A Brush with Christmas

This GAF holiday romance is about two artists who have chosen other professions. Charlotte (Jillian Murphy) runs the family restaurant, but secretly wishes she had time to indulge her true passion: art. Wyatt (Joseph Cannata) does commercial building renderings, but has always wanted to explore his more creative side.

When Wyatt visits an old friend during the Christmas holiday, he meets Charlotte and they hit it off. Charlotte hopes to submit an entry in the local Christmas art contest, but tosses her unfinished canvas when she realizes she needs to devote all her time to the restaurant, where she is also the head chef. When her incomplete painting appears on a wall at the contest venue, marked "anonymous", she is puzzled. How did it get there? And how does she feel about that?

Burgeoning romantic feelings are kept in check by the fact that Wyatt will leave after the holiday. When, in fact, he receives an offer for a dream job in London, it looks to spell the end of their infatuation.

The two lead actors are believable in their roles. Also watch for Farrah Aviva, who plays Charlotte's friend and coworker, Ella, with enjoyment and energy. And Michael Strickland, who plays Wyatt's friend David in a role that is too small.

I really appreciated the fact that the artwork around which the story revolves is, in fact, worthy of attention, giving the story authenticity.

Like others I have spent the last month and a half watching Christmas movies, GAF if I can get access, Hallmark, Lifetime and CBS. There are only a few that I must comment on and this is one. The story is cute, the female lead character is talented, thoughtful unlike some of them whose reasoning ability is missing or can't carry on a coherent conversation, and the male lead has a neat profession. Why I must comment is the MOTHER image. Not clear, but think she is to be the CEO of the restaurant with female lead and daughter the head chef. As a leader she is useless, her facial features never change. Monotoned, she is supposedly mooning over Patrick but even that is lifeless except for the ridiculous eye batting, Patrick by the way does have life and character. Maybe her lines were lame but she could have given some spark to them, at least shown some emotion but essentially she is one drab annoying actress. On the plus side, hope to see Joseph Cannata in more movies and TV series.

"A Brush With Christmas" is a wonderful movie. I'm not a big fan of art, but the art in this movie is great. The actors are excellent. The lead actors are great in their roles. All the actors are very believable. I don't like this movie as much as my favorite Hallmark Christmas movies (like "Call Me Mrs. Miracle." "Eloise at Christmastime," "Crown For Christmas," etc). But it is a sweet movie. A head chef at her mom's restaurant loves to paint, and to stop working at a restaurant, but is working at the restaurant to help her mom out. She wants to be a full time painter. She meets another artist named Wyatt, who found the painting that she threw away. The ending of the movie is great.

I love Christmas movies even if these types are cheesy and basically the same thing just with different actors. I just like the feel of them during the holidays. This is my first year watching movies on the GAC channel. I have moved away from Hallmark movies. This movie was missing chemistry. The male lead actor did not know how to act. The lines that they gave the actors felt flat and short. Some of the cuts didn't make sense. That zooming action they did on Charlotte when she was looking at the painting was a no. The ending with the people clapping was a please stop moment. That was cringey.

We watched a total of 55 Hallmark and GAF movies this year, and I'd say between five and ten of them were movies we REALLY enjoyed.

This wasn't one of them. Very little about this story rang true for me, and the actors were mostly pretty flat. It would also have been nice if the writers knew ANYTHING about painting. Painters don't start a canvas and paint from left to right. LOL

We now have nine more movies to watch during the season, all DVDs or Blurays in our collection, of our true seasonal favorites. And we'll finish up that viewing with A Christmas Story and It's a Wonderful Life on Christmas Day ... with White Christmas our tradition on Christmas Eve, and Holiday Inn the night before that.

I wish all reading here a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!