A Christmas to Savour

Scarlett is a goddess among chefs, according to her own mind. She is right about everything. Only the most sophisticated dishes will do. And that is her attitude through more than half the movie despite the fact her business is struggling, her partner is trying to push her to new and simpler for the holidays, and she goes on a cooking retreat to gain inspiration.

The instructor of the retreat is a rival from her past, James, and she is resistant to everything he wants to pass on. It comes to a head about halfway and her creation gets no praise from the rest of the class, but she seems unphased. So, James' solution is to tell the entire class to take a holiday as a break from class. Finally, Scarlett and James spend some quality time. Even then, Britt Irvin and Zach Roerig have no chemistry. And I wasn't impressed with the acting of either of them. Usually at this point there is a budding romance that gets threatened by a conflict. The conflict does come and is the result of Scarlett's arrogance but there is no evidence of an actual romance despite the fact that the story continues as if there is one.

The story might have been mediocre, but the portrayals of the characters by the lead actors left it far worse than even that.