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. Have seen both extremes throughout the Christmas film completest quest and also many films with elements of both.
Personally have seen worse Christmas films overall than 'Christmas on the Coast'. When it comes to Christmas films made in 2018 however, which was a very mixed bag (some surprisingly good, some average to decent and some average or less), 'Christmas on the Coast' is to me one of the worst. The premise was a quite nice one, despite not being exceptional, and there are a few good things (though ones that have been quite a lot better in other films etc). But the flaws are also many and most of it are really quite big.
Did think that the production values were quite nice, especially the scenery.
Also that Burgess Jenkins was an amiable male lead.
The same cannot be said about wooden Julie Ann Emery, who also overdoes her character's very negative personality. The excessive unlikeability of her character brings 'Christmas on the Coast' significantly, overdone character flaws are a major pet peeve, especially if the character in question is meant to be likeable or/and rootable later on, and have not seen arrogance and disrespect this blatant in a long time. . It is true that there are plenty of flawed people out there and that they do change and grow, but the flaws here are so overdone and any change or growth felt rushed and underdeveloped. Didn't detect any real chemistry between the two leads, which looked cold and under-rehearsed.
Furthermore, the supporting cast are very cartoonish. The worst performance of the film coming from Bonnie Bedelia, who really overacts and comes over as a really bad impersonation of Dolly Parton. Also agree about the distractingly bad accents, possibly the worst Southern accents since 'Beautiful Creatures' except worse, and all the characters and their ways of living come over as too stereotyped and in an over-generalised and at worst inaccurate way.
Story is rather flimsy and it drags a lot, due to finding Emery's character so excessively unrootable any charm or heart was very difficult to detect. What there is of the story is very little different to what has been seen before many times and better, while the final quarter is too pat and contrived. The script is stilted and can be very corny and too often mundane, also found it over serious. The music is forgettable at best, overbears and doesn't really fit stylistically, belonging more in a soap.
Very weak film all in all. 3/10.
