This was not a Hallmark movie. The video quality was actually awful. It looked as if the movie was shot 10 years ago. The CGI snow was ridiculous. It really added nothing to the story.
The storyline was not completely typical. There were some usual parts though: Dead parent and misunderstandings. The storyline, acting and music made me feel like I was watching a soap opera. There were series parts that I actually laughed at. Like when he's having that stern conversation with his father. It was so fake stern that it was laughable.
It was entertaining enough to watch once. All in all the acting, wardrobe and scenery (minus the snow) was done well. And minus her lit up country drapes in her bedroom. What was that? She seemed way more sophisticated than that. She was a model, so she probably had good money.
I don't "highly" recommend it. If you miss it, you miss it. If there's nothing else you want to watch, you may be entertained if you like soap operas and typical cheesy Christmas romance movies.
It looks like a lot of the French filming was done in Lyon and not Paris. Especially, by the river. You get a couple shots of the Eiffel tower and that is it. If you're looking to see a lot of Paris scenery, you will not find it. I was just there two months ago. That is how I figured out they were shooting in Lyon. Scenery was not matching up to what I saw, so I did a little digging. The Café 203 they eat at is in Lyon. When you look at pictures of the river in Lyon, they totally match up with what was shown in the movie. Lyon actually looks more Italian than French. It looks a lot like Florence. At first I thought it was Florence but then I looked up the café. There is only about one or two minutes of French scenery shown.
