Who payed the critics

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

This story had good potential. Add one key element to the usual widow with a son breaks in the new boss plot-line. That element is that the son is in a wheelchair, injured in the accident that killed his dad. I also give this movie some small creativity points that Nick didn't come in trying to make Mia's life miserable by changing everything without asking.I thought the execution was choppy. I expected more from Hayie Duff. At times she was OK, but at other times she seemed clumsy in her role. I got tired of seeing her tilt her head down in her humility pose. And she was clumsy at times with Antonio Cupo. They didn't seem to have chemistry and it sure didn't seem like Mia wanted to give Nick a chance. Most of the courting going on seemed to be Nick courting Scott, not his mom. There just wasn't enough of Mia and Nick connecting.The company in trouble theme was also executed clumsily. (You don't leave your conference room door open when you are discussing ideas for cost cutting that affects employees.) On the other hand, there were definitely some good moments especially toward the end. But they seemed like items checked off on someone's list of plot devices. Overall though, I guess there were enough positives that I give this movie a thumbs up, but barely.

Another Hallmark Christmas movie but this one really is sub-par.Mia is a single mom of a disabled boy (Scotty ) and is also a manager in a small town Christmas hat shop, you know the ones that sell Santa hats for a $1. Do not let that small shop size fool you because behind it all is a big warehouse employing lots of staff and even a bigger management office.However selling seasonal hats has a downside, things are bad after Christmas and the lack of a web presence does not help. The company is in trouble. Nick has been called in from New York by his father who runs the ailing company to turn it around and he specialises in managing companies in trouble by cutting costs.Mia has to get Nick up to speed in the business and he takes an interest in her son Scotty helping him with a pumpkin carving contest and later a cart race.Mia is wary how genuine Nick is after all he has left a swanky lifestyle in New York where he is a business consultant and she fears the worst when she overhears plans to downsize the company and benefits.The trouble is this is just a predictable badly written schmaltzy story and the actors are just going through the motions. The film looks like it has just come off some of a conveyor belt with no love or effort put into it.

With the exciting title and the interesting previews, once again my imagination was expecting a really good Hallmark Christmas movie...but once again, I was very, very disappointed. I did not find anything likable about this movie...............Plot as I saw it: "Mia" believed that she was privy to suddenly becoming the manager of the failing business where she worked...but she quickly became disgruntled learning that the owner's competent son was going to manage it instead......."Mia" eventually became familiar with the son and changed her unfavorable attitude towards him. Why?.......... Because she saw personal, selfish gain in having a "relationship" with him.....From then on, she gave nothing more than a profound impression that she only wanted a "relationship" with the guy primarily for him to be a "big brother" and then probably be a father for her son......After all, her employment family health benefits might be discontinued!....With her repeated pouting, she practically demanded him to invest all of his free time in her son.........Every time she thought he was interested in another woman (an old friend) because he spent some time with her,..."Mia" instantly showed her disgruntled jealousy and possessiveness....as if he was not allowed to his life's choice.

Widowed Haylie Duff works at a small-town store where all they sell is Christmas-themed paraphernalia, all year round. When it turns out that sales are down for the last couple of years, her boss, whose immense office bespeaks the millions he has made off this venture over the years, parachutes his Wall-Street son, Antonio Cupo, over her. However, when he helps her wheelchair-bound son in a pumpkin-carving competition, things start to turn around in this ridiculously detailed but very watchable Hallmark romantic comedy.At least part of that is due to some very fine acting on the part of the leads. Neither of their characters wish to be in this situation and they behave in a way that bespeaks their dissatisfaction and professionalism -- pardon me if I think the actors felt this way about the movie and used that for their performances. Given the ridiculous assumptions as well as the obvious and cheap cries for sympathy in the script, this should have been one of the worst of the twelve Hallmark Christmas romcoms this year. Instead, it is surprisingly good.