A Match Made at Christmas

The only explanation I could come up with for these two characters getting together in the end of this disaster is Stockholm Syndrome.

The male lead is so angry and verbally abusive to women in this movie. From start to finish, that it's sad they end up together in the end.

Holly Everton has watched her great aunt make perfect matches for people all her life. But never for her. Small town, works at a fishing shop, dreams of travel and finding her perfect match. Her brother is home for his Christmas wedding, and he brings his college roommate along to be best man. He dislikes romance, she dreams of the perfect wedding, he can't stand Christmas, she loves it, in short, they don't like each other. He's rude & she's a people pleaser; it's not a good look. But it's what you expect in romance, right?

I like that the people look like real people and the houses look like real family houses, and the shop (the fishing part, not the Christmas side) looks like a real shop. The widowed mom looks like a good age for a widowed mom. The great aunt is suitably aged. The decorations are a bit over the top everywhere but that's just par for the Christmas movie scene.

The second-half turns into a much deeper movie in the first half was setting up (though not well), which may be partly responsible for all the bad reviews. The romance is hard won & the characters both have some growing up to do. Hers is all on screen while his is just a brief grumpy montage with no particular motivation except enough time passes that he's not mad any more.

This film ends up asking some real questions about helping versus taking over, what you owe to your family and your friendships, and living your life for and through other people instead of for yourself.

This movie is full of selfish, mean horrible characters who treat the leading female character in a horrible manner. The sister in law is selfish and the male lead is abusive.

I would refrain from showing this film to teenagers or impressionable young people! While protagonist Holly is a loving, positive, forgiving individual, deuteragonist Chris is a volatile, uncaring, verbally abusive young man who treats her too harshly. His level of anger and disrespect for women is a little over-the-top in this film, considering he frequently throws even basic decency out the window during his verbal skirmishes with Holly.

Over the course of the film Chris intimidates Holly, insults her, and verbally abuses her to a point at which a woman should cease contact. Yet Holly continues to be too forgiving, allowing an open door to a possibly toxic future relationship.

Later in the film Chris yells at a kind elderly woman, sticking his face out just a couple feet from hers.

We shouldn't allow our young men to think that this kind of disrespect for women is okay. Likewise, young women shouldn't be trained to give volatile men like this repeated chances at romance.

I generally like these kind of movies, but this one was just terrible. With the exception of the protagonist, the acting was third-rate and the sequence if events would never happen in real life.

Really don't know how to feel about it. The heroine is really sweet, but I do feel it's a pity that she doesn't end up being treated witht the same level of kindness and love by the world and people around her. I really wish she could just have more self-esteem and be more emotionally independent.

The male lead is so inconsiderate and snobbish most of the time, but he could also be very nice and heatening when he wants to. He thinks he is a rational being and everything in life can be deconstructed with financial theories. However, life may be more sophisticated than that, and sometimes, you should be more open hearted to see the beauty in life as it is, not as it should be.

What kept me finishing the whole film is that I see in these leads some parts of myself and confusions I struggle with in my life, which lends some depth to the movie, so I really hoped the movie would offer some well-thought solution in the end, but unfortunately the ending is too hasty and falls into the old cliche of happy-ever-after.

Anyway, an acceptable film with some reflective plots but a disappointing conclusion, recommendable to those who's happy to come up with their own thoughts and feelings after watching some ambiguous films.