User reviews

I gave this movie a 5 and that only for the parents, sister and niece. They were real and easy to watch. BUT the main couple had no spark whatsoever. Dreadful casting. Like a pair of teenagers giggling their way through a weak script. I almost turned it off several times but kept hoping it would pick up. It didn't. Hallmark you must try harder. You seem to be losing 'IT'!

According to Julia's boss she is lacking inspiration, the cheerfuless that she had when she first came into the city, so she sends her back home to make a story about the "charm of small towns". Once there she reunites with her family, her best friend Nate, and a few neighbours and friend.

I liked it. A lot. The maze was spectacular, that first air shot was beautiful. My first problem was Julia's parents. They are way too young. She clearly is not 20 years old. They always cast actors as parents and child who are probably around the same range of age. Julia and Nate were friends their whole lives. I love the "best friend to lover" trope, so they got me there. The actors had great chemistry. And not just the leads but the rest of the cast as well.

I'm not expecting much from Hallmark at this point: I mean, Julia's basket of fries was empty when she was in the maze and when she got out it was full. As far as they go, maybe they can do better but this was not bad at all. You had a plot, good chemistry and a make you feel good atmosphere (all I wanted was to be in comfy leggins and a fluffly sweater while watching this)

I don't care that we have literally seen it hundreds of times before, Nate going after Julia was so sweet. The whole scene was cute.

I'm not saying I will watch this again anytime soon, but I would definitely watch a sequel.

Love Jessy Schram, but there is no chemistry between her and Marshall Williams.

I like Jessy but Hallmark has to get rid of all the trite details: the snowball fight, the snow angels, the misunderstanding. All that was missing was the kiss interrupted by a cell phone. Cone on!

I really like Jessy Schram, but this movie was slow.

What kind of dog is Theo? He is beautiful and there is no mention of him.

This is a good feel-good Hallmark movie. Hallmark movies are feel-good movies with low drama, sometimes spiritual, happy ending movies. If you need drama, action (world coming to an end), mystery, sexy love scenes, Hallmark movies are not for you. This is a sugary warm apple fritter with coffee in a good ole Canadian coffee shop feel good, picker upper movie.

The location is Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The maze is located in a small town just minutes away from Winnipeg in the upper northeast area. That maze is real. It really happens. The main street shots with the beautiful buildings and bridge over a river thing are Winnipeg. And there's much more to the city. Skyscrapers, anyone?

Jessy Schram did an amazing thing; she had very little makeup on. Did you notice? She's one of those, hmm, not-so-knockout beauty at first site kind of girl. Without the aid of makeup, her beauty slowly penetrates your mind, and before you know it, she hooks you. Suddenly, you find yourself looking forward to close-ups... and for myself, I wished I was thirty years younger.

The chemistry between Julia Miller and Nate Perry was not over the top; you've got mail, impossible to find in real-life connections. The chemistry was simply natural. And that makes it easy for you, the viewer, to put yourself in their snowshoes. Typically, Hallmark has a tough time with chemistry, but this was acceptable.

Julia Miller and Nate Perry's acting was natural. In movies, one person completes a sentence and then the other starts theirs. One sentence here.... and another there.... and another. But in real life, we often start a sentence in the middle of someone's sentence. It's like, we get the gist, now for the next point. In several scenes, this movie did just that. And that's unusual. And refreshing. Once again, it's real enough that the viewer can imagine being there.

One thing I like, as a born Canadian naturalized American, is the phrases that popped up here and there by the Canadian cast. Nate Perry, in one scene, used the phrase, "Hometime." That's a phrase I grew up within Toronto and haven't heard since my move to the States (Chicago, Boston, Orlando). That's not surprising. One of the writers was from Montreal. So, for Canadians viewing, it comes off as a bit of a kick. While we're on the subject, Jessy Schram has a Chicago accent. Most of the cast have a Canadian accent. See if you can hear it.

The supporting cast was superb. Came across as natural and unforced. And they did what was needed, support the main characters without trying to steal the show.

Often, especially with Hallmark, you expect the shoe to drop two-thirds in. In this movie, it didn't happen. What did happen was character development. Julia Miller slowly fell in love with Nate, overcoming fear, and Nate's character developed to overcome rejection. The crescendo was typical Hallmark.

Which reminds me... I suddenly have a craving for an apple fritter and coffee... in a Canadian coffee shop.

The characters were acting more like high school teenagers than adults. Hallmark has the same check list in all their winter movies. Drink an abundance of Hot Chocolate, make snow angels, have a snowball fight, have a bakery as the place to go to name a few. The story lines of going back to your small time town. A communication breakdown. The only thing I found interesting was the scenery and the maze. The supporting cast was pretty good. Except for the character Sky her character was to be played quirky but I found her more annoying.

