Lack of good storyline.

Crappy film

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

I love a cheesy Christmas movie. I collect them on DVD and watch all of them every year along with family and friends. I even enjoy many Hallmark movies. I bought this one last year and was looking forward to seeing it, but this was unwatchable. And let me just say that my standards for Christmas movies are very low.The "Morlvera" review hit this on the head. The characters were so sad. Most of the people I know who live in the country, farm and hunt, would be offended by the way they are portrayed in this movie. The characters are charmless, rude and celebrate ignorance.I wanted to enjoy this, but I found the stereotypes offensive. There was no character in this movie who was believable enough to care about. I'm glad to know there was a happy ending, but 10 minutes into the movie, I just didn't care. One reviewer complained that there was too much emphasis on the acting. I didn't even notice the acting for the very poor script.Simple, old-fashioned and cliché are all fine with me, especially at Christmas. Even so, I don't think it's too much to ask for a screen play that is at least professional. I have seen original church Christmas plays with better character development and a more nuanced story line. I think a Christmas movie should do one or more of three things:1)make me feel warm and fuzzy, 2)make me laugh,or 3)make me think. This movie did none of those things.

OK, it's just a Hallmark movie, I shouldn't take it too seriously and a lot of the production crew will be on autopilot, but I wanted more nuance than this. I'm a little surprised at some of the "pro family" reviews as well. The main theme seemed to be "be as obnoxious to your unfamiliar guests as possible and maybe your daughter will marry someone like you".This hardly seems the stuff of Christmas sentiment (unless you count The Grinch). I just couldn't buy into the bigoted hick stereotype as being gruff but lovable, just unpleasant. The daughter's role seemed to consist of smiling weakly while her boyfriend was metaphorically spat on from all sides. If the roles were reversed and the boyfriend's parents made her take ice cold baths every morning and strip naked to serve drinks to their society friends, somehow the family friendly motif would be put into sharp relief. Everybody's family could be this loathsome to strangers if they really tried, but why would you celebrate it? Why would you reward their climb from boorish vindictiveness to grudging acceptance as attaining a state of grace and forgiveness? I know that TV movies tend to have broad-brush plot lines with little room for subtlety, but the creative contempt and continuous humiliation that the daughter's family put him through just irritates after a while and is too obviously there simply to hang the sub-plots from. No one would keep putting up with this level of abuse with little or no help from their partner and the unreality reminds you that this is just a product. You can't lose yourself in something this caricatured.

Every Christmas my wife and I make a point to watch as many Hallmark, Lifetime and ABC Family holiday movies as possible. We have sat through a lot of dreck and truly painful, endless, tiresome TV movies. This came as a genuine surprise. As much as I've come to expect the hokey, predictable story lines and cliché characters, this movie doesn't exactly break from all that completely, but I was impressed by how entertained I was. Here are some of the reasons: (1) This takes place in real central California locations, not a Canadian city or town pretending to be "Christmastown, Anywhere." (It's usually part of the fun guessing if the locale is Ontario or BC, and here it's actually where it's pointed out to be, which is unique.) (2) There are three or four comic lines of dialogue that made me laugh, even howl, out loud (with the movie, not at it, which is also unique). (3) Gammon's performance as the dad; he has made a career out of this type of character and he is spot on. Actually, all the actors do a great job with their roles; even the contemptible ex-boyfriend is done so well he's actually enjoyable. Jason London is perfect. (4) I was able to sympathize with both the "city boy's" situations and "country folk's" reactions to him. (5) There are a couple of animals (vicious dog and wild horse) whose depictions are very well handled and convincing. (6) What starts out as a probable "Meet the Parents" rip-off goes instead in its own direction to tell a different story. (7) Though it is predictable, the reconciliation between father and daughter (in the shadow of her late mother's memory) is handled so well that it actually brought a tear to my eye (something NONE of these TV movies has EVER accomplished). Yes, there are a couple of lame elements: blatant product placement for Kay jewelers, a tree-lighting ceremony that takes place in daylight, three brother characters that aren't developed, and a career/life decision the protagonist makes at the end that isn't too believable. But the joys far outweigh the problems. I wasn't expecting to enjoy it nearly that much.

Weak and predictable. I love the Sierra Nevada's so I continued to watch so I could see the Mountains and Mt. Whitney in some background scenes. The movie was kinda bad though. "Dad's" acting was horrible and so was Sadies. It got old fast because it was not believable at all. The night in the cave was useless and added no benefit to the film at all. Come on - Ranchers come home and unsaddle their horses and they don't notice the only horse left behind is gone - with a house guest also missing but his car is still there..And she calls and leaves him a message at this apt...Just hooky and corny. A sequel - I sure hope not. Again, the mountains were the best part of the picture! Absolutely beautiful.