Christmas in Pine Valley

Christmas In Pine Valley (2022) -

Andrew Biernat was very handsome, but alas he was not enough to keep me watching this film for that long.

I found it hard to believe that an article on a small family run farm business would take days to achieve or that any magazine would pay the costs to have him stay for a week at Christmas to write it, regardless of the previous errors in his writing. I'd be surprised if an article like that took more than an hour for interviewing and a few hours to write and it would have been written months in advance anyway.

The panic that ensued after leading lady Kristina Cole as Natalie realised that they weren't actually the family business that she had been suggesting online, but a rag tag bunch (Who would undoubtedly have considered themselves a family by the end of the film if I could have watched it that far) was farcical and these deceitful films are really getting tedious, because they lack any imagination and are more predictable than ever, having been done so many times and none of them that successfully in my opinion.

I also hate dishonesty and the ridiculousness that followed to maintain the lie when the truth would work just as well. So when it got to the lie about Natalie getting married I had to turn it off. It was just another deception on top of what was already too much.

And it may seem picky, but some of the decorations were very basic and tatty and it was incredibly obvious that they hadn't put much time or thought in to the set dressings or for that matter the film as a whole.

Natalie was over the top and Josh was quite boring and not played by the best actor. It was a good job he was so pretty and that was the only reason I made it as far as I did with this one.

Unscored as unfinished.

The plot went from bad to worse. The male lead looks great, but is so monotone. Not sure where the writers came from, but they definitely need new jobs, because writing is not a strength for them. I kept thinking with time things would get better, but it kept getting more ridiculous and painful to watch. The actors and actresses were probably fine and with the right script they may be great, but this was a terrible movie and I think the fault lies with the writers. The male lead was boring also. Good looking, but boring. Oh, and who splits wood on a porch? Do your research people. I only gave it 4 stars because it was family friendly and was a safe movie for my family to watch.

An "innocent" lie or secret is a common trope in Christmas movies. Likewise big contract needed to save the "family" farm. Throw in reporter, Josh, sent to do a piece on the business which threatens to become an expose. There is also a fake fiancé and a fake marriage. Many of these have slight twists in the way they are presented especially the fake fiancé situation.

The acting is poor at times but mostly OK. The dialogue can be a bit odd, but there are some cute sequences too.

Another reviewer pointed out that the "family" is so inept at explanations to Josh. What's sad is that so many of the explanations should flow naturally even if this group is not really biological family so why would they fumble?

It is also uncomfortable that the lies grow more serious and less innocent, less "white". How the fake fiancé is established is a little ridiculous. So many of the gags are high on the silly meter. The basic lie comes up constantly one way or another.

Kristina Cole has a sweetness consistent with a typical girl next door. She definitely seems low key for the CEO of the business. She and Andrew Biernat have the potential for great chemistry but two things interfered with my appreciation of it. First Biernat has almost no spark in his performance. Second, and more significant, is the lying.

I don't think it is a spoiler to say that the underlying theme of the movie moves toward a sort of redefinition of what a family is apart from strictly biological. This is not a new idea especially for holiday movies. Many would consider the idea that family includes our closest friends to be valid. What might be different about this movie is the this "family" excludes any biological relatives.

So why is it a lie as far as the movie premise goes? Part of that is in misrepresentations in the blog, but even those are not unusual in the world of blogging. The movie is a little vague but implies Natalie wrote about traditions that were never followed by this "family". I think that and the perpetuation of the lies with Josh is where I have a problem that makes it hard for me to enjoy the inevitable HEA.

This movie has a ton of potential and a lot of positives, but for me the dishonesty, the intent to deceive, trumped that. Note to self - skip watching this again.

The first problem with this movie was Andrew Biernat. The pine trees in the movie are less wooden than most of his acting. He just had no fire in some of the most important lines. Even though he doesn't have a lengthy list of credits, there are enough I'm surprised he was this bad.

The premise itself is sort of the flip side of the FAR superior Five Star Christmas, where a family pretends to NOT be a family, but guests of a lodge. Here a group of friends pretends to be a family to live up to the impression people have gotten from a blog about the farm and the business.

Most of the scenes regarding that are far too awkward for the reporter to have done anything but realize things were not as presented, and sadly there were many scenes that just didn't make a lot of sense ... such as when he immediately intruded to tell the female lead her pretend fiancé was wrong for her. We didn't buy that would happen when and as it did. That's just one example.

This story COULD have been funny and entertaining with good writing, but it didn't get that.

This had potential with a fun cast of characters running the business. However, the actor playing the reporter ruined this for us. He was not only a poor actor but also offensive and gruff. In what should have been a fun interview of how the older "couple" met, he kept on asking "and then?" which was annoying since they already answered his question. If he wanted more details, he should have asked follow-up questions like, "that must have taken you by surprise, or what did your family think? The female lead chose to stay in character with her overacting, phony, fast-talking bit which was completely devoid of humor and charm. Lies are always tricky and they have to be executed in a way that is not only funny but endearing. Again, this missed both marks. Instead of telling the truth to the distributor, the female coworker stepped on the lead's foot, then she kept hitting her in the side. Nothing funny about that, it actually made me wish the lead hit her back since she was being annoying. All this within the first 20 minutes before we turned it off.