Christmas Inn Farmstead

My fiancé and I are getting married at The Erickson Farmstead next year so we were excited to watch this movie. Although the storyline is good, it's very predictable and unfortunately ALL of the acting is absolutely horrible.

This Lifetime Christmas movie, I am afraid, is difficult to get thru. If you can manage to get thru the first 25 minutes, things get slightly better, but it is still a tough one to finish, I thought. The story is a bit odd: the seller asks the realtors to stay at the lodge for a week (to get to know the property) and compete for the listing. I do not mind different story ideas for Christmas movies, but the script in this one is poor, at times. Is it just me or did the characters in this movie all seem a bit off, a bit odd. A more positive spin could be they all seemed a bit quirky (some of the performances are, for sure). The movie does pick up a bit in the last 30 minutes, mostly due to the cute and festive nature of the scenes (e.g., snowman competition, sleigh riding and caroling). The music during this last 30 minutes was good. However, the music editing was not great (e.g., the scene at the beginning where the sisters are chatting on the couch, there is that song on in the background...drove me mad). The acting overall was decent. I have seen Lexi Giovagnoli several times on screen. She usually has good performances in this genre of film (i.e., TV romance movies). Her performance as Julia in this movie was pretty good. Travis Burns (playing Chad) had a decent performance, as well. The chemistry between them was not bad either. Unfortunately, the script did not help. The supporting cast's performance was a bit quirky, I felt. The filming location is supposed to be quite beautiful; I wish they did more with the landscapes and scenery in this movie (they did a little of this, to be fair). Overall, this Lifetime Christmas movie is, unfortunately, unexceptional and difficult to follow at times. That said, it might appeal to some if you can make it thru the first 25 minutes.

Romance Christmas movies start off with animosity between the leads most of the time. But this wasn't just animosity. Chad is dishonest, unethical, rude, arrogant, and a complete jerk. He's physically aggressive, taking things out of her hands. That's not temporary animosity, many of those are innate personality qualities. It continues for half the movie. Julia didn't appeal to me much either, but I definitely don't want to see her with Chad, ever. Then at the half way point, all the meanness and aggressiveness magically disappears. Still, there's never any real chemistry.

About a quarter of the movie is mundane stuff leading up to the premise of the leads being thrown together on the farm almost like prisoners. Not that the premise makes any sense - they even need to borrow used and ugly clothes???

The plot is thin. There's a lot of filler. There's several musical montages.

If you read a review here referring to "aliens" and "a zombie", those are metaphors. That fooled me for a bit and was actually the main reason I stuck past the beginning. Some things here are creepy, but not supernatural. After a while it goes from creepy, annoying and boring to only barely better than boring. There are a couple of unexpected things at the end leading to the inevitable.

I often remark that realism isn't expected in movies like this. There are plenty of problems with realism in various situations in this movie, but that's expected. I do want plausible and likeable personalities in the leads. I couldn't get past my conviction that Chad could never change from the downright bad person he was in the beginning to someone Julia should love.

This was such a nice comfort watch for the christmas season! I really enjoyed the performance of Rachel O'Connell as Jena Rogers, the complete standout of this film. It's rare that you find a performance so funny and relatable in a christmas movie, but nonetheless she delivered. Overall, very heartwarming and pleasant to watch. Highly recommend!

Kind of refreshing to have a different storyline in this Christmas movie. A plus that it is actually filmed in a spot that actually has snow and cold weather! I liked the different storyline. The two main characters find out more about each other and understand that they had both made assumptions of each other and fall for each other. Then the usual misunderstandings that turn around in the end.