Christmas Is You

Childhood loves, Emma Bloom (Becca Tobin) and Tyler Thorn (Matthew MacCaull), reunite in their home town during Christmas. He's a big music star. She works for a record company. Her boss hears that he dropped his agency and tells Emma to sign him. If she can do it, she could be the new partner in the firm.

Her best friend and confidant should be a girlfriend. She needs to do some emotional exposition and dumping but can't be explicit with her brother. She needs a sister. It's not like the actor playing the brother is anything special. The younger couple is cute but they are strictly amateur actors. This is the gentlest of romantic drama. I like the two leads and I've always liked Tobin. This movie is not requiring much from them and that's what they deliver. Maybe if they could turn this more into a musical. It's very bland but that's par for the course in this type of movies.

Another save the festival movie. The other half of the story is another common one. Emma is sent back to her home time to connect with an old flame and do a deal so she can earn a promotion.

The way Emma's backstory is revealed is a bit unusual in that it is done by her brother telling her boss.

You can see the conflict coming from a thousand miles away. I don't really understand Emma's hesitance to admit her mission. She has a lot of confusion because one minute she says one thing and the next it's another. I really don't understand Tyler's reaction given what he owes Emma. Things get a bit twisted so maybe that is explanation enough, but not for me.

Emma's boss is way too nice, but totally stupid in what she does.

Tobin looks her mid thirties age and perhaps even younger, but the almost decade older MacCaull obviously isn't the same age which the characters are supposed to be.

There are several performances by Becca Tobin and Matthew MacCaull. There duets are good including what appears to be an original song. MacCaull does OK, but when not doing harmony, he's not quite superstar singer material.

This was interesting. As a fledgling GAF effort, it got off to a decent start. A former high school couple is reunited when the girl, now working for a management agency is sent to her hometown to recruit her ex, now a major star on the outs with his manager.

I really think actors playing musicians look ridiculous, but Matthew MacCaulley at least appears to know the basic chords, and has a couple of quality (pricey) guitars. He actually does a nice job playing the down-to-earth superstar.

Becca Tobin has toned down the sweet in this movie to good effect, but her character must be the stupidest girl in the world.

They sing a nice duet early on, but the song they perform at the finale is awkward and musically nonsensical. That God for the invisible orchestra!

The supporting cast includes several veterans of Hallmark movies, which helped a lot. This is exactly what GAF needs going forward.

And better writers I'm afraid. This one gets to the easily-avoidable conflict you see coming a mile away and falls apart completely. Well, it's a start.

Yikes, every line in this movie is either expository, or pointless.

The shooting is way better than most Hallmark movies, and the editing as well. But the script is just awful. I can't even imagine how this script was greenlit. The director has given the actors nothing to work with, so the whole film is like a very well made table read of inane dialogue.

Trying to watch this movie but just can't get in to it. The lead actors have zero chemistry. The story is kinda all over the place. After fast forwarding several times I just gave up and stopped watching..