La ricetta segreta del Natale

I lost count. They must have said Hot Chocolate 60 or 70 times in this lame movie. Very irritating. Absurd premise. The usual empty cup syndrome. The cups are clearly empty and every time, they tilt the cup 2/3 of the way back for their 1st sip of a very hot drink. Do none of these people have common sense??? Didn't care for for the lead actress.

A harmless movie but an absurd one.

To set the expectation, this is a Lifetime movie that strikes me of more of a Hallmark movie. It's pure innocence, nothing that would raise a brow or create even an iota of scandal.

This story focuses on two young entrepreneurs who both have started their own cafe businesses. Technically, one is a cafe (hers) and the other is a pastry shop (his). They are neighbors on a cute Hallmark-y street, and have just met at the start of the movie. They have no chemistry, because they are both somehow a little reserved.

Colette is adorable but extremely suspicious that Marcus is trying to steal her business when she discovers that his hot chocolate recipe is identical in taste to her own.

I won't give away the rest, but basically, the story writes itself. Except: there are some little twists that create more interest than the usual Christmas movie.

1. There is a twist mid-movie that is not expected, at least not to me.

2. The situations are realistic; money is not overflowing magically, and there are potential hardships.

3. The supporting characters (his partner and that person's wife) are very likeable, real, and contained by the limitations most of us would face.

4. The mom of Colette is probably my least favorite character, mainly because she has an inexplicable hard side. However, I think the movie resolves (or at least explains) that fairly well.

My only concern is the resolution; I thought that should have been more of a dual decision, but you can watch and see for yourself.

Hot Chocolate Christmas/Holiday (2020) -

My opinion of this film was probably skewed by the fact that Jonny Swenson in the lead male role of Marcus was absolutely adorable. The face, those eyes and that smile - Swoon! With a bit of work he might even be able to learn to act too. He wasn't the worst by a mile, but he needed a better director, bless him.

The character of Frank Banner was very odd though, as if they had dubbed his voice afterwards and not considered how weird it was and Colette's Mother was a tad special too, like something from a cartoon rather than reality, which this film mostly seemed to be otherwise.

I liked the slightly different storyline and the friend dynamics. Sometimes having too many other characters can take away from the main romance, but they really bolstered things in this film.

I could see the appeal in Marcus from the off, but I needed her to calm down before I started to think that Colette might be worthy of him and when she realised that she had been a crazy lady it definitely got easier to believe that they might be falling for each other.

The film was full of Christmas and mostly cheerful. Jonny's smile really was so charming that you couldn't help but want him to succeed, even with the occasional bad line delivery and in the end, even she wasn't so obnoxious that I wanted her to fall flat on her face.

6/10.

Slow moving, no spark between the leads, some good acting, but does contain a few scenes in which the acting is bad enough your eyes will roll into the back of your head. The story line is rediculous, the script needed a rewrite, and the acting was uninspired.

Even for someone who has low acceptability threshhold for holiday movies, this is not worth the time.

Christmas films can go either way, which has been my experience watching overtime the festive output of Lifetime, UPTV and Hallmark etc. They can either be well-meaning, charming, warm-hearted and don't feel too heavy. Or they can be too over-sentimental, cheesy, contrived and bland. There have been many films of theirs that have fallen in both camps and in the camp where there is a bit of both. And 'Hot Chocolate Holiday' did have the sort of premise where the execution could have gone either way.

Mostly, the execution fares reasonably well in 'Hot Chocolate Holiday'. It is a long way from great, even when judging it for what it was trying and aiming to be and taking it for what it was, and it is easy to see where those that didn't care for it are coming from. It is a hot chocolate that could have done with some warming up, but it is hardly stone cold. Which actually was pretty much what was expected. There are a lot of good things here and there is a good deal to be charmed by.

By all means it isn't perfect. It is another film where it did take time for me to warm to the female lead character and the story. The female lead character could have done with more personality to start with and her character traits are not too endearing, her competitiveness seeing her combative attitude towards others being overdone and she seemed too uptight. Aubrey Reynolds is a bit too stiff to begin with.

Story-wise, 'Hot Chocolate Holiday' is a slow starter, with it taking too much time to get anywhere in terms of story development. The hostility is somewhat too overwritten and has a bit too much of a mean spirited edge, while the tension is too lukewarm which does make the final quarter fall flat.

That sounds like 'Hot Chocolate Holiday' is bad. Have already said it isn't and there was a lot that works. When her character softens later and eases, Reynolds looks and sounds a lot more comfortable and is charming. Jonny Swenson, as the more consistently written and likeable character, is very easy going and liked that he was charismatic but in an understated way. He and Reynolds do have some nice natural chemistry together, even if it doesn't fire completely on all cylinders. The supporting cast are fine and of the characters there were only issues with Reynolds' one early on.

Furthermore, the festive atmosphere is very well done and there are a fair share of sweet though thankfully not sickly scenes. Was not crazy about the script early on, but it did have a nice mix of funny and poignant lines. The story may be thin but has a warm heart and charm and doesn't take itself too seriously. The scenery is typically lovely and the music is overdone in tone or placement.

In summary, decent but not great and inconsistent. 6/10.