Christmas CEO

Paul Greene is personable enough! Marisol Nicols is bubbly when needed. They don't click romantically.

The storyline would have worked with other leads.

Now that Hallmark needs to virtue signal with POC checks the 2021 box. Christmas' niece, on queue, acts angry and switches to convivial. Check. I wanted this to succeed, but felt more like paint drying instead of holiday cheer.

I don't know if it was the actor, Paul Greene, the writers or the director, but i found his character very unlikeable. Paul was stiff and unrefined. His character was narcissistic and crude. The other characters gave good performances and were the only reason i finished the movie. Marisol Nichols was especially good. The ending was unrealistic & unsatisfying.

I usually like Paul Green, but there was no chemistry in these characters. The story might have worked, but it didn't. Extra stars for being family friendly.

I remember when Hallmark Christmas movies were cute and there was a little bit of an attempt at a story line. Now that they churn out so many movies each Christmas season, Hallmark really doesn't care if there even IS a story line.

Intro of movie shows main characters Joe and Christmas (no, I didn't make this up, that's her name 🙄) selling homemade toys as children. It's 1999. Fast forward 22 years which would make Joe and Chris between 35 to 40 years old. Joe and Chris, although they have aged better than most, are clearly not between 35 to 40 years old. Chris always wanted to be CEO of a toy company. For some reason, Joe does not share in Chris' enthusiasm of having a profitable business, so he abandons the partnership of the toy company and disappears. They haven't communicated in seven years. When Chris gets an offer to merge their company with another, she quite easily locates Joe exactly where you would presume he would be, but for some reason, a random Santa Claus had to give her that information.

Joe and Chris meet up. Joe tells his dad he always had feelings for Chris, but never shared them. Her zeal for success was a real turnoff for him. Typically for Hallmark, there is usually another love interest that provides some drama in the story. This, however, didn't happen in Christmas CEO. There really was no plot, no conflict. It left me wondering how tired the writers must have been when they slapped this script together.

The obligatory child was thrown in to this story, in this case, a teenaged niece of Chris. My daughter and I were in tears when Joe lovingly scooped up this sleeping adult-sized "child" to put her to bed. Super cringey.

Truly disappointing as I set my PVR to watch this one as I am a Paul Greene fan and have enjoyed some of other movies, especially Anything for Love. I didn't like the female love interest.

The only thing she's ever wanted in her life - to be CEO of a toy company... THEN why does she basically give it up for a guy? Hallmark - you missed the mark on this one. Casting was off too. Paul Greene's character was annoying and he was kind of a jerk. Not a good look for the "nice guy of Hallmark movies." Marisol Nichols was too tentative to be a CEO of ANYTHING. The niece was good though...LOL.