I'm surprised that this film seems to have generated such a so-so response, I personally thought it was very good, one of the better ones in fact.

Part of this is down to the fact that there was no real drama, the characters seemed a bit more real, and other than the 'NYC girl tries to pretend she likes small town life' subplot, this all worked rather well.

Lovely viewing, and nice to see some different faces as leads in a Hallmark film.

6.4 stars.

For the first 90 minutes, the best part of this story is Zoe Fish as Ava. This little girl is very spirited in this role, and very engaging as an actress. She is the catalyst that helps the leads find some common ground, else it might be too awkward at times.

For the first 90 minutes I like Jessy Schram enough, she's got a sweetness about her. Marshall Williams is not a bad actor, but seems a bit youngish for this role. I wonder if that was the intent.

For the first 90 minutes this movie is just weird. What is the point of the childish behaviors and the odd dialogue? I really don't know what message is being conveyed. The title is 'Amazing Winter Romance', yet the target audience is probably young people, like 10-25 year olds? Having the word "romance" in the title implies there is an actual romance, but this is more like puppy love, which would not jibe with an older audience of 30+, or would it? I believe my gut feeling is correct, after all I've seen enough Hallmark movies this year to know this one is an outlier... and honestly, I think this film revolves around a snow maze, the characters are a side show, the romance is extraneous, and the plot is non-existent. But there is more...

For the last 30 minutes the romance sparkles a little, the characters come to life, the plot emerges, some scenes are illumined, and the dialogue becomes tolerable. I'd like to hope the last bit of this story was enough to resurrect the movie as a whole, but sadly it isn't. It was sufficient to increase my rating from a 5.9 to a 6.4, thus raising 'Amazing Winter Romance' out of the sub 6.0 abyss... but it's still about a maze.

Was on the whole not very impressed with the 2020 Winterfest films. Didn't "hate" any of them and none of them are among the worst 2020 Hallmark films, but of the five the only above average one to me was 'Winter in Vail'. The others were mediocre at best. Absolutely have no bias against Hallmark, one can see actually with past reviews of mine for their overall output that a fair share of them surprised me in a good way although there were certainly also a fair share of stinkers.

'Amazing Winter Romance' is one of the stinkers and is the complete opposite of amazing. As far as 2020 Hallmark films go, it is down there with the worst and of the five Winterfest films from 2020 it gets my pick as the worst. 'Amazing Winter Romance' is not irredeemably awful and has a few good things, but those good things are overshadowed by the numerous major flaws. This is coming from someone who did see it from an open mind and who wanted to like it.

Beginning with the few things that 'Amazing Winter Romance' did right, it looks professional and pretty. The scenery in particular is of sheer beauty and people are not exaggerating when they say that the maze is the best thing about the film. There are a few pleasant moments in the soundtrack.

There are also a few good supporting performances. From Bob Magel, Nancy Sorel and adorable but not over cute Zoe Fish.

On the other hand, neither Jessy Schram or Marshall Williams cut it as the leads. Schram is stiff and at times tries too hard while Williams looks bored and doesn't look as though he wanted to be there. There is absolutely no chemistry whatsoever between the two. Melissa Marie Elias comes over as very hammy, quirkiness can be endearing and fun but when it is overdone to extreme levels it comes over as irritating. The characters are not well developed at all and are mostly dull or annoying.

Furthermore, the script rambles in a mundane manner and sounds awkward. The music mostly is completely forgettable and has little personality and the direction is routine. The story is excessively predictable from dull start to contrived and too neat finish, with nothing new done with a more of the same scenario filled to the brim with typical Hallmark plot and character cliches. The conflict is thin and lacks tension, while the story is paper thin and burdened by the pedestrian pace and the lack of charm and heart.

In summary, weak. 3/10.

I really like Jessy Schram as the leading lady, she's someone I can actually get behind and Marshall Williams is adorable. It's great to have some fresh blood added to the made for TV Christmas films genre. The Dad wasn't even too offensive to the eye either and along with the Mum they were good characters.

I love the idea of the maze (If only we had proper snow) and the coming together of the community to create a fantastic festive time.

What was also really good about this one was that you could see the romance blossoming and understand how they could fall in love.

I look forward to seeing Marshall and Jessy in more films as the years and seasons progress.

It's a nice story, the same as always, but done well without scrimping on the budget or thought gone in to it.

They need to change them up. No diversity. People drink coffee or tea, nobody just always orders cocoa. Every film doesn't require a snow angel. Bring it into the 21st century. Keep it happy but make it more grounded in reality. This one was particularly bad. Less than zero chemistry with the leads and dang, slow, slow, slow. Almost deleted a bunch of times and instead watched in 2 min increments. Cant remember crap except that it was so bad.

