Return to Christmas Creek

This movie is a combination romance and story of a family working through long time issues. There are a lot of the formula themes for a Christmas romance like one lead goes home to fix an new app that has problems. Two high school flames reunite. Town tree lighting. Ginger bread contest. Service man separated from wife and kid.

The story doesn't have any real surprises or highs or lows. The tension is normal family issues. The one slightly unusual thing is the "Fly-by Christmas" which involves Amelia (whose heroine is Earhart) getting reacquainted with flying.

Tori Anderson and Stephen Huszar are comfortable together but their story is diluted by other things. Most of the acting is adequate including supporting cast.

Obviously with the sheer volume of movies Hallmark puts out at Christmas they can't all be great. This one was ok but nothing particularly special or memorable. Tori Anderson was delightful, hopefully she gets another shot as a Hallmark lead in the future.

Nothing new here--same plot that they have recycled hundreds of times. Same 10 square miles of Ontario that looks NOTHING like the Midwestern US.

As usual the thing that makes it watchable is the acting/chemistry of the main characters. The whole cast is pretty good but the lead actress is particularly strong at the feel-good/romance element. They should put her in as many movies as she can deal with because she can single-handedly rescue the whole thing.

7/10 - holiday fun with Hallmark and full of familiar tropes

Actually, just nice. Not original but the familiarity of every pieces defining it, from family to romance are well used and the result is far to be more than predictable but with a nice effect.