges are about as stiff as a glass of Maker's Mark neat. It's not easy to watch. I mean did "Deck's" director (Candice T. Cain) tell them to walk and talk like zombies because it sure seemed that way to me. I've heard of actors trying to hit their marks but I've never seen it to be so axiomatic. Ugh.

Like I said in the second paragraph, Deck the Heart has aspirations of what it wants to achieve. It wants you to feel those warm fuzzies while sipping the almighty eggnog. Too bad we've got a student film situation brewing here that appears like it was submitted at some festival in Podunk, Vermont. If helmer Cain knew where to put the camera, knew how to shoot a close-up, or knew how to squeeze performances out of everyone, Deck the Heart might've actually worked. What I saw on screen was way below the hard "deck".

The whole idea of the film seems good, but the acting is TERRIBLE! None of the actors had any chemistry and even the kiss at the end seems so forced its nowhere near believable.

From start to finish, the acting is so stiff, unnatural and amateurish. When she gets hypothermia, he should've called the emergency services and not just wrap her up in a few blankets. When she talks about the theme at the end and lights up the outside, you don't even get to see it. This film has the potential to be quite good, but everyone and everything needs replacing and to start over completely with actors who have more chemistry.

This is a great Christmas movie about a guy overwhelmed by planning his family's holiday festivities who hires an independent woman with an entrepreneurial spirit that runs her own event planning company. She decorates, plans, cooks and created the PERFECT Christmas for the guy and his family, so he, of course, falls head-over-heels for her. There are a few surprises in the story, but it's still warm and fuzzy and has that predictable "happily ever after" ending that we all look for in these kinds of movies.

Ashley Brinkman, Robert Picardo and Al Sapienza are the standouts of this film. I can watch it over and over again. Great little movie!! Highly recommend!

Yes, it's a Christmas movie filled with every cliché that you've ever heard of. Yes, it is horribly acted, and, the cinematography is all over the place. It's filled with B-roll that doesn't match the main story and it's obvious it was shot out of season.

What it does have is love.

I found "Deck the Heart" to be quite charming and fun while relaxing on the couch. The general story is pretty fun: in order for Chris Ackerman (Joe Kurak ) to receive his inheritance from his recently, deceased grandfather, will be loved and, his grandfather loves Christmas, Christmas must throw a wonderful Christmas party. To ensure this is done accurately, Chris's grandfather's best friend, who is a lawyer, will stop by to make sure that it's done perfect. However, he can't decorate!

In walks Meredith"Merry" Block (Ashley Brinkman, who frequently collaborates with writer/director Candice "Candy" Cain) to decorate!

Using old photos of grandfather's, previous Christmas decorations, she throws together a beautiful Christmas party that everybody approves of, especially the lawyer, and Chris gets his inheritance, and wins Merry's heart.

There are some trials and tribulations that go along the way, but, who cares? This is a very adorable and fun Christmas movie.

If any of this doesn't intrigue you then you're probably a Grinch who loves lumps of coal.

I have watched chtistmas movies 24/7 for 3 months now and have seen them all multiple times. This was by far the worst production I've ever seen, it was illogical, cheaply made, felt like it was filmed with a tripod half the time, super exposed, badly acted, not thought through and for her living with him decorating the house for weeks and it turns out looking like an empty house with a paper table cloth, no decorations and a single fairy light at a window I can't even believe this isn't satire, absolute joke of a movie, I had a great laugh but this can't be taken seriously as a movie, or anything at all. I don't usually say negative things but I can't think of a single positive and I'm yet to not love any other Christmas movie.

I love Christmas movies and I had high hopes for this one. However, my hopes received a lump of coal instead of a gift.

The script is basic and the soundtrack leaves much to be desired. There is a lot of dead air when no one is talking. The acting is stiff and the chemistry between the leads is awkward, at best. The set dressing is minimal and cheap looking considering the main character has a budget of $12K? However, my main question is why is the main course ham and why was the Jewish family eating it??? Also, when Merry is trapped outside and Chris finds her unconscious, why doesn't he call 911??

Sadlt, it's best to give this one a miss.

Strange interactions, completely pointless scenes. The male lead just walks around asking Merry if she needs help. He's supposed to be likeable ut comes off as a total creep. We're supposed to like him because he's some rich hotshot but still says "keep the change" at the café. Zero chemistry between the lead actors, and it's not because they're bad, but because they have NOTHING to work with with this terrible script. Every Candice T. Cain movie I've seen has this stale, amateurish dialogue. And the story? Merry works in this little house (that we're supposed to think is huge, by the way) for two weeks and still the work she has done by then could be done in a couple of hours. Ridiculous. The only reason I'm not giving it a 1 is because the female lead and especially her best friend are not bad actors - they just had to work with this cringeworthy script.

The worst Christmas movie I have ever watched! Awkward acting and no chemistry with the two lead actors. Terrible music which added nothing to this so called festive movie!

The storyline was basic with no twists or turns. The actors looked like they were forced to be there as no depth of feeling at all.

Merry (the lead actress) was locked out in the snow and almost froze to death and Chris (the lead male) just popped in her bed and hoped for the best 😂 no hospital or doctor was called. Just so unreal from beginning to end. No substance or feeling. Badly written and directed.

Not a heart warming festive movie by any means the best word to describe it would be awkward!

Where to start? The acting is terrible, even for the usual romantic Hallmark-type Christmas movie. The lines are stilted & painful to watch. Chris comes off as a stalker when he suddenly falls for her, hovers over her when she's recovering from the cold, invites her friend & all her family to Christmas, & flies in her parents just for dinner. And why wouldn't he, at the least, call a doctor? The boss is a nut job where he was singing Chris' praises for doing a remarkable job one minute & demanding he return to the office the next. The restaurant scene was a whole next level bad with the parents blaming Merry for their lack of closeness. The awful scene with the restaurant host making a big deal out of 4 people instead of 3 & pointing to coat check. It was almost comical! How much do poinsettias & a few bows cost? No way that "event" was worth $12K & the other decorations were cheap looking. There just isn't any chemistry between the actors so their romantic gestures just come off as weird & creepy. Their sudden love declaration at the very end was rushed & an odd way to end the movie.

Yes, I agree. The production values are not the best and the direction is certainly not the best. I had the impression and I may be wrong because I like these actors so much that they could have done a better job of acting if the direction had been better. But all in all, I really enjoyed this little movie. The young female lead did a really good job of acting in a lackluster environment and the young male lead, I felt was uneven in his performance but shows a propensity to improve immensely. I enjoyed the storyline especially the scene where Chris manages to heal estrangement in Meridith's family. All and all, I'm happy that I had the chance to see it,