The Christmas Promise

Good basic story even if it borrows themes rather blatantly from other movies, but at least not all the same movie. Good acting. Good dialogue. Some good scenes that pop like the one with the three women with facial crème masks. And awesome chemistry between Torrey DeVito and Dylan Bruce.

DeVito's, Nicole is very appealing. Her grief makes her sympathetic and scenes before and later show her to be generous, loving and amiable.

This could have been an excellent movie, but more than once, I went "huh"? I missed where the Christmas tree in the field came from. Maybe it was mentioned, but it hit me out of nowhere. Nicole goes from so deep in grief that she barely leaves her house except for work then to being flirty with Joe way too quickly. There's another change of mood that is way too quick near the end. There are others.

Some of the movie's attempts to pull heartstrings over Nicole's grief were too obvious. They still managed to work, but they should have been less blatant.

It's still a good movie, but it could have been very good. It felt like scenes were left out for time. You don't waste a name like Patrick Duffy, but I think the story would have flowed better by removing his dating life completely (even it felt truncated) and filling in some gaps with Nicole and Joe.

I like that the story was about getting through grief rather than the usual "I don't like Christmas and also my big corporation wants to buy your small business" story. A lot of people are sad at Christmas and it's good to see that addressed. It's always good to see Patrick Duffy on my screen, and I also liked that one of the main character's friends was obnoxious, rather than all the friends being super nice robots. There's always one!

How refreshing to see a Hallmark movie that does not have a writer, chef, event planner, or lawyer. Perhaps the screenwriters should consider several other professions such as in this movie instead of recycling the same scripts over and over in most of their movies. I enjoyed this one, because it was different.

I like it's not the same-o Hallmark Christmas movie set up. Trying for a little more drama, less fluff. But felt so lack luster, no real feelings. The actors were ok, just zero connection to them. Sorry doesn't make my yearly watch list.

6/10 - love that Hallmark included an honest look at grief in their slate of movies this year, but something about how it ended (no spoilers) really didn't sit well with me.