The movie gets off to a horrible start. The acting of almost everyone involved seems like the actors are trying too hard to deliver their lines. The dialogue is a combination of bland and stupid. The whole thing feels like hearing fingernails on a chalk board.
Either the acting got better or I got immune to it, because I stuck with it and I stopped noticing these problems.
The story is mostly predictable. The leads, Harper and Luke are thrown together for almost all of the screen time by a quest to find "magic mistletoe" from Harper's family's legend. Harper is pretty much a grinch, and not at all likeable for the early part of the movie. Being a "scientist" she doesn't believe in magic. It was unconvincing to me why she would spend so much effort for the mistletoe when she hates Christmas. Meanwhile Luke loves it. So you'll never guess what happens with Harper and Luke. OK, yes you will. The story has no great highs or lows, or surprises. Other than the lost mistletoe, and Harper's current absentee boyfriend, there is no tension. The conflict before the climax is even weak.
Jessica Sipos and Stephen Huszar, who as leads, dominate the story despite this website's cast listing showing them way down the list and it lists minor players as the stars. These two leads begin to generate some chemistry fairly late in the movie. Sipos' Harper isn't just uninterested at first, but she is rude and arrogant with Luke. Of course this changes, but I thought it was put off too late into the movie.
There are efforts at humor through exaggeration and silliness which fell flat for me. I did like a musical montage with Sipos trying on different outfits, including some Christmas theme costumes, mostly because she was dancing to the background music in a flirty way.
Either the acting got better or I got immune to it, because I stuck with it and I stopped noticing these problems.
The story is mostly predictable. The leads, Harper and Luke are thrown together for almost all of the screen time by a quest to find "magic mistletoe" from Harper's family's legend. Harper is pretty much a grinch, and not at all likeable for the early part of the movie. Being a "scientist" she doesn't believe in magic. It was unconvincing to me why she would spend so much effort for the mistletoe when she hates Christmas. Meanwhile Luke loves it. So you'll never guess what happens with Harper and Luke. OK, yes you will. The story has no great highs or lows, or surprises. Other than the lost mistletoe, and Harper's current absentee boyfriend, there is no tension. The conflict before the climax is even weak.
Jessica Sipos and Stephen Huszar, who as leads, dominate the story despite this website's cast listing showing them way down the list and it lists minor players as the stars. These two leads begin to generate some chemistry fairly late in the movie. Sipos' Harper isn't just uninterested at first, but she is rude and arrogant with Luke. Of course this changes, but I thought it was put off too late into the movie.
There are efforts at humor through exaggeration and silliness which fell flat for me. I did like a musical montage with Sipos trying on different outfits, including some Christmas theme costumes, mostly because she was dancing to the background music in a flirty way.