Weihnachts-Einsatz in 4 Wänden

I'm still stuck on the money. Marcus' character Bo doesn't have any. Ashley's character Abby is there doing a favor for her sister. The sister and her husband want to sell the house they inherited and co-own, Abby is there to help make that happen. Bo can't afford to buy them out of the house they co-own, but he wants to turn the house into a B&B. Converting an 8-bedroom somewhat rundown Victorian home into a bed and breakfast takes a lot money for renovations, furnishings, decorations, food, and to hire and pay a staff before it (hopefully) turns a profit somewhere down the line. Where is Bo getting the money do to any of this? Even if we want to believe that because he is a contractor he can do the renovations, he very clearly said he doesn't have money for much else besides his current business.

Bo's plan seems like a screw you to the recently deceased Frank's family as Bo is not related to him, he was the contractor that took care of the house and a friend. Also, it is Bo's plan, not Frank's wishes, this is what Bo has convinced himself that Frank would want, when that doesn't at all appear to have been the case, it seems Frank wanted his family and the man who cared for the house to share in the proceeds of the sale. Bo says he understands them wanting to sell and get a house big enough, not to mention extra money, to care for their aging father, but also won't budge on his B&B idea. He has attitude for days, acts like he's a majority owner, not a co-owner, swiftly overruling everything Abby suggests in furtherance of her brother-in-law's wishes to sell the house.

This setup doesn't make a lot of sense. And there's plenty more that doesn't make sense, this is just one I'm highlighting because it struck me as dumb to not at least have the Bo character thoroughly thought his B&B plan through if he was going to be so obstinate about it. The romance is weak, not because of the actors, but because not enough time is spent on developing it. The "flipping" they do through most of the movie is I kid you not, just painting the walls so not sure why we heard so much about "design" early on. There's also an additional conflict thrown into the mix related to Abby's day job that just feels unnecessary. And maybe if the time on that storyline was given to making the rest work, this could've been better (and would've allowed for less time spent on some of the movie's weakest and least likable characters). There's a lot going on here and little of it is great. This truly seems slapped together and no one bothered to go through to connect the dots and make this a cohesive script. I'd love to know when this was written, produced, and shot, because it feels very much like they lined up a great cast for what was at the time a good, if not fully fleshed out concept, but maybe got stuck during the writer's strike with a flawed script in desperate need of rewrites and they said, let's just shoot anyway as is and hope no one notices this is a mess because of the good cast.

Well, I'll very much look forward to seeing Marcus and Ashley again in the future, they did their best with what they were given and this doesn't detract from their overall appeal. Both have done very good or great movies in the past and will do better ones than this in the future. I'd suggest checking them out in the other Hallmark and Lifetime Christmas movies they've done in the past instead of spending time on this one.

I didn't really expected much from this movie but I have watched the lead actress in other movies and found her to be tolerable. So I got my popcorn and settled in for some basic entertainment. And it was basic and totally predictable; well how many times have we seen the fixer upper romance plot?

I think so far in this season of Hallmark movies this is the second movie I have watched where the characters are fixing old houses. The other movie had a ghost living in the house so at least that added a new dimension. No ghost here except for the missing originality in the plot. Basic movie with basic characters delivering basic performance.

I want to say worst premise ever, but I'm sure there are worse. But why is the professional designer assigned the task of convincing the co-owner to sell? And Abby, whose job depends on pleasing customers does practically everything possible to annoy Bo. Bo isn't much better, maybe worse. At first he is totally rude for no reason to Abby, the stranger. Later he basically assaults her with paint based on no previous relationship to justify it as a fun prank. As the movie goes on, it is incredible how poorly she treats clients and potential clients. Does anyone listen to what others are saying ... to them?

The dialogue is either sparkling and funny, or terrible. Actually there are a lot of good moments with it. I lean towards the latter, but I'm sure it will appeal to many.

Apparently this is grade school because Abby and Bo first have a spontaneous paint fight and then a couple scenes later a spontaneous snowball fight. This seems to be how they build the romantic relationship. Abby giggles as her clothes get spattered. These two are complete opposites and their natural reactions to each other's opinions doesn't bode well for a long term future, but maybe when they have the next conflict they will have a food fight and giggle. Their animosity disappears quickly, but their differences do not go away that easily even though the story will make you think both of them changed personalities.

This is Hallmark, so we have to have an evil developer who wants to "gentrify" a small town and make a lot of money. So the plot theme becomes largely about "saving" the small town.

Clearly the architects of this movie intended it to be light, upbeat and funny. It's too bad they led with rudeness. That is the vibe I picked up in the beginning, so I missed a lot of what was meant to be fun.

I like both Ashley Newbrough (from Privileged fame) and Marcus Rosner. They look really great together and for the romantics is some flirty banter in this flipping Hallmark holiday romance...but I think the overall story might suffer from bad editing? Either that or there were issues with the writing.

I am going to attempt to summarize the story... Abagail's sister Claire and her husband inherit a house and talk her in to fixing it and flipping it (which is her profession). What they don't tell her is that they are only part owners and the other owner doesn't want to sell...he wants to fix it up into a bed and breakfast AND they want Abagail to convince Bo to sell?!?! (I still don't understand why that would be her job or even something they would ask her to do.) Bo is a pillar of the community, which is part of why he wants to turn the house into a B&B...to honor the previous owner. Meanwhile, Abagail has some big time developer that she is working with who gets wind of an available parcel of land that he purchases for development from the mayor...which will change the whole town? Then Abagail realizes that she messed up and figures out a way to prevent it...and keep the house as a B&B...which will bring in some money for her sister's family and help get her sister's house expanded by Bo doing some of the work so her mom doesn't have to live in the garage.

This story was choppy and a bit convoluted...with some things that didn't make sense. As previously mentioned, there was some fun flirty banter...they did look cute together and I can see them eventually having a great small town relationship (I don't know what Abagail will do for a living in their town? Maybe run the B&B with Bo?), but there are definitely better romances and better stories out there.

Did I mention that I love the house? I am so glad it is not being modernized. They do not make houses like that anymore and it would have been a shame to destroy it.

So after watching this movie twice I have to say I still don't get it. There's no reason for the leads to like each other. There's no reason for the lead to even be there. The premise of the movie is missing. The sound track didn't always go with the dialog. Why does the female lead fall in love or even like her romantic interest? He is never nice to her. The story needed more. Why does a complete outsider have so much invested in a place she has nothing in the game? This review is all over the place because the movie is all over the place. I can't say it was time well spent to watch it twice so maybe this is a movie you can miss.