Well Suited for Christmas

This is easily the worst Christmas movie I have seen. I have no clue who green lit this one, but oof. It's a train wreck from start to finish.

What started with a fun premise quickly took a nosedive into the realm of painfully forced/pseudo deep/superficially emotional nonsense. It was clear they didn't know what kind of movie they wanted to make.

The plot is all over the place and often makes absolutely no sense. The writing is bad and the acting is even worse. And just when you think things can't get any cringier then some starts beatboxing Christmas music. Yikes.

Your time matters, don't waste it watching this.

This is my first Lifetime Christmas movie of 2022, and it's a winner. The focus is on the enemies-to-lovers romance of a hot entrepreneur bachelor who only wears black and an up-and-coming men's fashionwear designer whose signature is bold color.

This is a smart script. The conflict is immediate and seemingly insurmountable when Ms Color is assigned to dress Mr Black for a charity runway show. Both of them have a lot riding on it. Along the way, these two people at loggerheads learn more about each other and start to fall in love.

The foster kid angle was wonderful and her parents were delightful. There's something about a character who grew up without a family finally finding a family to belong to that adds an unmatched level of feels. This is a trope not uncommon in romance novels but I haven't seen it in a movie before.

Add on some lovely exterior scenes of NYC at Christmas, and gorgeous clothes, and you have a keeper.

This is a Lifetime movie, I thought it would be better. It started with a poor script and went downhill from there. Mercedes de la Zerda isn't a strong enough actress to carry the lead role, she's not that good and she's not believable as a successful designer heading a major design house. There are so many better Latino/Latina cast productions. I liked some of the supporting cast, but they were burdened by a bad script and a really bad story line. I've seen Franco Lo Presti in other films and he's good, but better with a story set in the outdoors. Surprised Lifetime didn't film or buy a better movie.

This movie has lots of the usual formulas. A Christmas contest at a charity gala. Designer Rachel really needs to win for her business. Decorating party. Protective mom and dad. Foster kids. And the one that is as pervasive as any but always irritates me relative to how strongly played - the leads' first meeting is antagonistic. In this case it was pretty strong and the unjolly tension remained a bit long. Then it instantly disappeared.

But stick with this despite the early lack of merry measure. There are some twists, small and one large in the second half. At one point I wondered if there would be any conflict between Rachel and Brett because it seemed like everyone's HEA was shaping up early, but it came with a little foreshadowing at the last minute.

After Rachel got over her preconceptions about Brett, I liked Mercedes de la Zerda in this role. She and Franco Lo Presti have chemistry despite Brett's intentional reserved demeanor.

As much as the first half made me feel like a grinch, the second half was very well done not just with little surprises, but some deeper handling of issues like trust, at least one piece of symbolism, and some sentimental moments too. By the climax I was starting to feel my Ho, Ho, Ho.

This movie had everything I like in a movie: Diverse cast, good script, nice costumes, good setting. I really liked the plot. Usual these movies are filled with meaningless fluff about someone going home to a small town and falling for an old flame and deciding to give up their lives to stay in the small town after a week or so.

Not this movie. It's about a strong accomplished main character who decides to support a meaningful cause that ties back to the other main character's past. A real positive message and I found it refreshing.

In fact there were positive messages weaved throughout their story. I will definitely watch it again. Also, I hope to see the main characters in other movies.