Same old story all over again. Girl goes back to small town to find herself. Why can't they ever find themselves in the big city? Or in the desert? Or in the jungle? By watching these movies one gets the impression that small towns are the only place on earth where people can find love, kindness and fulfillment. And this coming from a person who loves small towns. The casting is all over the place. The parents look nothing like the daughter (ok, maybe she was adopted) and the dad looks too young for a daugther her age, even though she spends half of the movie behaving like she's a former cheeleader who forgot that high school is over. I had to constantly remind myself that she was actually a journalist trying to find her way in the big city. Veeery mature. The romance was lame and not convincing. The male lead is cute and nice, but looked and behaved like he too was in high school. Two stars for the maze. I do not recommend this movie.

I am sure that if you haven't seen a thousand of this genre it would be enjoyable. The leads are experienced doing this type of film and relate well together.

I really enjoyed this movie. The maze part was so interesting, the chemistry between the leads was great, & the storyline was very enjoyable!

I feel like this was written by a pre-teen. It's okay to have adult characters acting like adults once in a while. Instead, the lead couple was daring and double-dog daring each other, talking about how they used to have so much fun as kids, and fending off comments from onlookers about how cute they would be together. It quickly grew tiresome.

Also tiring was watching Nate grin his way through every scene. Someone needed to give him something else to do because he comes across as overly simple, lacking for responsibility, and generally uninteresting. I struggle to see how Julia could be interested in him because dating Nate would be like dating the immature guy who never grew up, never got a real job, and was always living in the past.

There are some good Hallmark movies around, but this one needed a lot less hot chocolate and at least one adult in the writing room.

OMG if they can't think of another type of story than returns to small town and rekindles romance, then just don't make so many movies! The plot is so boring and predictable. Jessie Schram looks sweet. The guy looks like Ronan Farrow. The maze is pretty. But other than that it's not worth it.

Sorry, but it did not keep my interest, and I actually do love these actors. Lots of bling but no substance. Kinda like they checked off the boxes of what to put in a film for Christmas.

A beautiful maze, a young blond , a young woman returning home, for inspiration, the eccentric New York woman, attracted by town and guy, the niece of main hero and a Swiss lady, master of hot chocolat and sweets. A cool snowmobil . And a not so wise used beautiful dog.

Just enough for real seduce.

And , for references to the youth and old friendship of two main characters, for humor and few scenes is just beautiful. Sure, using Hallmark recipe, in wich predactibility rules. But the fresh air is just a virtue.

In short, one of pleasant Hallmarks and the idea of maze as axis of story just well works.

So, Amazing Winter Romance .

I loved all aspects of this movie. For every review that was negative because it was sweet and simple, those were the positive points for me. I was grateful not to have too much drama and characters that were kind to each other from start to finish. Relax, breathe and be a-mazed.

The townie is obnoxious and the leads act like children. How do they get/keep their jobs? The parents and shopkeeper seem more real, although Schram doesn't look like the parents at all. The real Williston is bigger than they make it seem. At least Schram hasn't gone super Botox like the other hallmark leads.

Can't hallmark hire some hair stylists for the stars?

Julia Miller (Jessy Schram) feels unbalanced as a big city columnist in Chicago. She visits home in Williston, North Dakota. Her childhood friend Nate Perry (Marshall Williams) has built an amazing snow maze. She writes an article to promote the struggling new attraction but she has trouble entering the maze herself.

This is the quintessential background Hallmark. One could turn it on and go about your day. The plot has nothing much to follow. One can catch up with the movie at any time. The leads are pretty. Schram is a good energetic lead. The most amazing part of the movie is the maze. I want to try the maze. It looks fun. Otherwise, there isn't much here.

Don't understand. Shram is fundamentally unattractive so have no idea why she was cast as "young love" because she seems 10 years older than her male lead and has zero sex appeal, unfortunately. The male lead's Mother was more appropriately attractive for the storyline as was the love rival YOUNG teacher. The age of the "parents" was totally odd. It's possible the lack of apparent attraction between male Lead Nate, and Shrams, is because she comes across as an elderly, plain, sister. Technical heroes: Sound Editor/Sound:very pro job. Camera-mostly fine, if you were in charge of the drone shots, well done!. Steadi-cam: move up to eye level on most of the shot, otherwise you create TENSION where there shouldn't be any. Script:average. Casting:poor. Location Researcher: excellent! You made this movie by getting 90% of your elegant scene backgrounds done for nothing!. Note to Hallmark: your scuzzy little films shot in Boulder backlots in Spring with marshmallow snow piles have all the atmosphere of a dying Shopping Mall. Christmas Movie= Real snow, Trees, cold, ice, kids, animals. Everything is then so much easier and better to shoot.