Dolly Parton's Christmas on the Square

It's embarrassing, cringy, sickly sweet, unoriginal, but, God help me, I do like this film. It's not going to win any awards, and I'd definitely change the channel if someone walked in and caught me watching it, but it's adorable and uplifting with a positive message. It's the sort of film where you get the impression that the only thing the creators wanted to achieve was to put a smile on your face.

If you ask anyone why they wanted to watch this movie, you'll probably be told it was because of Dolly Parton; after all, that's also why I turned it on.

The opening musical scene is generally where most viewers start to have regret for tuning in. I too was a bit overwhelmed with this bright, overly jolly, and way to long of an opening musical number (of that caliber) to start a down-home, feel good Christmas story. Unlike most reviewers here, I stayed tuned-in to see where this was going to go from here. I just wasn't about to give up on Dolly Parton yet.

This movie does have its ups and downs, but I started to realize that this is definitely 'I'm always happy and grateful' Dolly style and quickly dropped my preconceived idea of what this movie was going to be.

From the 30-minute mark going forward I started enjoying the story more and more, but I found myself looking at my phone during many of the following musical numbers, only to find myself watching again when the story returned. Not every musical journey was bad, and they did tie into the story itself, but in Dolly fashion they were very exuberant and busy on the screen.

Christine Baranski was a joy to watch in this film, and I believe they could have made this movie great without the musical numbers and a bit more of the storyline. With Dolly steering the musical direction of the film, she could have had a few beautiful and soon-to-be Holiday classics or even had a great duet with Christine. However, this movie was intended to be an off-Broadway style film with a simple storyline and lots of over-the-top numbers, and they certainly achieved their goal.

It's clear to me Ms. Parton and the entire cast wanted to cheer us all up through the musical numbers and have fun too. After all it's 2020 and why not watch a Holiday musical comedy with a few laughs and snarky quips sprinkled through the movie while adding a touching conclusion and good performance by Christine Baranski.

I honestly couldn't really tell you what this was about. I don't think Dolly could. I don't think the writers could to be honest.

It's such a tragic awful mess and hugely predictable at times, while overwhelmingly confusing at others and they suddenly burst into random awful forgettable songs.

My favourite part is towards the end when they give solo performers fairly sizeable songs and scenes - WHEN THEY HAVE NEVER BEEN IN THE FILM UNTIL THIS POINT. Lolsies

Shame shame shame

I love Dolly. I don't particularly like Christmas movies in general. To be honest, this wasn't my favorite movie - it was too sugar coated and boring to watch for the most part. The songs are also kind of forgettable, after watching the movie, I can't actually remember even one of the melodies. And there was a LOT of this very mediocre music to fill the space. However, when the movie was approaching the end, the plot took some very touching and heartfelt turns, which actually made me cry. So if you decide to give this film a shot, just be sure to watch it until the very end, however clumsy the beginning might feel. It really surprised me positively towards the end, even up to tears, which was the last thing I expected to happen, based on the most part of the movie. PS. I love you Dolly, just keep being you.

I love musicals and I love Dolly but wow this movie contains nonstop music. It was a little hard to get my head around it. I probably won't watch it again and I do watch movies I like over and over again.