'A Christmas Family Reunion' (2021)
Opening thoughts: Decided to see this having recently been on a roll watching Lifetime's 2021 Christmas films, which did vary in quality.'A Christmas Family Reunion' could have been a good deal better than it was though. There are things that are good, but there are too many areas where it is lacking (badly) for me to recommend it. 'A Christmas Family Reunion' is a long way from being one of the worst Christmas films seen recently, where there has been a mixture of good, bad and somewhere in between, but it is also a long way from being one of the best. In ranking, it would be somewhere around lower middle. Lifetime did do some decent Christmas films in 2021, the best surprisingly very well done, but this isn't one of them.
Good things: Did think that some of the acting was better than average. The two leads are charming enough and Vanessa Williams and Wendy Robinson provide some much needed zest.
It looks nice, well shot with lovely scenery. The music is nice and nostalgically festive enough and Asia'h Epperson's song at the end is sweet and beautifully sung, just wish that her role was bigger and played to her strengths.
Bad things: Not all the actors come off well. Some do try too hard and others have bland personalities. The central chemistry is underdeveloped and bland, with the awkwardness being overdone to begin with. The characters are not developed enough and what there is is cliched and over-simple.
Furthermore, the script throughout is weak. It was mostly very stilted and cheesy as well as dreary with too much blandness to have any sentimental value. The story never comes to life, with a very pedestrian pace. And because of doing absolutely nothing different with a premise already done to death is very predictable. It is also very thin, especially early on and the conflict is confused and underdeveloped, when given any explanation too late it felt over-explained. The ending is too neat.
Concluding thoughts: Overall, very lacklustre.
4/10.
