A Match Made at Christmas

Holly Everton has watched her great aunt make perfect matches for people all her life. But never for her. Small town, works at a fishing shop, dreams of travel and finding her perfect match. Her brother is home for his Christmas wedding, and he brings his college roommate along to be best man. He dislikes romance, she dreams of the perfect wedding, he can't stand Christmas, she loves it, in short, they don't like each other. He's rude & she's a people pleaser; it's not a good look. But it's what you expect in romance, right?

I like that the people look like real people and the houses look like real family houses, and the shop (the fishing part, not the Christmas side) looks like a real shop. The widowed mom looks like a good age for a widowed mom. The great aunt is suitably aged. The decorations are a bit over the top everywhere but that's just par for the Christmas movie scene.

The second-half turns into a much deeper movie in the first half was setting up (though not well), which may be partly responsible for all the bad reviews. The romance is hard won & the characters both have some growing up to do. Hers is all on screen while his is just a brief grumpy montage with no particular motivation except enough time passes that he's not mad any more.

This film ends up asking some real questions about helping versus taking over, what you owe to your family and your friendships, and living your life for and through other people instead of for yourself.

A Match Made At Christmas starring Micah Lynn Hanson and Tim Llewellyn. This was a cozy Christmas movie but could have been so much better.

Holly, a Laura Branigan-esque resemblance, even had a scene with an off the shoulder sweater, was sweet running around trying to please everybody.

But Chris temporarily in town with a backstory of family and job issues, I though played a little too stern, too stiff to the point of appearing disturbed. It was definitely not love at first sight. At least not for him. It was more like clash of the titans.

Lori, the mother played by actress Shannon Dowling looked too young and amazing to have a child Holly's age. She was the level-head, the shoulder everyone leaned on.

The thing that wowed me was the beauty of the music. And I mean throughout the movie. The entire score. Hats off to Tyler Michael Smith for doing an amazing job. Typically, these Christmas movies have these flowing, magical soundtracks particularly the opening scenes and moments of reckoning.

This one caught my attention throughout. Wouldn't mind these sounds piping throughout the house while we entertained at Christmas (love Christmas songs).

I thought Holly put herself out there too much for Chris and he in turn did not treat her well enough to capture her heart.

I would refrain from showing this film to teenagers or impressionable young people! While protagonist Holly is a loving, positive, forgiving individual, deuteragonist Chris is a volatile, uncaring, verbally abusive young man who treats her too harshly. His level of anger and disrespect for women is a little over-the-top in this film, considering he frequently throws even basic decency out the window during his verbal skirmishes with Holly.

Over the course of the film Chris intimidates Holly, insults her, and verbally abuses her to a point at which a woman should cease contact. Yet Holly continues to be too forgiving, allowing an open door to a possibly toxic future relationship.

Later in the film Chris yells at a kind elderly woman, sticking his face out just a couple feet from hers.

We shouldn't allow our young men to think that this kind of disrespect for women is okay. Likewise, young women shouldn't be trained to give volatile men like this repeated chances at romance.

I generally like these kind of movies, but this one was just terrible. With the exception of the protagonist, the acting was third-rate and the sequence if events would never happen in real life.

I enjoyed the music.

Otherwise I found it difficult to watch because the leads were so unlikable. I mean, the young lady was pleasant but I just could not believe that somebody as intelligent and capable as she was supposed to be would be so completely fixated on falling in love. The male lead was intolerable.

I would not be spoken to the way that young man spoke to women; I hope to raise my daughter so that she would not be spoken to that way. I'm not qualified to say whether it was abusive or simply extremely disrespectful but the red flags are all over the place.

Really don't know how to feel about it. The heroine is really sweet, but I do feel it's a pity that she doesn't end up being treated witht the same level of kindness and love by the world and people around her. I really wish she could just have more self-esteem and be more emotionally independent.

The male lead is so inconsiderate and snobbish most of the time, but he could also be very nice and heatening when he wants to. He thinks he is a rational being and everything in life can be deconstructed with financial theories. However, life may be more sophisticated than that, and sometimes, you should be more open hearted to see the beauty in life as it is, not as it should be.

What kept me finishing the whole film is that I see in these leads some parts of myself and confusions I struggle with in my life, which lends some depth to the movie, so I really hoped the movie would offer some well-thought solution in the end, but unfortunately the ending is too hasty and falls into the old cliche of happy-ever-after.

Anyway, an acceptable film with some reflective plots but a disappointing conclusion, recommendable to those who's happy to come up with their own thoughts and feelings after watching some ambiguous films.