Inn Love by Christmas

The leads, Jesse Hutch and Jonna Walsh, playing Lucas and Mandy respectively, are really very engaging in their roles. They have very good chemistry and great banter. Most of the supporting cast, from the best friend to the grandmother and the inn owner, fit very well into the movie and are quite likable. If the movie had sort of kept to this initial script, then I think it would have come off as a better movie overall even if it's something we'd seen before.

But they throw in a few ill-advised twists and diversions that really affect what was seeming to be a good watch. The closest thing this movie has to a villain is poorly conceived along with poorly written in the storyline. The character was too remote and unincorporated into the movie to have the influence they ended up having in throwing a wrench into the storyline. There's a "secret" revealed at an inopportune moment that didn't appear to be an actual state secret given that the female lead openly divulged this info to 3 characters in the movie before the reveal, didn't tell them to keep that info to themselves. This was more strange that bad, and it made you think less of the female lead that she was openly deceiving someone who trusted her after initially appearing to be upfront. And lastly, a truly jarring twist that though you might see coming as I did, makes it no better when it occurs. It's a strange twist for what they appeared to be trying to accomplish through most of the movie and it's like they suddenly inserted a game cheat code and fast-tracked everything to get to the finish line.

There really are some very likable and engaging parts of this movie. The former high school rivals getting to know one another again years later and liking what they see is a tried and true storyline that works and does so again here. Actually, the movie was good (I'd have probably rated it an 8 on a Hallmark/Lifetime TV movie ranking scale) through the first hour and 40 minutes or so. It's a shame the writing became rough and disjointed at the end and prevented this from having an ending that was more reflective of the movie as a whole.