Candy Cane Christmas

Even the title didn't suit this movie. When the woman was selling her house and investors were in town, I expected there to be a connection to a new development and bringing candy cane lane back. But no. Candy cane lane ended up as something that could never have been made and kept a secret from Phoebe. You have stretched beyond a limit of belief here.

The writing and storyline were weak. There was a big deal about meeting investors but the investors weren't part of the story or plot. There was the nice young woman that served Eric coffee every day and knew his order. The she disappeared, we never saw her again! The woman at the beginning that was selling her house was irrelevant to the story - a lot of loose ends to this movie.

This was a slow moving romance. How long can it take for two people to admit they like each other?

The main female character in this movie looks like she has a permanent sneer on her face. Not a enjoyable film at all and a very blah storyline. Male lead was more palatable as was the aunt.

I found the story in this movie to be unremarkable. Don't get me wrong, I am not one of those Hallmark/Lifetime haters on here, who constantly complain about this genre of film. For the most part, I enjoy such films, see my other reviews. But this one was, simply put, hard to stay engaged with; I had to stop myself on several occasions from using my iPad, multitasking. I had a similar experience to another reviewer in this regard, which was I found it difficult to invest in/bond with the characters. I think this is due mostly to some weak writing, as the acting was decent. Mark Ghanimé's performance (as Eric) was good; he had a soft confidence to his performance on screen, which was pleasant. I spent many hours during the late 90s watching 7th Heaven, so it was nice seeing Beverley Mitchell (as Phoebe) on screen again. Her performance was pretty good. The chemistry between the two was OK. I see some reviewers on here thought it was good, while others did not. It was not great, but it was believable. I think that is the best way to describe it. Some of the scenes between Phoebe and Eric seemed to drag on a bit too much...but again I think this is a product of some weak writing as opposed to the acting. Overall, it was an OK Christmas movie that I will not watch again.

I love hallmark movies and the predictability of them. But this was so horrible. Why is the leading woman so insecure? After all the misunderstandings, she still chose overreacting rather than finding out the truth? If it wasn't for the leading man, I wouldn't have finished this movie.

It's a decent Christmas movie which to me means watchable once.

Kind of a typical plot of getting over the ex, trying to get into the Christmas spirit etc... The story is complete with well meaning friends doing the "you need to get back out there" thing, but it's overdone and aggressive so that it becomes annoying to watch. There is decent chemistry between the leads and they're sweet, but the story lacks any fun between them to help you invest or bond with them.