The Christmas Contract

Love this movie. Such a sweet story... but somewhat spoilt by the awful sound quality. The speech is fine, it's just the too loud background noise of what I presume are supposed to be crickets! Still well worth watching though!

We're not professional movie critics. We don't watch much television and, as far as I know, this is the first time I've ever watched anything on Lifetime. However, we do have a special perspective to share about The Christmas Contract.

This was a movie about family and Christmas...and they nailed it.

My wife and I watched the movie with our daughters and their families. We all watched each scene in breathless anticipation. With every chair and sofa spot occupied, the little ones were spread out on the floor with blankets and pillows. We paused, replayed and paused again to point out specific details; even the 6-year olds were focused and engaged.

This unusual behavior is explained by the fact that we were watching the movie in the same living room where Jolie showed Jack the Christmas tree ornaments. As our youngest granddaughter (whose middle name is Jolie) cried out when Tim, Jolie, and Jack first drove up to the Guidry family home, "That's Nana and Poppy's house!"

Like most people, we had never anticipated anything like this. Our home was taken over by strangers, lots of them. We were simultaneously excited and dreadful; we built this home with meticulous attention to detail, and now someone was rearranging furniture and taking pictures off the walls. We weren't as much concerned about physical damage as we were about how our home was to be portrayed and the quality of the movie in which it was to be featured.

The outcome could not be more pleasant. Monika Mitchell (director) did a fantastic job molding the actors and the settings to represent a credible reality. We could see ourselves in every situation including playing games on the back porch, making breakfast for visitors, and sharing meals with extended family and friends at the dining room table. Seeing Cheryl Ladd and Bruce Boxleitner with their movie family in our home seemed perfectly natural. The actors were all amazingly approachable and engaging. Hilarie Burton is as genuine as you might hope, and as far as I could tell, there was no difference between the character and the person. Our only regret is that, as hosts, we weren't able to visit and get to know all of them properly.

As natives to Lafayette and the surrounding area, we're also wary of fake accents and hokey stereotypes. Nothing was exaggerated. Downtown Lafayette has quiet streets, cafés, a cathedral, and a courthouse. Joel Robideaux is really the mayor and his accent is 100% Lafayette. Acadian Village is a real treat and we encourage all of our visiting friends to check it out. Rocky's accent was a little heavy, but I know lots of guys with the same.

And to address a prior reviewer's comment; yes, the cicadas are really that loud and this isn't "the South", it's Lafayette.

Biased as it may be, our opinion is that the movie is a home run. This is a Christmas event our family will share for years to come and we sincerely hope you will too.

Roy and Vickie Couvillion

P.S. Sincere thanks to the producer, Daniel Lewis, for the opportunity to share our home with the Lifetime audience, and to the crew members and staff for their professionalism, their respect and their camaraderie.

This is a familiar setup for a holiday story: newly single woman takes home a ringer because her ex will be there with someone new. Warm-hearted family embraces the new man and swaps holiday traditions.

That's where the plot diverges from the usual: there's no heart-rending over deceiving loved ones, and the developing love interest is warm, believable, and well-paced. There's enough going on with the other characters and outside events that Our Heroine seems like a fully rounded woman, not simply a cut-out with a cute hairstyle and a vestigial career.

Our Heroine is positively luminous. She sizzles in this role, like a young Cybil Shepherd or Kathleen Turner, without once doing or saying an overtly sexy thing.

Of course there's the obligatory misunderstanding at the 3/4 mark, that you can see coming from way back. But the way it's resolved doesn't involve either of them doing anything cringe-worthy, and does evolve beautifully out of preceding events.

And I'd REALLY like to experience a Louisiana Christmas.

Jolie (Hilarie Burton) is going home for the holidays and she finds out that her ex-boyfriend, who she has a long history with, is taking home his new girlfriend. So her best friend Naomi (Danneel Ackles) suggest taking her brother Jack (Robert Buckley) with her back to Louisiana to pretend they have a relationship.

I love One Tree Hill so I was looking forward to this. 5 people from the cast coming together for a Lifetime movie was everything (one was a surprise to me, even if he was only a couple of minutes).

The movie was good. The secondary characters were amazing. The chemistry was off the charts (of course, they are friends off screen). The plot was nothing special: we have seen this thousands of times. But Hilarie and Robert (Tyler, Danneel and Antwon) made it special for me.

My only complain was the loud music during certain scenes and the lack of scenes with Danneel and Antwon. I'm pretty sure any Hallmark/Lifetime fan will enjoy it. But One Tree Hills fans will love it.

(now give us a Joy and James movie please!)

Throughout my whole Lifetime (Hallmark too) Christmas film completest quest undertaken namely late last year, an interesting quest but very hit and miss, there was never the mentality of expecting a classic or the film in question to be flawless. Something that was never managed with Lifetime's output. There was always the expectation of seeing a film where one can see at least some effort rather than merely cash-in level. One could see that with enough of Lifetime's work.

Effort that could be seen with one of their better 2018 Christmas efforts. As far as their Christmas films go overall too 'The Christmas Contract' fares favourably, and is a contract worth signing if not quite a must sign. Anybody wanting originality and award winning dialogue will feel short-changed, but anybody wanting to see a film that doesn't take itself too seriously while seriously enough to stop it from being campy or something, a film that charms and warms the heart should find some worth in 'The Christmas Contract'.

As with much of Lifetime's output, it is pretty formulaic and predictable with the final quarter especially being very easy to figure out what happens next and in somewhat too neat a way.

Some of the dialogue, namely early on, is laughably corny and quite awkward. Count me in as another person that found the music too intrusive and over-bearing.

However, the production values still manage to be pleasing. It's not too drab or garish in photography, the editing didn't seem rushed or disorganised and the scenery has a real charm to it. Some of the soundtrack has a nostalgic feel to it. The dialogue does improve, the flow relaxes and it was sweet. Despite surprises being very few, the story still mostly engages and scores high on the charm and heart-warming factors.

Lifetime generally do better than Hallmark at having characters worth caring for, and 'The Christmas Contract' has characters that may not be three-dimensional but have likeability in their own way and don't have any negative character traits exaggerated. Hilarie Burton brings a lot of charm and energy to her role, as does Robert Buckley. They look very relaxed together and their chemistry came over to me as genuine. The supporting cast also do well, nobody overacts and nobody looks bored.

Overall, didn't blow me away but very pleasant. 7/10