I wanted to like this movie, and I did like the heroine, played by Canadian vocalist and child actress Carly McKillip. She and her real-life sister, Britt McKillip (think "My Little Pony") play sisters who get back in touch after a long estrangement, spurred by their parents' separation.
In theory this is a moving tale of family reconciliation. In practice, it tried to do too much with too little, at least on the head of the lead character. Carly gave it a valiant effort, but there was very little story in her character; even for a more experienced actress to work with. This is an okay-enough, even dull, girl's attempt at bringing her family together, without much in the way of struggle or more effort than talking to a stranger (eye-candy Ben Hollingsworth) who is only too happy to make her acquaintance and agree to everything she asks.
It's a bad sign when the subsidiary characters are given deep, meaningful problems that cry out to be tackled head-on and overcome, and then those problems are simply ignored for the rest of the movie in favour of our dull girl's dull journey toward a foregone conclusion.
All that negativity aside, the romance was sweet and developed gradually. The movie sets have pretty holiday decorations that mostly look normal family scale. And there's some singing, though not of well-known carols for a change. The backdrop, of BC mountains masquerading as Oregonian ones, is lovely to look at although the weather is suspiciously low-snow for a mountain town coming up on Christmas.
If you are playing board games or wrapping presents and want some background holiday themed TV, this is fine. But even a holiday movie fanatic like me wouldn't seek it out again on purpose.
In theory this is a moving tale of family reconciliation. In practice, it tried to do too much with too little, at least on the head of the lead character. Carly gave it a valiant effort, but there was very little story in her character; even for a more experienced actress to work with. This is an okay-enough, even dull, girl's attempt at bringing her family together, without much in the way of struggle or more effort than talking to a stranger (eye-candy Ben Hollingsworth) who is only too happy to make her acquaintance and agree to everything she asks.
It's a bad sign when the subsidiary characters are given deep, meaningful problems that cry out to be tackled head-on and overcome, and then those problems are simply ignored for the rest of the movie in favour of our dull girl's dull journey toward a foregone conclusion.
All that negativity aside, the romance was sweet and developed gradually. The movie sets have pretty holiday decorations that mostly look normal family scale. And there's some singing, though not of well-known carols for a change. The backdrop, of BC mountains masquerading as Oregonian ones, is lovely to look at although the weather is suspiciously low-snow for a mountain town coming up on Christmas.
If you are playing board games or wrapping presents and want some background holiday themed TV, this is fine. But even a holiday movie fanatic like me wouldn't seek it out again on purpose.