A Chestnut Family Christmas

Having grown up with two very competitive brothers, an attractive woman in New York by the name of "Nina Chestnut" (Meagan Holder) is too embarrassed to tell either of them that she has quit her job as a lawyer and now works as a cook for an extremely wealthy family instead. And while neither of her siblings are the wiser at first, things become complicated when her oldest brother "Kyle Chestnut" (Jaime M. Callica) announces that, because his home is currently being renovated, he cannot host their annual Christmas gathering there. And since the youngest brother "Jayson Chestnut" (Klarc Jerome Wilson) is currently looking for a new place, it therefore falls upon Nina to host the event. To that effect, since the family she cooks for has gone away for the holidays and won't be returning until another week, she reluctantly agrees to host the annual family event. Unfortunately, it doesn't end there, as she also told them that she was engaged--which is equally untrue. So, to continue her ruse, she convinces her best friend "Malcolm Butler" (Brad James) to temporarily move in with her and pretend to be her fiancé. The problem, however, is that Malcolm is actually engaged to another woman named "Neesa" (JaNae Armogan) who not only dislikes Nina but would be extremely upset if she were to ever find out--and she keeps very close ties to Malcolm at all times. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that, although this film started off well enough, it started going downhill each time more drama was added to the equation. Likewise, the blatant social agenda being pushed at the end didn't help either. Be that as it may, while certainly not the worst Christmas movie I have ever seen, this one just didn't appeal to me and I rated it accordingly. Below average.

I was only a very slightly, teensy weensy bit inclined to watch this further than ten minutes when the gay brother turned up.

I love to be represented in film and feel that I should support the producers/writers efforts and give them an opportunity to impress me having included something I can associate with more specifically, but this was just too silly from the get go and some of them were very exaggerated.

It was all too obvious what was going to happen. The brothers wouldn't be the successes that she assumed they were and she would fall for the friend standing in as her boyfriend, before her bosses came home early and she had to admit that she isn't using her law degree or whatever it was that she was supposed to be studying. They would all realise that being a family and loving each other is the most important thing and The End!

I don't know if that's how it worked out though, because I turned it off.

I might give it another go if it comes on again and I've got nothing better to watch.

Unscored as Unfinished.

We've seen enough of these movies to predict what will happen. Nina is a live in cook to a wealthy family that's moving soon. Jayson and Kyle seemed to be the golden sons who turned into a basketball player and Lawyer respectively

When Kyle can't host Christmas again this year, he and his daughter Rogue and brother Jayson come to "Nina's" while Malcom pretends to be her fiancè. Why? Because she said it in a family call and has to hold the line.

As the film progresses and everything unravels we see the family start to strip away and build new relationships based on the truth. It's a charming tale and a fun romp through the holidays. I really enjoyed it and would recommend.