Christmas on the Vine

Brooke (Julianna Guill) goes back to her hometown on a job. She's rebranding a small struggling family-run winery. Tyler (Jon Cor) is the son of the owner and two school years ahead of her. She remembers him but he's not sure. Carla Kilgore (Meredith Baxter) is their powerful competitor who is looking to buy up all the businesses.

It's Lifetime Television doing Christmas. This genre is dominated by Hallmark. This is no better or worst. It's all pretty much the same level of background TV. You put it on in the background while you do other stuff. The one outstanding aspect is the snowy outdoor locations. It looks wintery and Christmasy. It's mostly fine.

I enjoyed this Christmas movie. It has been one of the better ones thus far. The Christmas on a vineyard worked well, at least, it did for me. The story was fun and delightful, and the script was decent as well. I thought Julianna Guill had a really good performance. Her performance has this sort of Christmas, happy vibe about it. It was hard not to like her character. The chemistry between her and Jon Cor as Tyler was just about right, I think. The supporting cast was strong. I especially enjoyed Sebastian Billingsley-Rodriguez's cute performance as Michael. The scenery, props and sets were well polished. It was well done. The movie too instils a bit of Christmas spirit with some fun and cute scenes (e.g., the shooting of the commercial - sonata and the elf) and warm scenes (e.g., the play at the school). Overall, it is a nice little addition to Lifetime's original Christmas movie lineup this year. It is worth a watch.

The marketing exec is delightful and fun throughout, really trying her best to save a small business in her home town. Male lead has hair that looks like the only styling was dunking him in water. Writing was bad. Why hire a marketing firm to bring in business if you're uninterested in change? He kind of hated all her ideas until she convinced him that they were worth a shot. The love aspect was very forced and honestly I didn't like it. The movie itself is super formulaic and follows exactly the template you'd expect it to, which is for better or for worse depending on what you're looking for.

This is another save-the-family-______(winery) plot and a consultant is sent to help. An evil big corporation is swallowing up all the land in the area. There are no real highs or lows or big surprises. The climatic conflict was created in a little bit of a surprising way. I thought it was out of character, but maybe understandable. The very end is abrupt with a change of heart coming on what seemed like a whim.

For me the enjoyment was the cheerful Julianna Guill. She and Jon Cor had good chemistry, but I think that was thanks mostly to Guill. The movie gives the leads plenty of screen time together. Guill seems to be in practically every scene and a lot of them with Cor. I wasn't as impressed with Cor's acting. All the supporting actors turned in decent performances.

This holiday movie was fun to watch from the winery point of view. There is always some enchantment in films about that exotic life that is so unknown to most viewers. However, aside from the fairly predictable plot and the charm of seeing how wine country life is not all that easy and glamorous, this film left a great deal to be desired. Julianna Guill is a really talented actress, with a welcome range of emotions, with great energy for her character, and with a sadly empty script to work with. She does her best in this film. Meredith Baxter is always a welcome joy in any movie. But oh, my goodness, the leading man was so hard to like! He was portrayed as an angry, reluctant headstrong fellow. One wonders how the leading lady could find him appealing and lovable. The quickly resolved ending seemed to come out of nowhere and made very little sense. But most distracting throughout was Jon Cor's hair. Was there no hairdresser on the set to comb his hair back out of his forehead? He is a handsome man and a competent actor. But one wonders why he was presented in such an unattractive manner, one that kept interfering with the viewer's wish to find him likable and appealing. His appearance took a great deal of attention away from the enjoyment of this film.