A California Christmas

Well... To be fair I went into this movie fully expecting it to be a half star affair, but wow this was actually cute. Literally none of the main characters in this movie are unbearable which is unheard of in this genre.

The first 1/3 of this movie is terrible so be forewarned. If you can stick it out however, it gets much much better. It may not top any lists but it has heart in the second half. Not much Christmas though

If one is looking for originality or strong holiday themes, look elsewhere. I tuned in because I like Josh Swickard. To his credit, he has admitted that the script was written by his wife/co-star in a couple of weeks. And, was filmed on her family's property during General Hospital's Covid-hiatus. With that caveat, I think that California Christmas is very watchable. It does not suffer the stiff blandness of a Hallmark movie. Josh, David del Rio and Ali Ashfar provided a good amount of comic relief. Lauren Swickard successfully threaded the fine line of being a fiercely independent woman who can ask for help when she needs it, as well as acknowledge appreciation for help she might not have initially wanted. Amanda Detmer also rose above what could have been considered an overly sentimental character.

The real Manny is the star of the movie... he needs his own spinoff.

Joseph needs to convince the owner of this ranch to sell the property so that his company can develop a distribution center. Callie, the owner, doesn't want anything to do with that. So, in order to get close to her and convince her, Joseph poses a "ranch boy" (I think).

We all know how this is gonna to turn out since reading the premise. It's predictable. But it was a sweet movie. Reading the title you expect it to be all happy, Chrismassy, and joyful movie. It wasn't anything like that. Christmas isn't a big part of it, this could have happened in any time of they year and it's actually not relevant when it takes place. There are sad moments that are part of Callie's history, maybe unnecesary but still adds to the plot. My only major complaint, probably, is that we needed a few more laughs.

I like when actors are involved in the production so kudos to Lauren (and Josh) for writing, producing and acting in this. If you are fan of romance/"chick-flick" movies, you'll probably like it.