Innamorarsi a Silver Lake

The Christmas Retreat (2022) -

At the beginning of this film it was really difficult to warm to either of the leading characters, Rhiannon Fish as Kim or Clayton James as Mark, because they were quite obnoxious and acting quite over the top. He was smug and she was cocky and their constant competition was just irritating.

I didn't mind Clayton James to look at, but he was no Luke Macfarlane or Jesse Hutch. Rhiannon Fish was just incredibly annoying though.

The supporting cast were no better - The Mother, Mary (Lynn Whyte) was too good for the weird Ted (James MacDonald), but she was a bit dodgy too. I didn't think that they blew the budget on actors that was for sure.

The narrative followed the standard formula and really didn't add anything new to it. A lot of it was just daft and the script could have been recycled from a thousand other films that the director, producer and writers had all obviously seen, because it was all quite basic, with no outstanding acting performances or artistic filming. Even the humour was forced and "Subtle" at best.

As another reviewer commented, it really was a tick list of snowball fights, gingerbread houses, ugly jumpers and wreath making. There were actually a lot of moments of nauseating schmaltz and moralistic realisations too and the production wasn't helped by the music in the background either.

By the end I really wasn't bothered who ended up with whom, because I didn't like any of them, except maybe Rae (Carly Fawcett), but even she needed to get rid of her partner Ivan (Vincent Ross), who was a knob.

This will not be featuring on my rewatch list.

429.03/1000.