A Perfect Christmas

This is a cute - but predictable - holiday movie from Hallmark about a couple keeping secrets during their first Christmas together.

I enjoyed the fast pace and supporting cast, but was annoying by one thing: they made the wife "a cute little idiot" in order for the story to work. At the beginning of the film, they showed us that she was a smart and competent woman with a good marriage, her own house, and a career of her own. However, the same character turns into a stupid little idiot over and over again, by leaving a suitcase behind, canceling a hotel reservation for no good reason, and burning a pan of lasagna (after specifically being told to take it out of the oven in 10 minutes).

By the end of the movie, I was completely annoyed by the "cute little idiot" messing things up, which isn't what the writers were going for. It would have been a far better movie if she hadn't been responsible for every mistake and the blame had been spread around among the other characters.

Cynthia and Steve are newlyweds and are about to spend their first Christmas together with their families. You can imagine it, it's a mess, and they encounter obstacle after obstacle while they are there.

I like it when Hallmarks offers us movies with couples who are already together or married. It was a cute movie, I enjoyed it. I got annoyed several times by Cynthia's mother in law. And I hate when the characters don't talk with one another and hide the secrets from each other. Communication is key, specially in a marriage.

Can you please get a hairdresser who doesn't give every female leading character ringlets?! Jeez, I'm SO tired of adult women with ringlets like young children! Can't any of them have grownup hairstyles? This storyline was better than so many that follow "they don't get along, now they seem to be friends, oops now they're thrown apart, now they're back as friends who can share a kiss in the last five minutes, because there's no time for it to go further". This had redeeming qualities and sense honour! Well done!

This movie should have been way better. I'm not sure why. No real excitement in the writing maybe. Maybe some of the attempts at comedy just fell flat. We have attractive likable leads. The couples parents have a great actor and actress we recognize and like. The brother is witty. There were a lot of themes and good ones- daughter in law pleasing mother in law, surprise pregnancy, loss of job due to a just cause. The movie was pleasant, but it did not have any real emotion, except for a moment when the mother in law is given a locket. The story just did not have good focus and did not come together in a compelling way. I did doze about half way but rewound and re-watched those parts. I see the original title is "A Perfect Christmas" and this is a good title- they even say it in the ending. "An Unexpected Christmas" just doesn't do it. Maybe an Alicia Witt could have saved this movie. This was a missed opportunity. I am thankful for the try.

It seems that the writers have an issue with women. They mess up constantly and can't solve problems. The families are intrusive and what's meant to be funny, falls flat.