A Brush with Christmas

This GAF holiday romance is about two artists who have chosen other professions. Charlotte (Jillian Murphy) runs the family restaurant, but secretly wishes she had time to indulge her true passion: art. Wyatt (Joseph Cannata) does commercial building renderings, but has always wanted to explore his more creative side.

When Wyatt visits an old friend during the Christmas holiday, he meets Charlotte and they hit it off. Charlotte hopes to submit an entry in the local Christmas art contest, but tosses her unfinished canvas when she realizes she needs to devote all her time to the restaurant, where she is also the head chef. When her incomplete painting appears on a wall at the contest venue, marked "anonymous", she is puzzled. How did it get there? And how does she feel about that?

Burgeoning romantic feelings are kept in check by the fact that Wyatt will leave after the holiday. When, in fact, he receives an offer for a dream job in London, it looks to spell the end of their infatuation.

The two lead actors are believable in their roles. Also watch for Farrah Aviva, who plays Charlotte's friend and coworker, Ella, with enjoyment and energy. And Michael Strickland, who plays Wyatt's friend David in a role that is too small.

I really appreciated the fact that the artwork around which the story revolves is, in fact, worthy of attention, giving the story authenticity.

I don't know what happened to GAF this season! Last year, they made some really good Christmas time films to put them in head to head competition with Hallmark! This year, they fell flat on their faces with the movies!! This one is no different!!

The writing is flat, lifeless!! It has no "spunk" that last years had!! The actors have ZERO chemistry between them! It's not just the leads but EVERYONE that interacts here!! People that "knew" each other for years have nothing between them!!

The reason this gets a four star is for the location and set designer!! The lights you see as the drone goes down the street near the end showing Christmas lights was perfect!! The very next shot of an arched walkway & the lights were perfect!! Other than that, this film is a skip!!

I liked the story about the middle-aged couple. I wish the whole movie had been about them. That would have made it unique because of their age. I guess Christmas movies are only for young pretty people to fall in love lol Most of the acting was good with the exception of the male lead . So because the male leads acting was blah it was hard to feel a connection between him and the female lead. The town is pretty. The snow looks fake. The artwork was fun!

If the mail lead had stronger acting chops I think I would have liked this movie pretty darn well. I'm sure it's hard to come up with unique plot lines and enough actors that are good at acting. Especially on a channel that is new and growing in popularity.

This film didn't work for me. It started with a poor script and dialog. The acting was stiff, IMDB doesn't list a director so I guess the actors directed themselves, that's the problem. The performances weren't natural, it's like the actors read their lines separately and they were edited together.

The leads Jullian Murray and Josepha Cannata are physically very attractive, but actors have to be able to deliver lines in a believable way so we buy into the story. It was plastic, I got no feeling from any of the actors. I blame the writers and director, if there was even a director.

If GAF wants to challenge Hallmark for the top rom-com network, they have to do a lot better than this movie.

We watched a total of 55 Hallmark and GAF movies this year, and I'd say between five and ten of them were movies we REALLY enjoyed.

This wasn't one of them. Very little about this story rang true for me, and the actors were mostly pretty flat. It would also have been nice if the writers knew ANYTHING about painting. Painters don't start a canvas and paint from left to right. LOL

We now have nine more movies to watch during the season, all DVDs or Blurays in our collection, of our true seasonal favorites. And we'll finish up that viewing with A Christmas Story and It's a Wonderful Life on Christmas Day ... with White Christmas our tradition on Christmas Eve, and Holiday Inn the night before that.

I wish all reading here a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!