Every Christmas I submerge myself into as many Christmas movies as I can pack in. Last year I stumbled onto the horrors of ABC Family's Christmas movies and I was hooked. Every cheesy moment, every old teen star, the insanely cute and sweet movies that won me over. On Netflix I stumbled across this little gem (which I don't believe is ABC Family) but it might as well be. It looked like the perfect cheesy sweet Christmas movie so off I went. I kept thinking how truly awful the acting was (and I still stand by that), the movie is sugary sweet, barely slapped together, and yet somehow still manages to make you smile at least twice and end up not being all that bad. It isn't good...don't get me wrong. I wouldn't even say it was remotely as good as half the stuff on ABC Family for Christmas but I'll be darned if it hit the spot for cutesy Christmas fluff. I was actually surprised at how many IMDb reviewers really enjoyed it and also knew of the story beforehand. Apparently there is potentially even a sequel in the works? I imagine the demographic for the film is young girls and it is appropriate enough for them or for the whole family. Its cute and fun and as long as you go in with the proper expectations you can't help but enjoy it in all its campy glory.
The film will unfortunately do nothing for this cast's career. There isn't one performance I can say was truly good. Watching Katie McGrath act in this is almost excruciating. If the film wasn't so sugary sweet she would be atrocious but instead somehow you warm up to her and she is so naive looking that her bad acting works for this for some reason. I do enjoy that they went out of their way to find a famous face and icon to play the grandfather and that is Roger Moore. Moore does a solid job, probably ironically the least campy of the cast. His character could be interesting in a sort of Captain VonTrapp sort of way. He is emotionally distraught over the loss of his son, he is an aristocrat who looks down on people, and he survived a near death experience himself so he has a lot of growing and learning to do and its cute and they sort of rush the whole process but he does very well. Sam Heughan is our Prince and the object of McGrath's affections. He is decent but way underplayed considering he is the romantic lead. He stands there, smiles, has a few decent lines but nothing that stands out. The chemistry between them is decent (thank goodness) but he should have had more character given to him. The two children are played by Travis Turner and Leilah de Meza. Turner seems so awkward in the role. I'm certainly not meaning to be cruel to this young actor but he looks funny, talks funny and over plays certain scenes. He did an okay job but he didn't seem to fit the part somehow. de Meza though was excellent for a young actress with a fairly small part. She will literally melt your heart with her few lines and she is appropriately adorable...if that's a talent than she has it nailed. Charlotte Salt is completely underused and misused as a potential villain. I felt like she had ten minutes of screen time and a Disney film would have made her the "mean girl" and made it memorable!!
The movie is cute. It also wasn't made for my demographic so I'm being harsher on it than I should. Kids and family will likely enjoy it. It had some good physical comedy (which I am a huge fan of), a sweet romance and it did try its best to centre itself around Christmas though I felt like that was forced in a lot of ways. Director Michael Damian comes from Television and from a Soap in particular so it kind of shows in the melodramatic style of this little Christmas special. It certainly isn't anything that would become a permanent staple in my Holiday viewing but it was cute. 6/10
The film will unfortunately do nothing for this cast's career. There isn't one performance I can say was truly good. Watching Katie McGrath act in this is almost excruciating. If the film wasn't so sugary sweet she would be atrocious but instead somehow you warm up to her and she is so naive looking that her bad acting works for this for some reason. I do enjoy that they went out of their way to find a famous face and icon to play the grandfather and that is Roger Moore. Moore does a solid job, probably ironically the least campy of the cast. His character could be interesting in a sort of Captain VonTrapp sort of way. He is emotionally distraught over the loss of his son, he is an aristocrat who looks down on people, and he survived a near death experience himself so he has a lot of growing and learning to do and its cute and they sort of rush the whole process but he does very well. Sam Heughan is our Prince and the object of McGrath's affections. He is decent but way underplayed considering he is the romantic lead. He stands there, smiles, has a few decent lines but nothing that stands out. The chemistry between them is decent (thank goodness) but he should have had more character given to him. The two children are played by Travis Turner and Leilah de Meza. Turner seems so awkward in the role. I'm certainly not meaning to be cruel to this young actor but he looks funny, talks funny and over plays certain scenes. He did an okay job but he didn't seem to fit the part somehow. de Meza though was excellent for a young actress with a fairly small part. She will literally melt your heart with her few lines and she is appropriately adorable...if that's a talent than she has it nailed. Charlotte Salt is completely underused and misused as a potential villain. I felt like she had ten minutes of screen time and a Disney film would have made her the "mean girl" and made it memorable!!
The movie is cute. It also wasn't made for my demographic so I'm being harsher on it than I should. Kids and family will likely enjoy it. It had some good physical comedy (which I am a huge fan of), a sweet romance and it did try its best to centre itself around Christmas though I felt like that was forced in a lot of ways. Director Michael Damian comes from Television and from a Soap in particular so it kind of shows in the melodramatic style of this little Christmas special. It certainly isn't anything that would become a permanent staple in my Holiday viewing but it was cute. 6/10