Engaging Father Christmas

I watch most of the Hallmark Christmas stories and unfortunately, the majority of them are clearly made in the summer. This, then is one of the worst. It does have likeable proficient actors, but despite talking a lot about the cold and chopping wood and sitting around the fireplace, anyone who's lived through a real winter can see how phony the setting is! The outdoor scenes are ridiculous. No one has buttoned their coats and there's no misty breath from cold temperatures. Also at times the background shows greenery where there shouldn't be any. Also little piles of snow with a lot of puddles are not convincing.

I gave the film a 6 because I liked the actors, but every time I noticed the fake setting, I was pulled away from the story and just saw a shabby production.

An American-Canadian TV film drama; A story about a young woman who travels to a small-town in Vermont hoping to spend the perfect Christmas with her boyfriend and long-lost family, but someone wants to reveal who her real father is. This is the second film in a trilogy, based on the book Engaging Father Christmas by Robin Jones Gunn. It's theme is about engaging with a new found family, commanding some mystery early on and evening out to a wait-and-see scenario later. As a Hallmark TV movie, it has a certain style, ticking the feel-good boxes, and offers an upbeat story about truth and grace. It is simply told, lightweight but self-contained so as not to require a viewing of the other two in the series for it to work.

Our public library added this movie on DVD and my wife and I watched it at home, just under 85 minutes with no commercials!

Erin Krakow is a cutie and a capable actress, she plays Miranda Chester in this second in a series of movies telling her story. She lives and works in Seattle but is traveling back again to Vermont for Christmas. She had found out her real father was a now deceased famous actor and she was welcomed by his primary family, wife and grown children, but cautioned not to tell anyone else about her real father. They thought it would bring shame and tarnish his memory.

However a reporter finds out, confronts her, and announces his intention to write a story. She can either help or not. But working together the extended family figure out a way to handle it all in a productive manner, in the spirit of "family" for the Holidays.

The other story involves Miranda's boyfriend she had met the previous Christmas, he is a local and they both seemed right for each other. So the "Engaging" in the title of the movie is a reference to their intent to eventually get married.

It is a bit too sweet at certain moments, as Hallmark movie tend to be but overall it is good, clean entertainment for the holidays. We enjoyed it.

Those who rated low maybe are expecting award-winning performances. I personally think that this is as good Hallmark gets. Maybe there were a few things I didn't agree with but compared to the messes that there were this year, those where just details.

I was such a fan of the first movie and luckily this one didn't disappointed me. I even understood the family's point of view of the conflict.

Miranda and Ian were even cuter than in the first movie, the chemistry was so much better. And it was kind of predictable from the first moment but it was such a good movie i'm letting that go.

Hallmark does a really good job at making me love Christmas. It really makes me want to sit next to the fire and read while drinking hot chocolate. Cliché, I know.

Many flaws. First, the pretext of second part of the story who seems too...fake.But a nice atmosphere. A predictable story who has the excuse of familiar characters and interesting -soft solution for save a crisis.. And not bad performances. Few strange scenes , off course, but a reasonable result. And, for a Hallmark Christmas movie , for a second part of a story about a lovely town, a daugther looking for her father and a love story , too, it is enough for enjoy it.