Dancing Through Christmas

I felt the same about Nicola Posener and Brad Johnson in A Crafty Christmas Romance. Colin Lawrence was 50, Anna Lynne McCord 33 - DESPITE her real life choices - the clear age difference is visually and viscerally, yuck!

There are lots of young actors that she can be paired with, and more mature actors he can be paired with.

Also, McCord looked heavy-lidded, bored, depressed and zombie-like throughout the whole thing, her pale purple lip color didn't help.

Bianca Lawrence was a wonderful breath of fresh air, the rest of the cast made up for the bland, struggling storyline also.

My Christmas film viewings over-time have been a very mixed bag. With some surprisingly good hits, where regardless of how predictable they are succeed in being full of charm, warmth and heart so succeeding in being light-hearted and undemanding fun. But also some quite big misses, where the characters are not likeable, everything is forced and shallow with implausibility too in some of the worst cases, the acting and writing being weak and basically with just nothing to them.

'Dancing Through Christmas' could have been much better. Did like the premise a lot, which was very cute, and it started off with a lot of promise and bags of charm. Like has been said though, that promise did not stay all the way through with a very dull second half. 'Dancing Through Christmas' is not a terrible film and the way it started it seemed like a decent one, but it is not a particularly good one either and the inferior second half brings it down massively.

There are certainly good things here. Most of the acting was fine. Colin Lawrence gives a beautifully understated and likeable performance and loved his very heartfelt chemistry with his real life daughter Bianca, who is very charming. Candus Churchill brings a lot of zest to her role and it was fun watching her.

It is an attractive looking film, with the scenery being beautifully festive. It starts off very promising, with a lot of heart and charm.

AnnaLynn McCord however is awful, with a bad inconsistent mix of going through the motions and over exaggerated expressions and gestures. Also found her character cold and neurotic and her chemistry with Lawrence non existent, certainly absolutely nothing on the father and daughter relationship. But it is the central romance that is meant to be the heart of the film, and 'Dancing Through Christmas' is a complete failure on that front. The characters tend to be underdeveloped other than the Lawrence's characters.

Furthermore, the second half is incredibly dull and bland. It was very clear that the film had run out of ideas at the halfway through, judging from the thinness of the plotting in the second half and how dragged out it was, with the very pedestrian pacing. None of the charm and heart that was present in the first half is present in the second and it is instead bathed in cloying over-sentimentality. The predictability of what too little there is in the story content hurts it a good deal too, the too convenient being obvious from some way off. The dialogue is artificial at best and is quite stilted. The music is forgettable at best and is quite drab.

Summing up, very lacklustre despite starting off well. 4/10.

Even though it has the word Christmas in the title, this TV movie doesn't feel very christmasy. The movie started well, and the actors playing the father and daughter gelled, little did I know they were real life father and daughter! Unfortunately I found the second half rather flat. An okay watch, but didn't have the sparkle. With respect to other reviewers, I fail to see why Covid needs to be seen in a movie, it is rammed down out throats enough in the real world. Movies aren't real!

There seemed to be something slightly different about the romance in this film, but I can't quite put my finger on it. There wasn't the struggle as much as I've found in other films.

It's mature for a change, there's no silliness or over the top moments or comedy characters, no "Is he the real Father Christmas" at the mall to make it magic! It's just simple and effective. I've seen some reviews stating that it's not Christmassy enough, but I don't agree. I felt very cheered by it and the seasonal warmth it brought.

Generally I liked it, but personally I would have pursued a relationship with Noah, because I'm shallow and he was better looking, but I could also see the appeal of the lead male.

If I had to criticise, it would be to say that the Grandma was not a good actress, but she doesn't really get in the way too much.

Not the best that you will ever see, but definitely worth checking out.

6ish.

I have made my feelings clear about these formulaic Lifetime Christmas movies.

They are made for those round the clock Christmas channels that start in September and minor television channels.

In Britain, this was shown on the BBC in the afternoon.

Michael Foster is a widowed father and a fireman. His daughter Lily likes ballet dancing and a video of Michael dancing with his daughter goes viral.

Michael gets the attention of Olivia. She is beautiful, single and is Lily's ballet teacher. They go on a date but Lily is not entirely happy that her father is seeing someone else.

The best you can say about this movie is that it is inoffensive. There is some romance, some music and plenty of schmaltz.

It is also far away from reality. Made in 2021, this is a world where Covid never hit.