Christmas Is You

I wanted to like this film , against cliches, music as new pretext and crisis of space for significant show of young people.

In part, I was enough lucky to discover its good points , from family spirit and the wise mother, to the provocative tensioned moment when the hope of no nice final was real fresh.

But , sure, romance and Christmas, the return of hero and the feelings from youth more than present are useful details for not ignore the consacrated recipe . And reproches are far to be fair , the acting being decent, the story not boring and the supporting actors , near the romance of young couple working not awful.

So, nice .

And it is just enough - grace to some music, off course.

Yikes, every line in this movie is either expository, or pointless.

The shooting is way better than most Hallmark movies, and the editing as well. But the script is just awful. I can't even imagine how this script was greenlit. The director has given the actors nothing to work with, so the whole film is like a very well made table read of inane dialogue.

Christmas Is You (2021) -

Not typically my type, Matthew MacCaul in the lead male role of Tyler, definitely had a certain sexiness about him, although he needed a hair cut and I wasn't sure that I would want to rush out to buy his characters album.

And Casey Menderson was cute too. There was a good chemistry between him and his sister Emma (Becca Tobin) and it would have been easy to see him and her as the leading romantic couple if they hadn't been related. I don't know many siblings that get on quite as well as they did. He always comes over a bit gay though too and actually it might have been better if Tyler had fallen for him instead, because they also had a good chemistry.

Casey as Jett wasn't a good brother however. I could see that his interaction with Emma's boss Rachel was to create a second romance, but there was a lot of underhanded behaviour and interference between them on Emma's behalf. Their interest in each other was a bit of a stretch too, because they barely knew each other.

Honestly though, I hadn't expected to like this one at all. Becca Tobin was horrible in 'Glee' (2009-15) and Matthew seemed like he was going to be slimey, based on the pictures I'd seen and the format seemed very typical too, but even after a few minutes it did appear to be a well made film, which I found interesting and worthy of my attention.

I wonder if the guy playing Mitch (Not listed on IMDB - Matty Finochio) has ever played someone who wasn't a douche bag though? I generally get irritated the moment he turns up on screen and it doesn't help that he's usually playing some pushy idiot. Thank God he never gets the leading roles.

It was a cute romance and I loved the shop setting. I do think that they could have utilised Becca's voice a bit more though and even potentially made it in to a musical.

5.50/10.

7.0 stars.

'Christmas is You' is a name I don't quite understand for this story, however it's still a nice and relaxing experience. The story is a simple one, and nothing new, about a man who becomes a big music star and the woman who went in another direction. Now they are thrust into a situation where they must be in the vicinity of each other over the holidays. She is (conveniently) a scout for an agency that represents celebrities and musical talents etc. And he just happens to be the big star that has fired his previous agent. She is sent to see if she can convince him to join their agency, but since they dated as teenagers, she's understandably hesitant to overstep. Blah, blah, blah, it's all been done... But I really like the lead actress, she's one of those rare ladies with a very compassionate and kind facade in most of her roles. He seems to be a worn out man, quite rough exterior, but also with what I assume to be very rugged good looks. The chemistry is present, however there is much lacking with the whole blend of this film and the end product wasn't magical. But I was entertained enough to stick with it.

There was a good story here. Liked the lead actress, the male lead was miscast. The secondary characters were good. I liked their story almost as much.