A Match Made at Christmas

The only explanation I could come up with for these two characters getting together in the end of this disaster is Stockholm Syndrome.

The male lead is so angry and verbally abusive to women in this movie. From start to finish, that it's sad they end up together in the end.

I enjoyed the music.

Otherwise I found it difficult to watch because the leads were so unlikable. I mean, the young lady was pleasant but I just could not believe that somebody as intelligent and capable as she was supposed to be would be so completely fixated on falling in love. The male lead was intolerable.

I would not be spoken to the way that young man spoke to women; I hope to raise my daughter so that she would not be spoken to that way. I'm not qualified to say whether it was abusive or simply extremely disrespectful but the red flags are all over the place.

A Match Made At Christmas starring Micah Lynn Hanson and Tim Llewellyn. This was a cozy Christmas movie but could have been so much better.

Holly, a Laura Branigan-esque resemblance, even had a scene with an off the shoulder sweater, was sweet running around trying to please everybody.

But Chris temporarily in town with a backstory of family and job issues, I though played a little too stern, too stiff to the point of appearing disturbed. It was definitely not love at first sight. At least not for him. It was more like clash of the titans.

Lori, the mother played by actress Shannon Dowling looked too young and amazing to have a child Holly's age. She was the level-head, the shoulder everyone leaned on.

The thing that wowed me was the beauty of the music. And I mean throughout the movie. The entire score. Hats off to Tyler Michael Smith for doing an amazing job. Typically, these Christmas movies have these flowing, magical soundtracks particularly the opening scenes and moments of reckoning.

This one caught my attention throughout. Wouldn't mind these sounds piping throughout the house while we entertained at Christmas (love Christmas songs).

I thought Holly put herself out there too much for Chris and he in turn did not treat her well enough to capture her heart.

This movie is full of selfish, mean horrible characters who treat the leading female character in a horrible manner. The sister in law is selfish and the male lead is abusive.

My Christmas film viewings over-time have been a very mixed bag. With some surprisingly good hits, where regardless of how predictable they are succeed in being full of charm, warmth and heart so succeeding in being light-hearted and undemanding fun. But also some quite big misses, where the characters are not likeable, everything is forced and shallow with implausibility too in some of the worst cases, the acting and writing being weak and basically with just nothing to them.

Personally have seen worse Christmas films overall than 'A Match Made at Christmas'. When it comes to Christmas films made in 2021, which was a very mixed bag (some surprisingly good, some average to decent and some average or less), 'A Match Made at Christmas' is one of the worst. The premise was a quite nice one, despite not being exceptional, but one major thing brought it down significantly and made it impossible to enjoy as it affected many other aspects as well.

'A Match Made at Christmas' has good things. Micah Lynn Hanson is charming in the female lead role, she looks comfortable and never overacts or undersells.

The production values are also quite nice, especially the scenery.

Sadly, they are not quite enough to salvage the film from being a complete mess everywhere else. What dooms 'A Match Made at Christmas' is as others have said the excessive unlikability of the male lead character. Overdone character flaws are a major pet peeve, especially if the character in question is meant to be likeable or/and rootable later on, and have not seen arrogance and disrespect this blatant in a long time. Tim Llewellyn is very wooden in the role. It is true that there are plenty of flawed people out there and that they do change and grow, but the flaws here are so overdone and any change or growth felt rushed and underdeveloped. Didn't detect any real chemistry between Hanson and Llewellyn, where it looked under-rehearsed or like they didn't like each other much, and their relationship is underdeveloped.

Character development is pretty limited in quantity and quality and the supporting cast look lost and at best forgettable in underwritten stock roles. The story is rather flimsy and it drags a lot, due to finding Llewellyn's character so mean spirited any charm or heart was very difficult to detect. What there is of the story is very little different to what has been seen before many times and better, while the final quarter is too pat and contrived. The script is stilted and can be very corny and too often mundane, also found it over serious.

Overall, pretty weak. 3/10.