A Perfect Christmas Carol (2023) -
The films of this 2023 festive run seem to be bringing in a selection of new men and I'm not sure that I'm totally in to that, because I'm still very much a fan of the regulars like Luke Macfarlane, Andrew W. Walker and Jesse Hutch. In this one I was introduced to Preston Vanderslice who played Max and he already seemed too old to have a healthy chance of going forward each year to churn out 2 or 3 films for every season and holiday. He could end up being one of the older supporting cast very quickly.
As such, it was also hard to find him attractive, which is where I tend to lose interest in these made for TV specials. The leading men are ultimately the goal of the story after all, with the ladies doing what they can to let them in, so if I don't buy that, I can't really enjoy the journey.
I also wasn't a fan of Carol played by Stephanie Bennett, mostly because of her quite obnoxious character, but also because her acting wasn't brilliant either. Her best friend Benji (Carly Fawcett) was really terrible though and stood out so awkwardly. It was mostly her interactions that put me right off watching this all the way through. She was far too hyper and "Extra". I was also sure that Max should have recognised her when she turned up at his Mothers house.
And the Mother was an absolute cow. He needed to see that about her.
Carol's idea that she would try to steal the recipe from the matriarch was ludicrous from the absolute beginning.
Other than that, the timeline seemed a bit off, with her going to his families house for Christmas to get a recipe for the restaurants menu to be sold before the big day? I didn't find out any more than that before I had to give up on it and find something more enjoyable to enrich my life with instead.
Unscored as unfinished.
-IMDB did not have the full listings to add all of the actors names at the time of writing this review.
