Homemade Christmas

I had to write this review. The actors are wonderful. The dialogues are very good. The DIRECTION is excellent and really evokes the warmth of Christmas. A really fun watch. My special appreciation to the director for making every shot look so good.

The premise boils down to consultant-comes-in-to-save-the-business but there's a different flavor to it. For one thing, there's also a Christmas-coach slant to it. And the consultant to save the business isn't really a business consultant, but a Jacqueline of all trades who majors in DIY. The movie didn't cram in all of the usual Christmas devices, but the snowball exchange was a little obvious. There are no big surprises.

Michelle Argyris has chemistry with both of the male leads, but after a bit, Chase turns into the business-focus exec who doesn't really care about people. He's also controlling and not too respectful of women.

Meanwhile Kurt, played by Travis Nelson has obvious connection with Argyris even when they are sparring with each other and it only goes up from there. This is the enjoyable part of the movie watching these two get closer then back away and then repeat.

Megan seems a little too good to be true at least as far as selflessness. She has some insecurities that come out over time, but a really tough façade.

Overall, this is a pretty ordinary Christmas movie with some mediocre acting, at best. It was quite difficult to engage with this film, especially for the first 45 minutes or so. The story, nor the acting, pulled me in, engaged me. The acting was pretty bad at times, especially in the first half of the film. The male lead, Travis Nelson, had a very awkward performance, at times. In many of the scenes early on in the film, his lines seemed forced, or rather, it felt like he was acting, which is never a good sign for an actor. There were glimpses of decent acting. For example, he had a nice scene about 40 minutes in with Megan (played by Michelle Argyris) when talking about his mother (being raised by a single mom). And his interactions and dialogue with Megan in the last half of the film were not bad overall. Michelle Argyris, the other lead, was a bit better acting-wise, but she too had some awkward scenes. She was at her strongest in her exchanges with Travis. Like him, she had some good moments (e.g., in the closet at the shop with the wooden reindeer). It does make me wonder where the director was when shooting this movie; it seems they could have used a bit of direction. The chemistry between them was fairly good. As I have alluded to above, they were both at their best in these cute and flirtatious scenes. The scenery, props and sets were not great. The shop was quite bare of toys, for example. If you are a fan of Lifetime/Hallmark Christmas movies, this movie might be worth a watch. Otherwise, you might want to pass on this one.

I thought this Christmas movie was adorable! I found the main actors to have good chemistry together plus I enjoyed the supporting cast as well. I also enjoyed seeing REAL crisp air as this was filmed in Canada during a colder climate... typically Christmas movies are filmed in the spring or summer and you can tell because the sun is shining bright and of course all the fake snow! I see this flick didn't get rave reviews but as for me, I found it refreshing- well done to the cast and crew!

So, Travis was cute and he did have unexpected depths, but the character of Mike seemed like the better option as the leading guy or even for the leading guy to fall for, because she was actually quite annoying and her voice grated a lot.

I always like Christmas stories that focus on retail and toys in particular, because it doesn't matter how old you are, or even how much of a Scrooge you are, everyone has a memory of a toy shop at Christmas and a desperate desire for a specific item.

It must be tough to try and make a film about toys and their appeal to kids in the age of the X-Box and PlayStation. Even Barbie and Lego barely seem to get a look in nowadays.

Perhaps this difficulty is why this one sadly didn't quite hit the mark and while it wasn't that bad overall, I think that it could have been done a lot better. It is worth a watch, but there are others to see first.

There is a bit too much going on and too many characters brought in, which might have worked with better direction and storyboarding.

6ish?/1000.