Lifetime Christmas films are a mixed bag, some are good, some are bad, some are somewhere in between. Few from what has been seen, which has been quite a lot now, are unwatchable though. 'Christmas Arrangement' did leap out at me when hearing of it as something that had a sizeable amount of potential. The idea sounded nice if nothing innovative and Nicky Whelan was more than watchable in all of what has been seen of her work (not enough yet).
'Christmas Arrangement' was to me a quite pleasant and not too bad a film. It didn't bowl me over and it could have done more with the concept, so it doesn't quite bloom in the way that it could have done. 'Christmas Arrangement' doesn't wither either, with a lot of things that work well. It is neither one of Lifetime's best or worst Christmas offerings and somewhere in the middle of those of 2018, instead around solid middle on both counts.
As said, a lot is good here. The film is not lavish, but it doesn't try to do too much stylistically while not being static. The scenery is very pretty to look at. The music doesn't drown out anything, nor does it feel like it's too low key. While the script is not exceptional, it does have some endearingly light-hearted spots.
The story also has a good deal to like about it, despite it being very typical Lifetime in terms of what goes on. It is charming and light-hearted, complete with a warm heart and a good deal of smile-worthy moments. The acting is well above average in amiable enough if not three dimensional roles. Whelan especially carries the film with an easy going charm. Miles Fisher is an amiable partner and the support is fine.
With the exception of agreed the over-egged acting for the annoying Chairwoman. While Whelan and Fisher work well together, the relationship could have been developed more and had more freshness.
Generally the film looked good, but the decorations agreed are very tacky and are under-populated and underused, really do think that more could have been done with the setting and that it could have been more celebratory. One doesn't expect great dialogue from a Lifetime film, and we get a lot of cheesy and saccharine lines instead that don't always flow. The film has very few surprises, typical Lifetime, and the ending struck me as too neat.
Overall, above average but not great. 6/10.
