Tis the Season to Be Irish

I always watch Hallmark Christmas movies all the way through at least once. I love these movies even with the similar plots. This movie was really slow for me. It wasn't festive or inspirational, should be one or both. I thought that the couple lacked chemistry and I never understood how she could fall so quickly in love with someone who deceived her. I realize a lot of Hallmark movies start out with little deceptions but the characters always redeem themselves pretty quickly, at least feel bad. Imo he never really redeemed himself. He had some character flaws I just didn't feel comfortable about. The scenery was very pretty. I'm not usually a fan of the destination shows. I like small town America(or Canada if filmed there). It's not a movie I will rewatch but I think it's worth a first watch(if you can stay awake).

I disagree with most posters here. Sean isn't that bad. Sure he was tough, he mostly wanted someone who wasn't planning on flipping the house. He tried to talk her out of buying the house. The utmost worst part of the movie was the timeline. I am SHOCKED no one mentioned this. This old delapitated rundown house with major problems (roof a huge mess) was miraculously renovated in a matter of weeks apparently all by herself with plenty of social time to boot. They could have least pretended it was several months. The ending was pushed through too quick as well. One of my least favorite movies yet.

One of the first things established in the story is that Rose is a veteran of many flips and quite successful. That takes a couple of minutes. She then proceeds to make decisions that are completely stupid besides being warned by more than one person not to. But in arrogance she doubles down on stupidity. Then she reaps the fruit of her stupidity. Not just difficult but maddening. This makes absolutely no sense.

There are quite a few moments of Rose getting to know her new neighbors. Everyone but Sean seems to be friendly and welcoming. Sean goes back and forth between being just downright mean and somewhat welcoming. But for a while, he is not just mean, he is a dictator acting in what appears to be revenge. What he is doing would be criminal except with him being local and Rose foreign, she could never get justice.

I do not understand why she spends time with Sean, flirts with him and even lets him touch her. His tyranny miraculously disappears somewhere before the mid point. And they start to build a relationship just like none of it happened. At this point the story starts exploring Rose's deeper feelings. At one point she expresses an idea that sounds a lot like young people living for themselves with no thought of children. But she expresses other thoughts as well, so it's hard to define Rose. Possibly Rose can't define Rose. Fear of feeling trapped seems to be deeply seated and drives much of her story from that point. Fiona Gubelmann does a good job showing Rose's struggle.

For me this was two movies. One made me very angry and I would like to forget it. The other was more enjoyable. Taken together, I won't watch this again.

The male lead was fantastic as grumpy Irish love interest in this hate to love Hallmark holiday romance set in the lush green of Ireland. Home flipper Rose buys an as-is Irish cottage sight-unseen. When she arrives she meets local know-it-all Sean, who turns pretty grumpy when he finds out she wants to just fix-it and flip-it. As the preservation society's preservationist, Sean has to approve all renovations of Rose's historic cottage.

Rose and Sean have great banter, which ends up being my favorite part of this film. I really liked the actor Eoin Macken who played Sean, but I thought the character of Rose was written a bit cold. I did appreciate that Sean didn't want to kiss her when he thought she wasn't interested in commitment or settling down. As a romantic I was thrilled with the conclusion and I'm glad it went the route it did...and lamb chop was cute!

This was disappointing and like many of the new Hallmark Christmas movies during this 2024 season, it is just a series of scenes in which the performers just talk on and on and nothing really interesting happens. Plus, this has very little to do with Christmas - if you are looking for a film to put you in the holiday spirit, this won't do it. It's a shame really because the Ireland scenery is beautiful and it is nice to see that this was filmed at real locations. Also, these are very good performers whose talents are just wasted here. Fiona Gubelman was excellent in "The Good Doctor" series and Eoin Macken is a very likable, interesting actor, but they just can't save this from being a rather pleasant bore. So, if you are looking for something to watch while you just relax and "veg out," this will work. Otherwise, there is nothing here to excite you much.