Strong and Moving!

Lack of good storyline.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

The lead's curls were so distractingly badly styled, it was hard to focus on an otherwise cute film. How did the hair people let her walk out without finger combing those curls? She looked like a 13 year old girl who doesn't know better!

I'm not sure this actually contains a spoiler, but I figured better safe than sorry. There are some haters on this movie and I'm not sure why. One makes it clear he/she is a full-blown legitimate reviewer who reviews every holiday movie that ever comes out, and unlike some other, she/she is always (sic) fare, then proceeds to bash it to death. From the info provided on the profile, my guess is he takes this movie review stuff very, very seriously. Another thinks Rachel's eyes are 'scary'. That's funny because her eyes are one of the reasons I was so drawn to her character. She has the ability to say more with one look than most actresses can achieve with 10 pages of script. Yes, there are flaws. There are flaws in EVERY Hallmark seasonal movie. They churn them out like cars on an assembly line. They use many of the same actors, and they re-hash many of the same plots.... There are only so many ways to make a fall-out-of-love-fall-back-in-love-happy-ending movie, and the Hallmark Channel is as expert at all of them. Many of the same producers and writers are involved as well as many Canadian actors. (There are legal reasons for that involving tax incentives and labor cost reductions when either the director or one of the main actors is Canadian). The same movie produced in Hollywood would cost 4 times what it costs to produce them in Canada. Some are shot in the US, but not many. There are some out and out bad production choices. Mainly, for me, was Johnny arriving in town driving a 4 year old Ford Explorer. His character would have been driving a Porsche Cayenne or a Land Rover. Over all, it's a typical feel-good movie that leaves you, once again, believing in some kind of Christmas magic, even if you knew it was coming. His agent was rude, condescending, selfish and completely unlikable, and not knowing any Hollywood agents, I'm assuming the character was written that way because the writer knows many like that. Everybody else was pretty true to form. I like both of the main actors and look forward to watching something from both of them again. That's not always the case with some of the actors THC uses. There is one I will not watch, no matter who else is in it. Some are shot in July in Canada and the fake snow is really evident. You can tell the real ones when the breath is visible when they are speaking. I'd watch it again. In fact, I already have. Some are pleasant juvenile fare that only require one look. Others are really, really good... Christmas Cookies for one. The Magic Stocking for another. Christmas Cookies because Jill Wagner is a really very expressive actress. I've always liked her. (Remember "You've got to put Mercury on your list?"). She just looks like the kind of person you want to have a conversation with. The Magic Stocking because of Bridget Regan. She makes any movie she's in better. I feel the same way about Rachel in Marry Me at Christmas.

To be fair, I realized after the movie began that I had read the book it is based on, my first and last by Susan Mallery. It's probably hard to make a decent movie from a so-so genre novel, but they did try in their mediocre Hallmark way. Lots of fans love her series set in the town of Fool's Gold, so if you are a fan, go for it. After reading the book I was not a fan of this bland fare, and the romance-novel clichés clang like a tinny Christmas bell throughout the movie. Can't help but note that this is the same old Christmas cheese in a Hallmark fruitcake tin. Cheesy sets, cheesy Christmas decorations (the trees are always awful, but in this one we see cheesy Christmas wedding decorations too). Worst of all is that cheesy synthesizer music, and we're talking Velveeta here. It reminds me of the organ music they used in 1950s soap operas. This will be my only Hallmark movie this season. Last Christmas season I had time to binge on Hallmark Christmas movies, and it was a mistake. Blaugh! Too much cheese is never a good idea.

This has to be one of the worst Hallmark movies ever and there are a couple that are awful. There is practically no plot line, the acting is wooden and they must have used the lead's name Johnny well over 100 times like we couldn't work out who he was otherwise. Just horrible and it's 2 hours of my life I will never get back.