Let It Snow

So, is it sentimental and formulaic? Certainly, but what they do with that formula is something special. And the sentimentality never crosses over into corny. The leads are charming and wonderful to look at, but intelligent & thoughtful too. Filmed in a beautiful location with sets dressed in a lovely non-cloying manner, this film sets itself apart from the "regular" holiday fare just enough to actually be effective. I quite enjoyed it.

Stephanie (Candace Cameron Bure) is an executive with no Christmas spirit who's sent by her boss (and father) to look at a family-owned lodge their company has just acquired. The plan is to turn the cozy rustic lodge into a ski resort, which is news to the family selling it. Stephanie spends the week before Christmas with the family, experiencing the holiday their way. If you think she'll fall for the handsome son (Jesse Hutch) and have a change of heart about Christmas, you must have seen a Hallmark movie before.

I'm always down for a good Candace Cameron Bure TV movie, especially a Christmas one. She's the same here as she is in every role: pretty, charming, likable. Alan Thicke is good as her not-so-likable dad. The fact that Thicke used to play Candace's brother Kirk's father on Growing Pains no doubt led to some back-patting for whoever cast him. Jesse Hutch is an actor whose face is very recognizable if you watch much TV, even if you can't remember where exactly you've seen him before. He's been a guest-star on just about everything that films in Canada. This is one of the bigger roles I've seem him in. He does well and has nice chemistry with Candace. Their meet-cute is funny. I wouldn't mind seeing him in more starring roles. Dan Willmott and Gabrielle Rose are his salt of the earth parents. It's pretty much impossible to dislike them. Oh, and just to preserve it for posterity in case someone changes it: Jesse Hutch's IMDb bio currently brags that he shares a birthplace with fictional comic book character Wolverine and tells a rather odd anecdote about him faking a hostage situation at his high school. Weird but amusing.

The Canadian scenery (subbing for Maine) is lovely. The cast is pleasant and fun. The story is predictable but who cares really? This isn't challenging stuff but it is enjoyable. It has humor, romance, and heartwarming family moments. It's a better than average Christmas TV movie that will make you smile.

Alan Thicke's corporation has bought the Snow Valley resort from its third generation and sends his daughter, Candace Cameron Bure, to survey it. She arrives in the middle of its Christmas season and finds love with both Jesse Hutch and the idea of Christmas in this Hallmark Channel seasonal romantic comedy.

It's a nicely written movie. Mr. Hutch is oppressed by four generations of tradition, including an elaborate series of events and recipes and even regular family guests which must be rigorously followed, with no room for the changes he wants to make. Ms. Bure feels rootless and enchanted by the order and beauty she sees about her. Add in some quite lovely camera-work of the snow-drenched landscape near Vancouver, and you have a fine holiday romcom.

A city girl not used to winter Christmases is sent to check out a resort her father is buying. There she meets the resort owner's son and you know what happens as she grows to love the snow and the resort. One good point is it seems really to have been filmed in the snow not a sound stage. Candace Cameron Bure is quite alright in this movie - not too perky not too cutesy. It is her territory the Hallmark Christmas movie. To balance things Jesse Hutch acts quite seriously so things are balanced out. Alan Thicke has a role as her father and it's quite poignant.

7.5 stars.

This is about a wealthy young woman traveling from Phoenix, Arizona to spend Christmas week at a northern winter lodge in Maine. She works for her real estate mogul of a father who buys resorts and upgrades them to meet the expectations of a specific sort of vacationer: mainly the rich kind. She is not keen on this trip and wants nothing to do with the cold, winter, and snow of the north. She is as icy cold inside as the climate on the outside and it shows, because she is rude and unapproachable from the start.

As the week continues and she begrudgingly participates in the holiday activities, the nice vacationers in this quaint town resort eventually melt her heart. Of course she also falls in love with the owner's son, and he helps transform her anti-Christmas mentality into something wonderful. She finally accepts that Snow Valley must survive as something more than one of her father's soulless acquisitions. She has discovered a special kind of magic here, where snow falls and people wish upon a star, and little children dream of sugar plums dancing.

I enjoyed this nice little excursion and the feeling of being nestled in a snowy, woodsy, and mountainous wonderland. 'Let It Snow' brings a gratifying sentimental feeling like Christmases when I was a child.