A Christmas Detour

While I enjoy so many of Hallmark's holiday movies, this is not one of its best. Paige's character is just annoying, and Dylan is as stiff as a board. The unhappily married companion couple, Frank and Maxine, is the best-acted story line, despite their boring dialogue. What in the world did Paige ever see in her fiancé Jack? He's a dud. Nothing is remotely believable in this film. And, sadly, it appears that some substandard CGI was inserted, too, like the holiday tree in the very beginning. Everyone, including the director, was just going through the motions on this one. It could have been so much more with a better script and direction, and with actors who wanted to be there.

A high-strung writer gets hooked up with an irreverent laid back fellow and a seemingly happily married couple on the way to visit their families on Christmas. They are thrown together when a snow-storm cancels their flight and they decide to share an automobile to get to their destinations. The Candace Cameron character is traveling to the Hamptons to meet her fiancée's family for the first time. It is a road movie in which romance blossoms, true character is revealed, and secrets are uncovered. The fiancé and his parents are deliciously evil, Cameron-Bure, while always reliable, is quite likable and funny, and the married couple and the hero are well played, interesting, and nice to look at.

What I really want to address, and this movie is a perfect example, is Hallmarks penchant for casting 40 year-olds in the roles of 20 or early thirty year-olds. Aren't there any promising young actors and actresses out there?. I am tired of seeing the same faces over and over. It is particularly absurd in this one. The older experienced couple who have a 20 year relationship and a daughter old enough to have a beautiful old home, are played by actors who are the same age, if not younger, than the couple they are meant to be mentoring!

I sometimes wonder why certain people choose to watch certain movies.....do not believe the negative reviews of this movie. This is a lovely Christmas romance movie, with good acting and realistic characters. I have certainly met and know people like these characters, even the parents of the husband to be....so I am confused by some of the reviews saying the characters are not believable. My husband and I enjoyed watching this together. You will too.

Candace Cameron Bure plays a writer who believes in vision boards and soulmates. She's engaged to a stuffy, insipid man and is supposed to meet his equally stuffy parents for the first time on Christmas. But bad weather stands in the way of her plans so she's forced to share a ride with a bickering married couple and a handsome bartender (Paul Greene) down on love. Along the way sparks fly, proving once again that opposites always attract in TV romcoms.

It's never a bad thing to see Candace Cameron Bure in a Christmas movie, even if she is playing a more obnoxious character than usual. It took me awhile to like the character as she's pretty much the exact type of person I try to avoid in my life. Eventually they do flesh her out a little and you grow to care about her some. I still wasn't completely enamored with her by the end. Which is saying a lot since I adore Candace and will sit through just about anything to watch her. For his part, Paul Greene is a step above the usual bland male lead these things tend to have. He's got a lot of charisma (and knows it), straddling that fine line between charming and cocky at all times. Candace and Paul have a nice chemistry together but, as fun as these two are, the real highlight of the movie is Sarah Strange and David Lewis as the married couple. They prove you don't have to have movie star good looks to be a compelling romcom relationship. In a perfect world actors like this could be the stars of the movie. As it is, we have to settle for them as supporting players who steal the spotlight. The guy playing Candace's fiancé and the actors playing his parents also do an admirable job with cardboard roles. I'm sure it wasn't easy.

Candace rarely disappoints with her TV movies. This one isn't among my favorites of hers but it is very enjoyable, despite a few flaws. It's predictable (as these things always are) but it does what it does well. If you're looking for a pleasant way to pass the time on a lazy Saturday afternoon, you could do a lot worse.

If one's idea of entertainment is a goofy script, irritating character, and very far-fetched engagement, perhaps this film would by okay. But I think many people besides me will find "A Christmas Detour" a real drag. The lead character, Paige Summerlind (played by Candace Bure) is flying from Los Angeles to New York to meet the parents of her fiance for the first time over Christmas, and to plan their spring wedding. If one can bear with the film to near the end, and see her fiance, Jack, and his parents, the big question would be when and where did she meet this guy, and how did they ever get engaged? Was she smoking something strange at the time, or under the influence?

For there to be a detour in flights, there has to be a cause, and that's the unforeseen snow storm that hits New England and closes all the New York City area airports. Fortunately - or otherwise, for Paige, and some others, their plane can land at Buffalo. By this time, though, I was worn out by the motor-mouth Paige who appears to passengers, including Dylan Smith (played by Paul Greene) as a ditzy blonde. And, that's just exactly what this character is right up until the last few minutes. It's so bad and irksome that I would not have watched this film all the way through had it not been for a couple on the same plane and who were part of the story. Frank and Maxine Harper (David Lewis and Sara Strange) are an odd couple, married 20 years, and constantly bickering or squabbling over something. And, it's mostly humorous. So, to see how they would come of this, I stayed with this film.

Their part in the film is the only reason I give it even three stars. The conclusion with Paige and Dylan, which anyone who has watched Christmas romance movies knows, isn't worth sticking it out for - it's that mundane. Dylan's character probably is supposed to be a sort of balance to Page's silly and erratic manner. He's clearly irritated with her in the beginning, but then he just seems like a dumb ox with a smiling, smug look most of the rest of the movie. .

This is one holiday film that discerning movie buffs will want to avoid entirely.