The Holiday Exchange

This is essentially a retelling of The Holiday (with Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet), which is one of my favorite Christmas movies. I'm not going to lie, this is not the movie to win awards or whatever and if you go in with high expectations (like some of the other reviewers must have) you're just going to disappoint yourself. That being said it's cute, lighthearted, and fun! I had read some of the reviews here and immediately thought I was making a mistake but honestly I don't understand the atrocious reviews. Sure, it's cheesy and maybe it's not actually filmed in Europe - so what?

In my opinion, if you enjoy the occasional Hallmark Christmas movie, this is worth giving a watch.

This is simply bad, really,really bad! The acting is amateurish and coupled to a nonsensical script, the outcome is nauseating. It's like some kind of fantasy or fairytale that has no connection to reality. The European setting looks suspiciously American, and becomes distracting. The script seems to have been written by a child. The movie goes from one painfully bad scene to another, all with the aim of creating a world of complete fantasy and silliness. While the aim might have been to produce a gay film with a happy feel and ending to it, turning it into some silly childish fantasy is clearly not the answer.

I am a firm believer that Gay themed movies are either really good or really bad. There is never a middle ground when it comes to these types of movies. This one happens to be really bad and the lead actor Taylor Frey has to be the absolute worse. He happens to be very stiff and fake. There is also nothing original about this story. Let's travel across the world and meet your love. Maybe this story could have been good if they would have only hired a lead actor that could act. I have seen a few of his painful attempts at acting before and each one only gets worse. The rest of the cast was easier to watch. Save your time and skip this movie.

Overall a decent, albeit cliche, film. What makes it nearly unbearable is the acting from the lead. It's stilted, unconvincing, and just feels one note - always annoyed. Certainly not a protagonist you root for.

The real star is the lead's mom played by Kyle Richards. I knew she was a Real Housewife but didn't realize she had an acting background.

May still be worth watching if you can make a drinking game out of it. However, if you're looking to see some romantic chemistry and to feel that "butterflies" feeling, the lack of connection between the main couple will likely leave you disappointed.

Let's just say I'm glad that my hands had better things to do while watching this--baked some cookies and par-baked a pie crust, and started a raspberry cheesecake.

Not long ago a friend of mine made an astute never-to-be-forgotten "snobservation" which is so applicable to this movie: "It seems utterly incredible that so few control so much wealth and possess a vocabulary of nothing more than a few monosyllabic grunts." (Where's the Gong Show when you need it?)

Why would his words come to mind while assessing this film? Let me guess: "Well, I sort of like, well basically.... didn't get the plot--basically too many people to follow, but like the men were, well basically like eye candy and at least there was like at least one new Xmas LGBTQ movie this year."

I rest my zero-star rating.