Have said many times about my love of Christmas and getting a lot of pleasure out of in particular watching films, cartoons and specials during this period, something that most years has been much needed. Wanted to see some more festive films that were more recent, lower in budget and were not childhood favourites, so in a way to broaden my horizons and have been doing so since November 2019. The idea for 'A Snowy Christmas' did sound predictable and not particularly interesting, but still watched for completest sake and Damon Runyan.
Really do have to agree that 'A Snowy Christmas' fell very flat on the whole. There are a few good things but also unfortunately too much bad for me to recommend. As far as Christmas films go, there are certainly far worse out there that fare even worse in the acting and storytelling stakes. There are also a lot better, that have a lot more charm and spark. There have actually been some good Christmas films out there seen in the past four years, so me disliking 'A Snowy Christmas' is not being said with bias.
'A Snowy Christmas' does have good things. Can totally understand why the production values have been criticised for being inauthentic and low budget, but to me the production values still looked attractive in their own way. Very nice scenery.
The ending is quite sweet, even though it is an easily foreseeable one. The best thing about it is Runyan who is very charming and subtly charismatic.
Unfortunately, he is also very underused and his chemistry with Elysia Rotaru suffers from having very little screen time and even less development. It is basically just there but with next to nothing done with it, also found it too bland and distant. The acting on the whole is rough, especially wooden Rotaru and over-compensating Farrah Aviva, the chemistry between them comes over as forced. Which harms the film because that has more screen time than the romantic relationship. The characters are too underdeveloped to be likeable and some like Cheery are annoying, from poorly written and negative decision making being overdone.
Furthermore, the writing is too often stilted and forced especially in the very slow going beginning. The story is predictable throughout and drags in the first act. The lack of realism also hurts it, as well as a couple of the subplots being very muddled, especially the lodge situation and the contrived and too suddenly introduced conflict that is resolved too neatly. The film is very bland, taking itself too seriously to be light hearted and the lack of interesting characters and underwritten storytelling stops it from having any charm or heart. The music is forgettable at best and could have been toned down and the direction is never above routine level.
Concluding, falls flat. 3/10.
