Midnight at the Magnolia

I'll keep it very simple. If you are the kind of person who loves Christmas movies and watches a handful of those cheesy Hallmark Christmas movies each year, then this movie is definitely for you because it is absolutely, positively better than about 9 out of 10 of those. If you don't enjoy that genre, then this probably wouldn't be the one to win you over. Personally, I'm always looking for the next Xmas gem as they start to roll out a little after Halloween (sometimes sooner). Most of them are forgettable, but short and sweet. This one snuck up on me and I really enjoyed it. And the two leads (especially the male) were quite good. 87 minutes of a cute and fun, albeit cliched, romance set to a Xmas background....nothing wrong with that in my opinion.

Two talk show radio hosts and long time best friends get them selves in to a situation where they have to introduce their significant others to their families live on the radio. Unfortunately both of their significant others break up with them, queue the fake relationship...one for which their families and everyone who knows them is super happy about. Then come the misunderstandings and past mistakes. I am sure it comes as no surprise to hear that this feel good holiday movie is all wrapped up with a satisfying happy ending.

I personally love the trope of best friends falling in love or childhood best friends being in love the whole time and I am always looking out for films and shows with this theme so I was waiting for this to come out eagerly. This film has everything that I want from it but it lacks the main ingredients of chemistry, direction and dialogue delivery which makes a film... A film! I felt like someone just read a book and transferred the great plot of the book onto the screen quiet literally page by page. The male lead did his best but he and his co-star just had no chemistry... I mean for a moment I thought maybe this film is going towards the direction where they both realize that they are better off as best friends. They both looked perfectly happy being best friends if the plot didn't tell me as an audience via every other character that they are meant to be and how much they have always loved each other, I probably would've never known.

Now it is very rare for me to watch such a movie. I have watched several rom coms over the years but always with hollywood a-listers staring. I watched it during an airplane trip, so not much choice there, still I am glad I did.

At first it seemed weird to watch a movie where all actors were completely unknown to me. Beyond that, the cliched story was served well by the script, the acting, the pace, but mostly the protagonists chemistry.

Well I began to watch it to kill time and ended up enjoying it. 7/10 might be a little generous but for a low budget tv movie very decent job. Better than several high end production movies, Marry me for instance.

The writing was good, the actors (most of them) are talented, the leads have chemistry but then......it fizzles. Who's fault is it when that happens? Director?

The story is interesting enough to get you through to the cute ending but it leaves you with the feeling it could have been much better.