A New Year's Resolution

I like the leads in A New Years Resolution, but the beginning was difficult for me. They were both delightful alone but together I was resistant to them being together. As the movie went on they grew on me and I got more involved in them (but isn't that the way all HM movies are?)

I was a bit sad for their breakup, I really felt it but as with all HM movies I knew things would work out.

By the end I came away really enjoying it.

A good watch.

Rady was a little too much of a happy puppy, Aimee was good (Note: It's Gung, or Kung, Hay Fa Choy - phonetically.) The tale was sweet and I liked the bank issue, a more realistic hard hitting story issue than is normally covered in these movies.

Regular Christmas Hallmark movies are so cliche, like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. This movie is more of a quiche - some work put into it, a variety of ingredients and leaves you satisfied at the end.

I love that both the female and male lead have relatively successful careers and neither one of them has to give it up in order to be with the other. They also don't have to go to some quaint small town to find their purpose or love of their life. The seriousness of the bank fraud was a little glossed over, but then again we're watching a romance not the Panama Papers.

Kelly is a producer at a morning show, Tom works in marketing in a National Bank. She believes in New Year's Resolutions, he doesn't. Her resolution is "to say yes to social invitations"

Unbelievable. We get a different movie than the usual Hallmark gives us and people start complaining. I liked it. We have two people who meet each other, like each other, flirt, go on dates until we have a problem threatening to split them up, which, in my opinion was quite realistic.

There are reviewers saying that the leads didn't have chemistry: i'm sorry, were we watching the same movie? The chemistry was amazing. Both leads were great, but Michael was probably my favorite. His character was quite charming and he definitely knows how to keep me watching.

The script was quite original. We had fun activities and we had a group of friends (we usually get one or a sibling). The characters just talked to each other like the mature adults they are, they never kept anything to each other (even at the ending, and I will defend Tom, he tried his best to tell her). And the romance was ON POINT. The final scene was delightful. Not gonna lie though, I was expecting a flash-forward (since they kind of share a dream) and I was disappointed there wasn't one.

So, I liked it, and this movie gets extra stars for originality.

Hallmark romance movies are pretty hamstrung in their formulae. Heroine comes into or back to a charming (or her childhood) small town for a short period of time, and must get back to her fantastically successful career ASAP. Usually, although the heroine has everything going for her, she is still (or recently) single, and willing to give up said achievements in a heartbeat once she is looked at twice by the recalcitrant hero, who often has less to offer than she does. Hero is set up as an initial adversary for the heroine. Timing between initial meeting & ultimate clinch (usually accompanied by a proposal of marriage after one or possibly two kisses) is lightning fast. It was refreshing to see a Hallmark film that's a little bit different. This one came without gasps of amazement at the lighting of a Christmas tree (Seriously? When was the last time you craned your neck in a crowd, mesmerized at such a commonplace site? Yet Hallmark trots out that lame trope in every winter holiday flick). The lead actors here actually have chemistry. The supporting characters are believable too. No lame gingerbread cookie or house competition here. No community festival that the entire town can't seem to live without. No children or teenagers breathless with anticipation at decorating for the holiday (rather than whining about being taken away from their video games &/or social media for a chore and tradition they care little about). The hero and heroine here actually seem to get along. The conflict between them is credible (since it was pulled from an actual news story). Granted, the male lead seems more that a bit naive in his faith in corporate executives, but his blinders aren't on for long. And the final resolution, although it seems to have skipped a few chapters from breakup to reconciliation, also didn't stretch the imagination too far. And the actor playing the hero sure knows how to act charming.