Coup de foudre à l'auberge de Noël

I enjoy holiday movies any time of year. I also enjoy romantic comedies involving the holidays, such as is the premise of this movie. Unfortunately, although the plot and theme of the movie was attractive, I never saw or felt any chemistry between the leads. I especially felt that Graham was just going through the lines, no emotion, no connection and no chemistry at all. , I never got the warm, touching, and feel good emotions that I generally get when watching the Hallmark movies. If only the chemistry would have been there and perhaps Grahams part could have been written better or played by a different actor, but I don't think even that would have made that much difference. Sorry, but that's the truth.

I really liked B&B Merry!! I absolutely adore Jen Lilly and I really like Jesse Hutch. They made a cute couple. We've seen a variation of this storyline with Hallmark movies. Jen is a blogger who was asked to come to Silver Peak B&B to help bring guests in with all her followers. There is competition with a newer high end hotel that is in the area. She does review both of them. I'm not going to give anything away. Although it's predictable it's really well done. I absolutely loved the comedic antics of the mom and Aunt. They played well off each other. This is one of my favorites of the season.

The mind actually boggles at how many of these cheap, soft-soap Christmas TV romance movies the channels can churn out.

With my wife, I've now watched three in a row of this type and the characters and plots seem interchangeable in every one. An attractive young woman, usually from the city with a nerdy / emotionless boyfriend, finds an excuse to go to the country at Christmas time where she invariably 1) helps the local community in some way, 2) finds herself but only after overcoming a minor setback or source of confusion in her life and 3) naturally finds love with a handsome, single local man who brings out the country girl in her so that she can reject that mean old city with its fast, shallow lifestyle.

This one sees travel blogger Jen Lilley end up in Smalltown, Vermont just in time for the Christmas holidays. She's been invited there by a down-on-its-luck bed and breakfast property run by a widow, her older sister and, you guessed it, her handsome, single son. Only trouble is, she's already been hired by a major magazine to favourably review a big hotel in the same town, which is killing the prospects of the homely little B and B. Conveniently, on her very first day in the town, her current boyfriend dumps her. So what do you think are the chances of her turning around the fortunes of the little establishment, rediscovering her moral compass and naturally, fall for her soulmate-in-waiting, who just happens to be the eligible son of the bed and breakfast proprietor? Well, does Santa have a big white beard?

My wife and I had a lot of fun guessing the plot developments well in advance of their actually occurring, in fact you could extend that anticipation to actual lines of dialogue.

With lots of lingering, soft focus camera work, dialogue straight out of a batch of assorted Christmas cards and some sappy incidental seasonal music trilling away in the background, this is another one for the Hallmark set, although I must say, even my wife is starting to weary of these almost identical productions from which you can't seem to escape at this time of year.

Once the premise is set up, this movie follows the usual lines for a movie in this genre. The premise has a tiny twist on blogger sent to review a place to stay in a small town. In this movie, Tracey has already accepted an invitation to a struggling B&B as an independent reviewer on a romantic getaway. But a big magazine offers to hire her for a review on another more traditional hotel in the same town. She figures she can do both, ignoring the obvious conflict of interest. So as she checks into the B&B, she has one secret but quickly adds a second - her boyfriend breaks up with her while she is literally on the porch before checking in.

From there the usual stuff unfolds. The break-up secret is revealed quickly and actually generates some sympathy. It also makes her available romantically. There are Christmas activities. There are discussions with intimate friends or relatives about the fact that there is no romance. Tracey helps Graham make the inn more appealing. They decide to revive a Christmas dance tradition. There is an expected conflict and the resolution is much the same as many movies with a similar premise.

This movie is family friendly. The acting is decent. The dialogue is also, but not sparkling. There is chemistry between Jen Lilly and Jesse Hutch. Once aspect was overplayed. Graham's mom and aunt who really run the inn go overboard drastically in doing things for Tracey in the name of hospitality. Were I the guest here I would run away from the intrusive attention.

7.5 stars.

I wasn't smiling much watching this installment of a Christmas family Hallmark romance genre... What we have in this story is a woman who does travel blogs, she visits hotels and B&B's and motels and all those places where people get lodged up. She has traveled all over the world and has a fairly popular website. Two competitors land on her docket so she has to compare them simultaneously. One is a small town family B&B and the other is the competition, a major large chain hotel in the same town, not known for charm, caters to wealthy and such. She is conflicted and falling in love with the owner of the B&B's son, and there we have the usual Hallmark/Family production.

The acting is very good, the drama is serious, the feelings are real. I like this sort of story, I don't need all the fluff and smiles. This type of movie works for me, albeit it's not making me ecstatic edge of my seat happy, but I'm entertained and satisfied. I like it when these two leads are serious, they are very good at portraying these emotions. Pleasantly surprised.