Christmas at the Chalet

Okay one to watch. I do love Teri Hatcher and she was fun to watch. Typical characters. Worldly French mother, spoiled rich son, obnoxious ex hubby. The scenery was absolutely stunning. Quite amazing how a mother and son along with a couple chalet girls run that whole place. And that "suite" in the staff quarters!!! Looked better than her ex hubby's room! I do have one burning question. How does one fit 5 different complete color coordinated ski outfits into that one small suitcase she brought with her? And a plethora of sweaters and dresses too. She needed to do a video on how to pack a suitcase in the show. 🤣

Yes Christmas movies have no original plots and if you're lucky they're filmed at a scenic real location instead of the Hallmark studio lot in Vancouver. There are a few of the Christmas movie actress troupe that can actually carry a movie (ex. Bethany Joy Lenz) such that's its watchable. Terri Hatcher is now in that small group IMHO. This movie is in reality a Terri vehicle so if you like her (I do) then sit back and enjoy. Otherwise you may want to skip it. Scenery is ok but mostly generic Colorado ski area. Actors are competent but are overshadowed by TH. Dialog / Direction is focused on Hatcher, so it works as long as she is performing. All in all a watchable holiday movie thanks to TH.

Teri Hatcher was fabulous. Material was not the best but she did a terrific job. Her lead actor not so good. Mother of the son was very good and brought warmth to the role. Lifetime should def do more rob coms and def use Teri Hatcher. She is a great comedic actress The surrounding cast was fine but not to much to do. My biggest criticism is the amount of commercials. It ruined the flow of the movie. The x husband was fine should have given him more to do the hotel atmosphere was a great backdrop. Reminded me of that fabulous series hotel with Connie Selleca. All in all a very nice Xmas movie without all the Xmas fluff.

I'm going to be honest, the whole reason I considered watching this was Teri Thatcher. During the summer, I watched Lois and Clark: The Adventures of Superman and I really enjoyed it, even though I haven't finished it yet. She is an amazing actress, which still holds up in this movie. As for this movie, it's not the best Christmas one I've seen. It actually just the same as this 2022 Lindsay Lohan Christmas movie I watch first. But trust me, I've seen ones that I've had to pause for a moment multiple times because it was that painful to watch. While I probably wouldn't watch this a second time, it still wasn't that bad.

So many things in this movie didn't make sense to me and I'm not referring to the lack of reality that so many rom/coms have. I read other reviews to see if I could figure out anything about what I just watched. I think the word "romp" fits and it fits Teri Hatcher in this movie. The movie really was dominated by her and she basically romped her way through the story as Lex.

Lex's boyfriend breaks up with her so she takes her son's advice and goes to Aspen to be near him for Christmas. The next bit is something I've never seen before and I have seen hundreds of rom/coms and Christmas movies. Her reservation at the chalet didn't go through so she agrees to take a room as a "chalet girl" or basically service staff. She becomes the hired help. And she loves it. Meanwhile she makes posts about her experience and has tons of followers

As I said, Lex romps her way from one things to another including some things she does while not working like a night on the town with a coworker and ski lessons.

That's not enough to fill the story so let's throw in her ex-husband who is in the same place. He's there with their son. He is also there with a girl half his age. She has to wait on all of them. Like many movies involving an ex, the ex chases her down and talks about getting back together. What happens after that to Lex, her new beau, and her ex makes no sense at all. All three of them make crazy choices, so in that sense the climax is not that predictable even if the ending eventually is. Is not being predictable good if it is because the climax makes no sense? I don't want to give away spoilers but let me just say more than one character says one thing late in the movie and then 5 minutes later run time they say or do the opposite.

Note to self. This movie was passably OK once but don't watch it again.