Christmas Hotel

Greetings, salutations, and a seasonal welcome to all you movie aficionados. Here are my considerations and recommendation for Christmas Hotel.

Story: 1.50/2 - Direction and Pace: 2.50/4 - Performances: 1.25/2 - Enjoyment: 1.25/2

Total 6.50/10

Within the Christmas Hotel, we have the blossoming story of love over conflict. And on the whole, the writers do a superb job of keeping the much-used concept fresh and enjoyable. The story's enjoyability comes chiefly from its characters, especially Erin's second-in-command, Marnie. She's a sassy and wickedly witty person and the most fleshed-out of the cast. Without this secondary character, the tale would be a tad tired and trite. However, that doesn't mean the other individuals populating the narrative are weak in their creation. On the contrary, they, too, are credible and potent. It's just that we've seen and read plenty of similar tales, so it becomes about how the writers refresh the story. Characterisation is merely one ingredient in a story's recipe; another is the journey. In the Christmas Hotel, it's the route our two principal players take, from combatants to lovers. It's here the story slips. I loved the concept of the hometown girl returning to her hometown to open a new hotel for the conglomerate she works for, even though the residents stubbornly refuse to accept a big franchise in their small town. Predictably, her main opposer is to be the love of her life - or at least this movie. The writers missed an opportunity at this point to add extra potency. For me, Erin wins over the town and her new boyfriend too easily. The whole thing is too light-hearted and tongue-in-cheek. I joke about Happily Ever After Land in these types of films, but in this picture, the writers have fully embraced the idea. Because the town's population gives in too readily, it feels as though we're living in Happily Ever After Land, where nothing goes wrong, and if it does, it's quickly fixed and with the littlest effort or opposition. It's just too good to be true.

The direction isn't great. But the movie possesses a light-hearted heart-warming feeling throughout. Sadly, many opportunities exist to make the last vision more engaging to the viewer, and the director didn't capitalise on them.

The cast is one of the best elements of the movie. Tatyana Ali as Erin and Sean Patrick Thomas playing Connor have charming on-screen chemistry, helping keep the viewers' eyes on the screen. But Sheryl Lee Ralph as Marnie stole the show. Ralph nails the character superbly and her growing authoritarian relationship with the building contractor, Joe (played with quiet subtlety by Stephen Jared), had me giggling, particularly at the Santa Claus contest. You know Joe should keep smiling and go along for the ride, bumps and all.

The Christmas Hotel has some flaws but is still an entertaining viewing experience, which should slap a smile on your face and a warm feeling in your heart. Therefore, I happily recommend it for at least one viewing. Who knows, I may return to the Inn once more simply to see Marnie again.

Please check out my HO! HO! HO! Christmas Belles list to see where I ranked the movie.

Take Care, Stay Well, And Best Wishes For A Merry Christmas.

Actors aside, 'Christmas Hotel' does not have much going for it.

That is not me saying the acting is amazing, of course, but I dug Tatyana Ali and Sean Patrick Thomas enough, their performances fall within the cheesy Xmas television flick remit. Sheryl Lee Ralph is the best of the rest. The rest of the film is lame, the plot is boring - not helped by how quickly the town's people switch their beliefs about the hotel itself. I bet certain governments wished they had protesters that switched as easily as the people of Garland Grove do!

I watched this on the Christmas 24 (twenty four) television channel.

I, not only, enjoyed this movie, I enjoyed seeing some of favorite actors as well. Sheryl Lee Ralph: Dreamgirls, It's a Living, and Moesha, Telma Hopkins: Tony Orlando and Dawn, Gimme A Break, Family Matters, and William Allen Young: A Soldier's Story and Moesha.

Corporate fixer goes back to her home town to make peace with town folks opposed to the evil empire. Besides being derivative, the premise is forced as are many of the other plot points. It's especially forced when Erin's brainstorm idea magically changes everyone's attitude instantly. The story just doesn't make sense. Like many of the other Christmas movies, the protagonists quest their way to reaching their stated goal, but I really didn't care. I didn't care about the hotel, and I didn't care about the obvious building romance. It's all just more of the same thing within nothing new or special.

The acting is poor, especially those playing Erin's parents and other supporting characters. Sets seemed cheap and uninspired especially when you consider that the Windsor hotel chain is supposed to be ultra high end.

Moreover, so many details during the movie belied the idea that this was an upscale hotel trying to impress investors with high end tastes and values. It goes beyond the fact that the hometown atmosphere Erin was promoting isn't really compatible with those high end values. Christmas movies so often rely on DIY mentality and this movie does the same while creating the hotel infrastructure and getting it ready to open. That isn't high end.

Logistical details in the climax are clumsy and forced. So much in the movie was as if the writers never bothered to learn anything at all about their subjects. Also, I couldn't get over how consistently Erin exhibited childish and unprofessional behavior in the face of her boss.

In a Christmas romance, there is always the question of chemistry between the leads. Good chemistry often goes a long way toward compensating for faults in the story.I don't think these leads had enough screen time developing chemistry, at least I didn't see it.

As the movie builds toward climax, the plot followed the exact same patterns as so many other Christmas movies. There was nothing new. Nothing special. The viewer could almost predict each and every plot progression as it happened. I make much of the derivative, unoriginal, and clumsy plot. I realize that with only a few refreshing exceptions, most of the Christmas movies are going to be that way. But in this case it is a matter of degree. This movie seemed to me that it was extreme in that regard.

Christmas Hotel (2019) -

The basic concept of this film was strange to start with. The hotel was already in the town, so it was unclear what the locals were moaning about? New management really wouldn't change things for the town that much and in the end they did only change for the better.

However they would never have been allowed to go off brand. Their hotels would all have to serve the same food and look identical. The corporate business world hates unique identities which is usually where the issues in these films come from, so it was a tough one to buy this time. It would be lovely to think that a corporation would be so freely happy to adapt to the area instead of the other way around, but that really only does happen in films.

It wasn't bad overall though and I would say that it was probably the best that I've seen from Tatyana Ali since she was in 'The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air' (1990-6), because some of her other Christmas films have been terrible and over the top.

Time did move quite fast with this one though. From a hotel that needed lots of work to being up and running seemed to take just a matter of days.

There were also some of the bad film decisions made again, with their "Teacher", who could not have been old enough to have taught them, even at college, unless he was 12.

And while the tree looked better than they normally do, it wasn't the same "Real" one that they were supposedly buying in a previous scene.

So while there were issues and it was hard to believe, there were also some elements that made it nice. I don't think that it's one that I would bother with again though, but I wouldn't say it was so bad that I would warn people to avoid it like some of the others I've seen.

4/10.