My Sweet Austrian Holiday

Loved this movie. Brittney Bristow and Will Kemp were wonderful in My Sweet Austrian Holiday. The addition of Catherine Disher was icing on the cake. I always enjoyed her in the Good Witch series, she truly adds a special something to everything she's in.

All of the cast worked well together. The true star of the show was the beautiful scenery. Truly enjoyed watching them walk all around the different places. The Christmas/ Holiday festival was very engaging and festive, really got us in the holiday spirit.

The chocolates, looked amazing and it actually looked like they were eating them!!

We would definitely watch again.

This is really a very slow-moving story. After a half-hour they'd done nothing I was interested in. My wife wanted to hang on a little longer, but after another ten minutes she decided to pull the plug on this one.

This is another of the extremely tired "losing business to new development" trope, and it really makes no sense here. I had no interest in the character of the male lead, and very little in the character of the female lead. Really, no tension and no interesting relationship building. Dialogue less interesting than my neighbors gossiping over a fence.

Added to this were very annoying affected British accents ... in Austria? Why? The Canadian actors were the worst, but the Englishman in the lead tried to affect an upper-crust accent that doesn't belong to him. I had to look him up to even convince myself he's actually English.

Not recommended.

I used to really like Brittany Bristow in her earlier films. But for the last few years, it hasn't been the same. Will Kemp is OK, but no more than that for me. I thought he was very stiff and seemed uncomfortable with Brittany in this movie. And this is really too bad, because the plot was certainly one of the most oft repeated Hallmark templates ever. Sometimes, I can put up with that if the movie has some good dialogue or some amusing little additions, or some good acting or other charms. This was strictly by the book, including dumbness on the part of both the female and male leads. Although the foreign setting of "Austria" (Really Bulgaria) did add some interest. Will didn't tell the truth, the old lack of communication leading to the last 15 minute bust up, And Brittany taking way too long to figure out who he was and to find proof of her stores historical significance. It didn't offend me, just bored me, so a generous 5 out of 10.

The plot hinges on the historic status of a chocolate shop on the Ringstrasse in Vienna. One of the most historic cities in Europe. Does anyone seriously believe that EVERY building in that area is not thoroughly documented? When it was built and what was on that site 800 years ago? Plus, historic status is almost entirely based on the architecture, not in the history of the business in the structure. Just look at the building in the film. It is clearly an old structure. They want us to believe an entire block on the Ringstrasse is so vulnerable? Maybe in Oatmeal, Nebraska, but not Vienna.

Also, hard to believe that candies are devised late at night in an apartment? Baking in bulk, costing, packaging?

The acting and chemistry between the leads is good. There are some lovely scenes of Vienna.

The name of the movie implies that it's in Austria, and all the landscape shots are set in Austria. But someone had the dumb idea to edit the movie to be based in Quebec City in the Canadian version. All online reviews state that the main character moves from Cincinnati to Vienna to take over her grandparents chocolate shop. But in the version I watched here in Canada they changed it to she's from Vancouver and went to Quebec City, problem is that the outdoor scenes doesn't even come close to looking like Quebec City (except for the opening shot of chateau Frontenac). Even the overdubbed voices and the many mention of Quebec is said when that character has their back to the camera. If the Movie was supposed to be based in Quebec then why keep the Austrian name of the movie?