Christmas on the Vine

This movie rigidly checks all the Christmas Movie (must have) boxes one after the other but on the strength of Julianna Guill's performance alone, it's still enjoyable. Jon Cor's performance here was good, and the two leads do have believable chemistry, but due to the writing, you just feel like smackin the male lead most of the time. Perhaps Cor's hair styling was done intentionally to distract from how badly his part was written (moley, moley, moley). The ending had a couple of WTH? moments in it leading to an inexplicable happy ending and achieves the (feel-good) conclusion, even if you don't actually understand it.

This holiday movie was fun to watch from the winery point of view. There is always some enchantment in films about that exotic life that is so unknown to most viewers. However, aside from the fairly predictable plot and the charm of seeing how wine country life is not all that easy and glamorous, this film left a great deal to be desired. Julianna Guill is a really talented actress, with a welcome range of emotions, with great energy for her character, and with a sadly empty script to work with. She does her best in this film. Meredith Baxter is always a welcome joy in any movie. But oh, my goodness, the leading man was so hard to like! He was portrayed as an angry, reluctant headstrong fellow. One wonders how the leading lady could find him appealing and lovable. The quickly resolved ending seemed to come out of nowhere and made very little sense. But most distracting throughout was Jon Cor's hair. Was there no hairdresser on the set to comb his hair back out of his forehead? He is a handsome man and a competent actor. But one wonders why he was presented in such an unattractive manner, one that kept interfering with the viewer's wish to find him likable and appealing. His appearance took a great deal of attention away from the enjoyment of this film.

Yeh... This was just too by the book for me. Too many cliche set pieces: flirty sledding, flirty snowball fight, save the small family business from the big meanies, cookie baking, wreath making, and the Christmas festival (which also had to be saved). The only good things were Juliana Guill and the quality of the production values. I didn't like the male lead and didn't think he had good chemistry with Juliana. Plus he was stupid. The end came out of no where and was too abrupt.

This is another save-the-family-______(winery) plot and a consultant is sent to help. An evil big corporation is swallowing up all the land in the area. There are no real highs or lows or big surprises. The climatic conflict was created in a little bit of a surprising way. I thought it was out of character, but maybe understandable. The very end is abrupt with a change of heart coming on what seemed like a whim.

For me the enjoyment was the cheerful Julianna Guill. She and Jon Cor had good chemistry, but I think that was thanks mostly to Guill. The movie gives the leads plenty of screen time together. Guill seems to be in practically every scene and a lot of them with Cor. I wasn't as impressed with Cor's acting. All the supporting actors turned in decent performances.

The marketing exec is delightful and fun throughout, really trying her best to save a small business in her home town. Male lead has hair that looks like the only styling was dunking him in water. Writing was bad. Why hire a marketing firm to bring in business if you're uninterested in change? He kind of hated all her ideas until she convinced him that they were worth a shot. The love aspect was very forced and honestly I didn't like it. The movie itself is super formulaic and follows exactly the template you'd expect it to, which is for better or for worse depending on what you're looking for.