Christmas Reservations

I must have a hundred or so hallmark, lifetime etc. Romance films on my drive but the leaden, stilted performances of the leads here and the sledgehammer multi race/culture/everything ism killed it for me in the scene setting. I'd like to throw the diversity and musical directors in a pit and leave them there.

Not sure why there are complainers! It was much better than the traditional plot line that always has someone eager to spoil the romantic opportunity between the two main characters! This worked out with two adults deciding how to conduct their own lives! We get tired of the miserable mother plot lines!

The characters were all likeable and pleasant. There weren't obscure complications to their lives or personalities!

We enjoyed the Markie Post character in the story. It was sad to realize the health concern that seemed to be her issue in the story line wa S actually a personal concern and that she passed away two years after this film was made! She was a very pleasant strong actress and sorry to realize this was one of her last film rolls.

It was a pleasant Christmas afternoon film to watch as we prepared for Christmas ahead.

I really like Melissa Joan Hart but this one did not flow. They tried to throw in too many characters and subplots that just felt rushed or like they didn't belong. I tried to like this one! Also, Carlos from Desperate Housewives kind of bugs me.

I had high expectations for Christmas Reservations, I came out disappointed.

It follows the usual course of Christmas romance stories, the usual sort of Christmas cliche cuteness. The main characters don't ever really develop, from start to finish they never become more than one dimensional. Their lack of character development is compounded by a lack of script strength and story development, the unnecessary secondary characters get a lot of screen time and overshadow the main storyline.

Although the movie ends in a predictably cute way, the movie plods along much longer than it should and falls flat when compared to other comparable Christmas romance movies. Melissa Joan Hart and Michael Gross take their characters as far as they can very well provided the limitations of the script and story.

While not an award winner, this was pretty enjoyable. I thought all of the matches were pretty obvious, but handled very well. As a typical Hart-break production (Melissa Joan and her mom) it is family friendly and fairly relaxed. The young people tend to get in trouble, but their elders show the wisdom of experience. Trying to avoid spoilers, I'll just that it does ramble a bit, and the running gags are pretty tame. Romance and happiness are slow to form, but are unavoidable in the end. Not a bad way to spend a couple of hours on a last afternoon or evening.