Deck the Walls

It was such a terribly written movie, no plot whatsoever, all over the place, not sure how the script passed the producers, but it is childish and chaotic.

The two main leads were OK, and the actress that played the aunt is wonderful, also the TV reporter, but I just could not focus well on the story because the actor that plays the brother was so atrocious, he was lost and beyond bad in literally every scene, how did he even pass the audition, he is not even high school drama level good, he is just terrible. In most of the scenes he did not even know where to look or how to move within the scene, absolute amateur. Truly hope we will not be seeing him again in any of the Hallmark movies, this is obviously not a career for him.

I did like the costumes in the film and the set decor was nice as well.

A looked forward to watching Deck the Walls mostly due to the cast. The house flipping/renovation Holiday Hallmark film is not a novel concept, but I really like both Ashley Greene and Wes Brown. I was impressed with the remainder of the cast leads as well. However, as others mentioned, the motivation behind the character's emotions towards one another took too long to be revealed, and while I do appreciate line upon line development, it was hard to get a grasp on, especially for a Hallmark movie. It would have been very easy to drop that Rose had a crush on Brysen growing up in the initial conversation with Sal. Even still, I didn't understand why she had such animosity towards him when he didn't even know. It would have been one thing if there was a conflict in their history, but nothing. He didn't know, he was with his high school sweetheart, and she kept it hidden. I also felt that the development between Sal and Jake was a little forced. I liked how the backstory unfolded but something just wasn't there. I also felt this featured the most intentional product placements I've seen in Hallmark movies before. Subtle placement is fine, but this was a bit over the top and I feel took a bit away from the film. I love Nutella though, and those cookies looked fire! I think if you are already fans of Ashley Greene, Wes Brown, or Danny Pellegrino, you will enjoy this just fine. It's a good movie to have on while baking cookies- far from the worst one of the season, but is far from an instant classic. It otherwise fits the typical rom-com story arc- here's to a Christmas wish that future lead characters won't be so weakened by odd insecurities or misunderstandings/miscommunication.

Hallmark scriptwriters are getting worse and worse when it comes to developing realistic conflict between the love interests. This was no exception. For some reason, Hallmark thinks we need to have the hero and heroine be at odds to start the story and then follow along as they smooth over their differences and fall in lovel The paper-thin plot failed to hold my interest. It needed more emphasis on story and less of a focus on Danny Pellegrino. It was great to see General Hospital's Carolyn Hennesy in a fun role, but she wasn't enough to save this snoozefest. The lack of chemistry between Wes Brown and. Ashley Greene also didn't help. And only the Hallmark Channel could come up with a premise that the community needs to rally together to build a new home for the high school principal because he's outgrown his old one. Habitat for the Middle Class.

Not the best Hallmark movie ever made but also far from the worst. I like Wes Brown and I like Ashley Greene; they always elevate these productions with their presence and their chemistry was on point.

"Deck the Walls" rolls out the old 'professional returns to their home town for the first time in years' and it does so with a charity aspect.

Of course, there was the standard moment of miscommunication moment two thirds of the way into the movie, but that - of course, and as is expected - was resolved neatly before a heart-warming ending.

I'm sure some people will be upset by the secondary couple being gay, but I wasn't. Their storyline added something to the movie, rather than them being there just for diversity.

Solid Hallmark Christmas fun.

I almost dnf'd this in the first 10 minutes, but I persisted and I can't say I am happy about that...with the exception of getting to see Carolyn Hennesy as Aunt Gigi. This film starts as a hot mess. The dialogue is awkward, the meeting between characters is awkward, there are lots of sad themes liking bullying, divorce, poverty, death, coping techniques, loss of family home to fire, etc. For me this added a lot of negatives to what should be a light Hallmark holiday film, add in that this had advertising imbedded in it for both HomeGoods and Nutella and it rapidly moved into a film I not only can't recommend, but don't want to watch. (Not that I have anything against either HomeGoods or Nutella, but we are already watching too many commercials on cable which we pay for.)

The best part of this film was Aunt Gigi, played by the lovely Carolyn Hennesy. I have loved her as the tough but lovable mob lawyer on GH, where she has set an example of a strong, loyal, independent woman for years. The other aspect that was enjoyable was the exterior of the fixer-upper home. I am sorry to say those two items don't push this over into the recommendation category for me.