Merry Christmas, Ted Cooper!

Truly a wonderful movie! This is a "feel good" movie that is positive with no silly subplots! Robert Buckley is great as usual and never fails to make whatever movie he is in fun and so enjoyable! His character is so lovable and so sweet!

For good clean fun and traditional romance, this is the movie to watch!

An overly positive upbeat weatherman, Ted Cooper (Robert Buckley) always encounters bad luck at Christmas time. He returns to his hometown, Lackawanna, to spend Christmas with his sister, and also to promote a fundraiser for a children's hospital. Through a series of his usual mishaps he reunites with his high school crush, Hope Miller (Kimberly Sustad) who has moved back to Lackawanna, and is now a doctor at the hospital. Ted and Hope start to get reacquainted, they regret never getting together in high school and a relationship starts to grow between the two. The plot is filled with witty and humorous dialog, we meet an amusing cast of supporting characters, a rival news anchor, Ken, his former teacher, Miss Mittens, and her walking club, his loving sister who is exhausted by her brother's antics and mishaps, and local town's folks who love Ted! This movie is a bit like if Buddy in Will Ferrell 's movie, "Elf" was a weatherman and had a series of bad luck Christmas accidents, all the while trying to impress the woman he loves. Yes, there's the usual Hallmark "conflict" and the ending is a bit predictable, but the clever and witty dialog and plot put a unique spin on this movie and make this a fun, lighthearted, charming, entertaining and a different type of Christmas story.

Robert Buckley gives a perfect performance as Ted which really anchors and sets the tone for the movie, and Kimberly Sustad plays her role perfectly as Hope.

Robert Buckley co-wrote and co-produced this movie about an accident prone weather reporter, Ted, who always finds the goodness in any person or circumstance. When he returns to his hometown to do "live" reports over Christmas, he encounters his old high school flame, Hope, at the hospital after one of his unfortunate accidents. The movie then deals with how these two characters come to discover things about themselves and each other. In the process, there is a lot of well-played humor, endearing charm, and Christmas spirit. Buckley is terrific as Ted - you can't help but like this guy. Since Buckley was involved with making this movie, he must have had some input in who would play Hope - and he made the perfect choice in Kimberley Sustad. She is terrific, too. And Sustad is the type of actress who always brings out the best her in her co-stars. She is an expert at performing in a manner that provides her fellow actors with enough "input' to let them shine, too. This is a really well-acted, funny, and delightful holiday production that is expensive looking and nicely directed by Jason Bourque. The supporting cast works hard, too, to keep things interesting, particularly Brendan Penny, in a hilarious turn as Ted's anchorman, Barbara Pollard, as Ruth, and Meghan Heffern, as Ted's frustrated sister, who doesn't know whether to hug him or slap some sense into him. It's all enjoyable, heartfelt fun.

This is only the third Hallmark Christmas movie I've watched so far this year. The first two were stinkers, this one was not! I've liked the two leads in past movies, and thought they had great chemistry together. I enjoyed the humor - the exchanges between Ted and Ken, the betting pool, to name a couple instances. Absolutely loved Kate's Buddy the Elf costume at her party, and it was fun to see people dressed as Clark Griswold, John McClane, among other Christmas characters. I think I may have spied a cousin Eddie, as well? Though I could be mistaken about that. It was a fun and charming movie all around!

This movie is a masterpiece. The best cast. The sweetest story. A little comedy and a little drama but all positive vibes. Lots of joy. The perfect ending. Great use of two of the best actors Hallmark has. Even a new twist or two. Bravo. It was fun to watch and it'll be one that I keep and rewatch over the season. Thank you!