Unwrapping Christmas: Olivia's Reunion

There is almost no story, at least not beyond the basic outline - two ex's get stranded together by accident when Olivia delivers gift-wrapped presents to Ben. Jen, the store owner who appears a couple of times, would like to date Ben, but he doesn't reciprocate. After that setup there is almost nothing but the relationship between Olivia and Ben with Jen being a third wheel. And I don't really buy into there being anything serious between Ben and Olivia. Most of the time between her arrival at the door and his parents returning there is a whole lot of awkwardness between them. With that much awkwardness how can there be any chemistry? There are no great highs or lows or surprises. The brightest high spots in the script were about the dog who had been left behind with Olivia's gift wrapping partners.

Since I already watched two of the others in this "series" I knew something for sure about the ending of this one. Perhaps something I couldn't predict was how that was accomplished. BTW, after 3 of the movies, I can't really see that there is a definite order to watch them. This might be the first, but I can't see a problem with any order.

The movie was weak on details. For example, Olivia is reading a particular book and has been for a day or two. This is in direct contradiction to when she is seen with the book open after that and she is clearly only a few pages in. Yet she is able to say how good the book is. The entire business makes no sense about they can't get to Jen's grocery store but seem to get back and forth to between houses I can understand a bridge being closed for ice, but a covered bridge? Jen has no heat, but looks warm enough in a light sweater-shirt which is short enough for her midriff to peak out. Over a foot of snow and endless blizzard is only an hour north of the city where there everything looks clear most of the time, at least in this episode.

I will eagerly watch a movie with Jake Epstein in it, but this one was a disappointment. I have never been impressed with Cindy Busby. She never feels natural in her acting. As hinted above, the two have no chemistry. The dialogue is bland. As also implied, the story is boring.

Hallmark should really be careful with the use of AI to write its scripts. This one was terrible.

No chemistry, no humor, barely any holiday mood and (even) more predictable than usual. The actor tried his best and showed some charm; the actress was a disaster virtually expressionless and a negative attitude most of the time.

Not worth watching.

I didn't expect much of this four part Christmas series as most of the Christmas stories are bland but I figured I would give it a chance. I didn't like the first one, skipped the second one, liked the actors in the third one and got to the final of the four. Much has been noted that the idea of a gift wrapping business supporting four women is a stretch but it's Hallmark. What annoyed me with this installment is that it is a weak copy of an older Hallmark movie The Christmas Cottage, a much superior story. If you get the chance and Hallmark runs the Christmas Cottage again watch it and compare and contrast to see a much better movie.

This is the story of one of the Gift Wrapping Shop co-owners, Olivia (Cindy Busby) who delivers an order of wrapped gifts and gets snowed in by a blizzard with her ex-boyfriend, Ben (Jake Epstein).

The plot is so predictable. As expected, their views of each change from a very disliking of each other to romance and seeing talents and skills in each other that they missed the first go around. Much like the characters trapped in the bluzzard, you get cabin fever as the storyline deadlines and there's little to hold your interest unless your thing is broken radiators, food supply running out, and getting firewood to try to keep the cabin warm. To add some comedy there are a series of mishaps involving the other shop co-owners taking care of Olivia's dog while she's away. The dog is cute. And to add to an already bad plot, there's also Ben's mother, who is stuck at a ski lodge, who is very curt and annoying that keeps checking in on Ben. THIS MOVIE IS HO HUM AND A WASTE OF TIME.

I had just sat through the 2024 movie "Unwrapping Christmas: Tina's Miracle" which proved to be a surprisingly enjoyable movie, and thus I opted to carry on and watch the 2024 movie "Unwrapping Christmas: Olivia's Reunion", hoping it would be as enjoyable.

However, I have to say that it wasn't. Nay, "Unwrapping Christmas: Olivia's Reunion" was a rather generic and bland viewing experience. Writer T. Booker James just didn't manage to pen down a particularly enjoyable script. Sure, if you gobble up all these sappy Christmas movies, you might disagree with me, but if you're looking for a movie with more than straight-out-of-the-how-to-make-a-sappy-Christmas-movie-guidebook, then "Unwrapping Christmas: Olivia's Reunion" just didn't cut it.

Sure, it was nice to see some of the cast from "Unwrapping Christmas: Tina's Miracle" in the movie as well, making them intertwined. The acting performances in "Unwrapping Christmas: Olivia's Reunion" were fair, despite the fact that the script wasn't my cup of eggnog.

This is definitely not a movie that I will be returning to watch a second time, as it was boring enough the first time around.

My rating of director Max McGuire's 2024 movie "Unwrapping Christmas: Olivia's Reunion" lands on a four out of ten stars.