Christmas Festival of Ice

Enough about Ice Sculpting already!!

Let me say that Damon Runyan is a real professional to try and power through this one. He was trying his best...but there is no chemistry in this movie at all. Let's face it Taylor Cole is not suited for the Christmas movie genre. I kept hoping for more screen time for Teagan Vincze.

Right...."Mom, I don't want to be a lawyer; I want to be an ice sculptor"...Stupid. It's a small town! How would they not know each other? Dumb. If Mom had been in a car crash on the way home, now that would have been a plot turn.

Take out everything about Ice Sculpting and Emma and it's a good movie..

I give this film a 5 just for the fact that it was filmed in Mississippi Mills - in the winter! People actually looked cold and are wearing real winter clothes and boots, no high heels in sight. OMG. As for the plot, it's just as silly as every 2nd Hallmark film - you know, where they give up their careers to move to the small town to work in businesses that don't actually exist anymore because they make no money in today's world. I am still waiting for the one where someone moves to the city for a job...you know, reality! But no, it's Hallmark so don't expect more. Just chill out and enjoy the beautiful scenery in this one.

IMDb gives away a little too much in the Storyline. But I was probably not paying enough attention to the clues about Emma's feelings. I was thinking that Taylor Cole's acting was off in how she was almost irresponsible in her lack of attention to her mom's legal practice. In reality Cole did a good job of showing that her attitude toward law was complicated. The other acting was OK, but I can't say Joey Belfiore was overly convincing in courting Emma. Neither Emma nor Jason made it seem that their romance was highest on their minds.

The story had a small mystery which I thought had a nice solution. There was also a little twist, maybe less so if you paid attention.

For a Christmas movie, I thought it was a little lacking in the usual piling on of Christmas traditions because it was more focused on the ice sculpture.

In Sci-Fi movies, we know that some things will never happen, but we think of them as believable. In Christmas Festival of Ice, the first thing that we did not understand in why 5 blocks of ice cost that much money. Did they pay judges, pay sculptors? Did they pay prize money and would it have to be that much? We have people in our town that would pay to be part of a holiday ice sculpting contest, not have to be paid. It is hard to get around that money raising scheme logic since it is the major part of the movie.

This really isn't a bad film, but I am starting to get a little bit tired of the same story told in a different way. Come on Hallmark/Lifetime surely you can come up with something else?

Damon Runyan is very handsome and likeable and I think she should understand that not everybody is an extrovert. She is nice too though, but I would have liked to have seen more umming and arghing about her job.

The ice sculptures are very well done, but you don't really get to see them properly to appreciate them.

Their romance is cute enough and there's a brief mention of Christmas, but it doesn't have a lot of focus on the season if that's what you're looking for?

I will watch it again I'm sure, especially if there is an extended edition which features Damon Runyan at least topless, but otherwise not for a year or two.