At the time of this wrting, all the reivews of this movie are negative. While I think the criticisms were just I would recommend it to you to watch at least once.

I would agree on several things. First, the production values were lacking. Two, the plot was not really Christmas centric (this could have been a winter fest, spring fling, summer of fun, or fall harvest movie by simply mad libbing buzz words.

However, it had one thing most Hallmark Rom-Coms do not have. It had comedy. It was funny, with witty dialogue and situations. That carried the movie and made it stand out for me.

There was zero chemistry between anyone. It felt like a coloring book by the numbers. The lead actress is far too thin, and has obvious lip fillers. I try to avoid commenting on actors looks, unless it is distracting. The pretend boyfriend Ted, felt like a community theater actor at best. He could barely keep eye contact with other actors in their scenes. Oddly enough I found that when the main character was hanging out or seen on screen with the older " entertainment mogul", that was the only guy she actually fit as a couple! Those two were more believable than she was with the other two very half hearted love interests. There was something very unlush about this production. It felt cheap. I am not sure what exactly caused that, lighting? film quality? This did not feel like a Hallmark movie at all. It felt like something from ION or some off brand production company. I know Hallmark is taking movies from other places to fuflill their huge quota of Holiday movies, but I would rather see less movies of a better quality. Finally, this movie had zero Christmas spirit or heart, it was just flat. I did watch the entire movie. I will not review a movie unless I have seen the entire movie.

I don't know if it was the script or the casting that was at fault, but I just couldn't believe in any of this. I especially couldn't buy Chelsea Kane as "love expert" Joanna Moret. And some of the dialogue (especially George MacAllen's) was ridiculously unnatural.

This feels like something David Lynch was meant to direct -- or is it just that Gary Brennan reminds me of Jack Nance?