I agree with the consensus here that this Lifetime Christmas movie was below average. Both the acting and the story were difficult to connect with; they did not pull me in. I had to stop myself on several occasions from multitasking, which is never a good sign. The story here revolves around Blair (played by Brooke Burfitt), a New York sales manager with dreams of one day becoming a perfumer. She receives an anonymous Christmas gift, which is a bottle of perfume from Scotland, and convinces her boss that they should acquire it. She is then sent to the Highlands where she meets Alistair (our other protagonist in this story, played by Dan Jeannotte), a dashing Earl whose family owns the perfume she is after. The two soon discover that they not only have a passion for making perfume but also for each other. The writer here uses a very popular plot device to move the narrative forward: deception and mistaken identity. However, the rationale behind the deception was rather weak, I thought. The writer could have done a better job of setting this up and executing it in the scene where she first visits the perfumery (about 12 minutes into the movie). Or maybe the writer wanted us to think Blair was unorganized and incompetent. For example, she did not do her research before going to Scotland, as she would have known that the perfumery was owned by the Earl (and his family). There are several other similar examples in the script. That said, there were some fun/cute scenes in the movie. For example, I did enjoy the scene where the reindeer stole Blair's purse. And we did get a bit of a look under the hood of the perfumery, which I enjoyed as well. The acting, overall, was mediocre, I'm afraid. There were a number of scenes where the acting was, for the lack of a better word, 'awkward'. Brooke Burfitt's performance was rather lacking, I thought. She did have some good scenes, but too often her dialogue and exchanges seemed off (some reviews here have pointed to her timing and over performance as issues). Simply put, it was not a very convincing performance. What kept this film afloat was the performance of Dan Jeannotte; I suspect Good Witch fans will be happy to see him in this one. Though he also had some awkward scenes (e.g., at the bakery with the gingerbread house and when he spoke about his mother), overall, he had a pretty good performance. The chemistry between the two wasn't great; i.e., I didn't think they had much of it, which, of course, is not good for a romance film. The supporting cast was mixed. For example, I thought Nicholas Farrell (as the Duke, Alistair's father) had a strong performance. What was up with Caprice Bourret's portrayal of Blair's boss? It was terrible, over the top, I felt. Her entrance at the Christmas party/ball at the end was odd. Strange. Finally, the scenery, props, and sets were well-polished and festive. The castle and Scottish landscape were beautiful on screen. I enjoyed some of the dance scenes in the end as well. All in all, if you are a fan of Hallmark and Lifetime Christmas movies, you might enjoy this film, otherwise, you might want to pass on this one.
