Mingle All the Way

Sometimes in a Hallmark film, you're left wondering how the actual love relationship managed to develop into the final romantic declaration & long-awaited kiss. Not so with this film. They were in each others company for most of the film & we were seeing a slow-burning romance blossom from detestation to apathy to affection and then love. It was a good watchable process, firmly enhanced by the performances and chemistry of both leads who totally nailed it ! Their time acting together in Days of Their Lives kept their chemistry fresh. The storyline was a bit ho-hum but all performances from bosses, friends, jealous co-workers, old girlfriend & parents (nice to see Lindsey Wagner doing well) kept the whole story-pot bubbling away nicely ! Would love to see a sequel !

Molly Hoffman has created a social app not for love but for business escort purposes. Matches agree to go to business Christmas events with each other. It's called Mingle All the Way. Her investors suggest that she use her own app before they put money into it. She keeps bumping into Jeff Scanlon who steals her Christmas present for her dad. Jeff is having trouble finding a Christmas date and he uses the app. The two combative busy business people get matched up.

In order to make the premise work better, the investor should be the one setting her up with Jeff. Molly would be forced to make the pairing work with the investor following them around on their first date. I actually really like app idea and its potential for rom-com. The leads are fine Hallmark material. This is really straight forward as are most of the Hallmark movies. They truly don't have any drama. It does have the right sentiments. This is fine for those who love Hallmark specials.

It's a great Christmas Hallmark movie! I enjoyed it a lot. Nice to see Lindsay Wagner too.

Cute & believable story Both characters are charming and lovable. Good acting too!

The "fake romance" trope is commonly trotted out in Hallmark Christmas movies. If there isn't one every year, there will probably be one the next. LOL This is one. However, they put a twist on it by having the pairing not be truly fake, but just a new app which pairs people who need plus ones for holiday events.

However, the creator of the app is challenged to use her own app, and of course it pairs her with a man she's already been at odds with ... twice. So we have the start of an antithetical romance which isn't supposed to be a romance in the first place.

This movie's script succeeds where many fail ... it puts the leads together in ways which believably sell the idea they might gain affection for each other.

There are funny moments and quite moving moments, such as when the male lead defends the female lead to her mother, and later when the mother takes that to heart and shows up to mend things with her daughter.

We recommend this movie and we'll watch it again. (In fact, I write this review after our second viewing. We also saw it the year it first aired).