Marcus Rosner has become a solid lead at Hallmark, and Ashley Newbrough was in a very good Hallmark movie called "Small Town Christmas" with Kristoffer Polaha which, like many Hallmark movies, including this one, involves Big City developers trying to destroy the charm of a small town. And a flattering bikini shot of in her in her last Hallmark movie, Love in Glacier National Park, was apparently the first bikini shot of a lead ever seen in a Hallmark movie. The problem with this movie isn't the acting.
The movie starts with Abigail giving a pitch to a developer planning to break ground and start pre-sales on 100 units after the holidays. Abigail is apparently a "house flipper" and gives a generic speech about how her mom "loved interior design" and how she "provides families with beautiful homes, while always staying focused on profit and ROI." But none of that matters if she's going to be working as a realtor on pre-sales before the homes are even finished. Nevertheless, she shares her dad's quote that "you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when you're done" (it's a line that's used waaay too many times). That quote gets the developer's attention.
And Abigail's willingness to work "24/7" through the holidays is what convinces the developer to hire her to be his realtor. That's actually a BIG lucrative contract. But as soon as she gets the job, she leaves the city and goes home to help her brother in law fix up an old home he inherited from Grandpa Frank. When she gets there, she finds out that half of the property was left to a contractor named Bo who thought of Frank as a surrogate father.
Abigail (who has apparently decided NOT to work 24/7 through the holidays for the developer) agrees to work with Bo to spruce up the home despite an impasse on what to do with the home. Bo wants to turn it into a bed-and-breakfast and Abigail's sister and brother in law want to sell it, split the proceeds, and use the money to renovate their home to give Abigail's father a place to live. It's set up as one of the movie's Big Conflicts, but it's really a non issue. As any competent real property lawyer could explain, a court would order the property sold. Period.
Also, Bo has quite an attitude for someone who a) doesn't have the money to buy out his co-beneficiary and b) wasn't even related to Frank. And yet he dismisses Abigail's suggestions, pulls off her action item post it notes, and insists on changes designed to facilitate a bed-and-breakfast as opposed to a sale. Also, what exactly was his business plan for the bed-and-breakfast? Was he prepared to give up his work as a contractor? Who would run it with him? And did he understand he would have to share all of the profits with his co-beneficiary in the unlikely event they agreed not to sell?
Not only is he a dick at first, Bo inexplicably rolls paint across Abigail's sleeve in what I suppose the writer thought would be a "playful" moment. That and the ensuing paint war between two people who have literally just met, is supposed to seem "fun." It struck me as bad writing. But, remarkably, the stars still find a way to create some chemistry with each other despite a story line that fails to support a realistic connection between their two characters.
There are also more than a few good scenes. For example, I thought the scenes involving the remembrance tree were quite touching. I was also moved by a surprisingly emotional and well acted scene with Marcus Rosner, when his character reveals his back story and connection to Frank. Bo tells Abigail "Frank used to have this quote to help me see things more positively: 'don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened.'" It's a good quote, and though Bo attributes the line to Dr. Seuss, there is no written record of Dr. Seuss ever having said that. In 1899, German poet Ludwig Jacobowski wrote "Do not cry because they are past! Smile, because they once were!" Scholars regard that to be the earliest known version of the quote frequently misattributed to Dr. Seuss.
As much as I admired the acting, and a surprisingly creative ending, I couldn't buy into the premise that Abigail would suddenly abandon her business in the city (and her biggest client) to take on a renovation of an old home over an hour away as a favor to her sister and brother in law. And Bo's behavior towards Abigail in the beginning, and his insistence that the home be turned into a bed-and-breakfast without having the money to buy out the other beneficiary really bothered me. I was also stunned at the chutzpah of Abigail's assistant to contact the developer about a new issue without checking with Abigail first. And, assuming Bo was able to get his wish to run a bed-and-breakfast, and somehow convinced Abigail to stay in town with him, would that mean she would be giving up her entire successful business in the city? I hate when women give up successful and rewarding careers for a small town man they just met. And when did Abigail have the time to become a lawyer and look up obscure code sections? If she has the time to do that, she' should also probably review what it means for realtors to have a fiduciary duty to a client. She sure breached that duty.
