Christmas at the Amish Bakery

Wow, what can I say? This was a complete waste of my time. I can't believe I sat through this, I only did because I was home sick and bored. The acting was so dull and lifeless and there's absolutely no chemistry between Sarah and Dean. The Dad with his "ahh" and "wells" grunting noises was laughable. These "actors" really shouldn't quit their day job. I've seen better acting at my local school musicals and plays.

They really needed to do better research when doing an Amish movie. Their clothes, they way they spoke was way off. Just terrible.

Do yourself a favor and skip this one, or it might be good one if you suffer from insomnia.

This lovely story combines a few very charming and inviting features. The Amish are always a fascinating culture to learn about, always filled with loving , caring, kind relationships. The scenery is also so refreshing because the movie isn't taking place in a bustling city. And in this film, the many foods they prepared and showed were mouth-watering!

In this story, family relationships take front and center stage. The love between the Amish sister and her city sibling is so real, so beautifully expressed and portrayed that one has no doubt these two young woman truly care about one another. ..despite their very divergent life choices and styles.

That said, it is really difficult to imagine, first of all, what the hero of the story is doing on that farm. If he is there since he's widowed and owes some gratitude to the owner of the farm, we can accept that. Beyond that, one wonders how this actor ever got chosen for such a sensitive and challenging role. His acting is so wooden, so stiff,,that he often looks like a deer in headlights, almost as if he's forgotten his next lines.

The chemistry between him and the leading actress is non-existent. He is stiff, arid, and altogether wrong for the role. Even their Hallmark kiss at the end looks forced and uncomfortable. Where was the acting coach? The director? The story was so warm and so lovely, it was painful to watch this newcomer actor struggle to show any emotion.

Please forgive the sharp tone of this review. The story of this family was so warm and kind and sweet, it was simply distracting to see the lead actor so detached from every scene he was in.

This is a formulaic Christmas romance. The only thing that stands out is that the story is set in Amish culture.

The characters are stock figures without much depth. The two leads do not have on-screen chemistry. The dialogue is wooden and all too predictable.

It seems the producers thought adding the word 'Amish' to the title would make the movie more popular, or at least draw more interest. It worked with me, but the movie failed to deliver. This movie is a trifle, which I guess it was meant to be.

There are better things to do during this season than watch this movie. This movie is not recommended.

The movie starts out with bad acting and an unlikely conversation. It came off as awful for one of those reasons or both. There was a point soon after where I was seriously considering turning the movie off and it came down to one encounter. Fortunately the father was not the stereotypical harsh Amish father or elder. He actually welcomed his daughter turned English. That doesn't mean he's a pussycat. The way he growls is more like a tiger or a bear. I really like the fact that these Amish are not judgmental about every little thing.

It is a very typical point premise that one of the romantic leads is about to lose her job if she doesn't solve a problem. This movie goes one further and we find out her sister's bakery is in trouble also.

The acting varies from bad to stiff, When Mischa Hutchings as Darla is maybe one of the worst. The dialogue surprised me since most of it is not bad and uses a lot of lighthearted sarcastic humor. However, later in the movie it gets clumsy along with the story.

Other than the financial issues and Sarah's underhanded plan, the movie is lighthearted through the middle with great relationships between family members as well as Zoe. But when the conflict happens, what happens afterwards is clumsy. Some of it makes no sense, like Sarah's and Dean's choices.

There is a good speech by Sarah's dad at the end. Perhaps a bit preachy, but the message was good.

Needless to say that I had, indeed, never heard about the 2023 Christmas movie "Christmas at the Amish Bakery". Well, I don't have a habit of traversing in all things Amish, so there was that to take into account. Regardless, I had the opportunity to watch the movie here in 2024, as part of my December Christmas movie marathon, and opted to do so, without knowing what I was in for. Though, the movie's cover does ooze with the archetypical sappy Christmas presentation, but the 'Amish' part of the movie's title was a little bit off-putting.

Regardless, I watched the movie, and found it to be a watchable, though somewhat generic and stale Christmas movie. Writers Scott Kirkpatrick and Jennifer Snow opted to play it relatively safe and bet on the archetypical sappy Christmas tropes, for better or worse. Sure, if you enjoy the generic sappy Christmas movies, then you're in for a treat here. But I sat down to watch it as a casual viewer, so I wasn't particularly impressed with the storyline.

I was not familiar with the cast ensemble in the movie, and that is actually something I do enjoy when I sit down to watch a movie. I will say that the acting performances in the movie were fair, despite the fact of the actors and actresses having a generic and bland script to work with.

Watchable, sure, but hardly a memorable or outstanding foray into the Christmas movie genre. I found it to be a rather forgettable movie, and I bet that come tomorrow I will have forgotten about the movie. The movie definitely didn't have the contents to become a Christmas classic.

My rating of director Jeff Hare's 2023 movie "Christmas at the Amish Bakery" lands on a four out of ten stars.