Ivy & Mistletoe

Tedious, almost plotless holiday romcom with Michelle starring as a highly-strung singleton stranded by a snow-storm in the quaint Philadelphia town of Bethlehem, furloughed with the local mayoress (Genzel) and her heartthrob son (Calafiore) dazzling the hosts with her talent for cooking amid the possibility of finding true love for Christmas.

Apart from Michelle and Genzel, the rest of the cast were unfamiliar to me although I did spot ex-'Fame' regular Cynthia Gibb in the brief incidental role of Michelle's mother.

Technically clumsy with poorly synchronised looped dialogue interspersed with uneven location recorded sound and occasionally amateurish shot framing (lots of cutaways but very few closeups), 'Ivy & Mistletoe' is a formula Christmas romcom with good intentions but limited production values (most of the apparently meagre budget looks like it was spent on the catering).

Basically the majority of the film consists of the actors sitting down eating, delivering their dialogue with monotone precision reflecting on how they've celebrated Christmas in the past, as they countdown the days to the big one. In some ways, the film resembles a rehearsal lacking the polish you'd expect when there's film inside the can.

Ultra-mild, sincere and inoffensive independent film might be too slow and talky to hold deliberate attention, but it's probably sufficient for background ambience in the days ahead of Christmas.

Please Cynthia, not another Hallmark Christmas movie on your CV!

You have to get of this treadmill, you are a talented actor and your career deserves better! We deserve better and more.

Can't comment on the film itself, but we all know the formula for Hallmark, boy loses girl, girl wins boy with some sickly slush and tedious indignation along the way, which is why Ms Gibb deserves better.

I'm sure the theme of the movie was intended to be cute and romantic, but it fell short on being engaging. It felt as if it were lacking in genuinity and the actors, many of them, their characters felt forced and the overacting was very obvious. The makeup on the main character ivy, was overdone, she is an attractive woman and did not need her makeup to be quite so heavy. I know many people have commented on Michelle's plastic surgery but it is a personal choice which she made regardless of who agrees or disagrees. I personally feel it definitely was not needed as she does not look natural now, but I am not in the pressure of the expectations of movie and TV actors, so again to each his or hers own. Overall, the movie had a sweetness to it, if you could get through the overacting and what felt low budget. I would not watch it again but I have also seen worse.

This movie is like a C grade student's movie project. It's awful. The camerawork is laughable. There are a lot of strange shots. I think it's supposed to be artistic but there is nothing entertaining about looking at a glass for 20 seconds.

The acting is really wooden and this is not helped by the awful makeup artist that was released on the poor females. If they were going for "Romulan spies" then they nailed it. Why have their eyebrows been shaped at such a severe angle??!!

Ivy reminds me of one of the marionettes from the Sound of Music. She is completely unbelievable. This is probably largely due to the terrible script. The rest of the cast aren't any better.

The continuity and pace of the movie is strange. Where did the dog appear from? Suddenly the family have a dog that was never referenced before.

The soundtrack is awful. You don't expect much from TV movies, but this is one of the worst I've been subjected to.

Avoid!!!!

It's not a bad story but the acting is horrible. Terrible casting.

Ivy & Max over-act but they're not the problem... it's Charles. He's awful!

Not a realistic character.

It's a little too schmultzy & this stuff doesn't happen in real life.

Other than that, it's okay. I watched it all the way to the end.

Good luck.

😊