Catering Christmas

This is a beautiful film based on basic standards. The locations, houses, decorations, and shots are beautiful. The main characters have great chemistry as is expected from a typical slow-brewing romance. The only major downside is there isn't much of a plot. The guy character has no bigger predicament than being rich and trying to conceal his identity out of fear of judgment and wanting to fit in with the "regular" community. The girl character shows some career growth in trying to impress her employer, but overall there are no major twists and turns that would make the story more interesting than just a relaxed feel-good holiday movie. Still worth a watch for the set design.

Based on last year and this, GAC Family Christmas movies are hit and miss.

This one is definitely the former, thanks to the excellent chemistry between the always-gorgeous Merritt Patterson and Australian Daniel Lissing.

What a difference good acting makes! A "sweet" story of Molly (Patterson) a small-town caterer who gets a contract to provide food for a Christmas gala for the town benefactor's foundation. She meets Carson (Lissing), the somewhat black sheep of the family and - as you probably have figured out by now - sparks fly.

Yes, Catering Christmas a formulaic movie, the likes of which we've all seen many times before (right down to the expected moment where a difficult choice has to be made by one of the protagonists - a very popular, oft-used Hallmark/Lifetime/GAC Family plot twist) but it's also quite nice.

(Dear Hallmark, Lifetime and/or GAC Family: much more Merritt Patterson, please!)

Okay, I'll admit I read all the reviews before I watched this one. I found this to be a really entertaining, sweet, and grounded movie - and, yes, there were predictable moments. And yes, the pics of the "town" are the same as most of these small town locales. It is a made-for-tv rom-com after all - and low budget at that. But all of the actors did a great job. Loved all of the supporting roles and Merritt Patterson and Daniel Lissing were superb together. The older couple were just right - as an older person myself I can tell you that 7 years isn't significant in a relationship ( in real life age means less than attitude and vitality.). Personally I watch these movies to help me remember to enjoy the holidays and give me a lift and this one did that. I say bravo to focusing on what's important in life. Good job GAC.

On its own it is like a hallmark movie, obvious plot where we already know the ending, but compared to most of the other movies offered up on Hulu, Netflix and Amazon, this one looks like a rare 9. Actors with talent and vitality, a better than usual plot, and a storyline that moved along at a normal pace. Most Hallmark movies are so slow in both dialog and timing I can't bear the boredom of finishing them. There was nothing remotely offensive in the dialogue or plot which is a change, no silly or jealous or conniving characters, just 4 mature and polite adults helping the community and being considerate of others.

As far as the made for TV romances go, we've always regarded Hallmark as top tier and Lifetime as a very distant second. Last year GAF stepped into the picture, and I thought they were better than Lifetime but still not quite up to the quality of Hallmark.

This movie puts GAF a giant step forward. Of course, they spared no expense bringing over Hallmark talent, and it shows.

Here we have an attractive leading couple who both hold up their parts well. We start out with an awkward and amusing "mistaken identity" that morphs to the "rebellious next generation."

Then we get a whole lot of what all these movies need and so many fail at ... LOTS of relationship building between the leads. There's little tension and lots of good feeling, making this a comfortable and enjoyable window into this story's world.

Even a couple of contrived speedbumps don't slow this down. Recommended.