A Fabled Holiday

I loved the literary references throughout the movie--and the basis of the movie's plot, itself based on an imaginary book known to the characters. The actors themselves do a wonderful job. The Christmas decorations are as stunning as ever. The holiday activity variations from the usual Americana (and ridiculously made-up "traditions" to avoid real religiously-inspired customs) was surprisingly fun and non-offensive. That said, though I didn't laugh enough, it was very enjoyable. I was left wondering if Wunderland is like an annual Christmas "Brigadoon." The "New Hallmark" movies are a little more difficult to find relaxing because the management seems to fear the classic guaranteed romcom levity and brightness (the channel's past distinctiveness from Lifetime and other channels). While character negativity is "real life," it gets in the way of the joy one expects from the romcom genre.

source: A Fabled Holiday

A Fabled Holiday is an absolute gem! Something magical draws 5 people to the beautiful Gingerbread Inn in Wunderbrook - and its here that the folks who run the inn will work their magic and wonders to heal these 5 guests. This is a bright, happy and uplifting movie and I hope that Hallmark makes more like this. The cast is fantastic and Ryan Paevey and Brooke D'Orsay are especially awesome! They're naturals and one feels like they're watching the characters and not actors playing a role. Cast these two more Hallmark! Great movie, beautiful sets/scenery, fantastic cast and a wonderful story line!

I knew they were in trouble when Lindsey Stirling was featured in the previews. Turns out, that was pretty much her entire participation. This is a story about people in crisis magically visiting a fairy tale land they had all read about as children. It is very hard to pull off a fairy land in a two hour Christmas movie, and as it turns out, other than an occasional bell ringing, there is very little else to suggest anything special is going on. A knowing look occasionally is about it. Ryan Paevey is good in almost everything, and he's pulled some movies out of the fire before. But not this one I'm afraid. I didn't care for the chemistry with the still-gorgeous Brooke D'Orsay, and I thought her acting was a little spotty in this. Admittedly hard to do a film like this, but the result was nothing special. Six.

I liked the trappings and the framing of the story but the basic plot of strangers coming together to repair what is wrong with their lives was tired. None of their arcs had a lot of substance or originality. Or, failing substance, humor, suspense, drama, or engaging romance. On the positive side, it did have Brooke D'Orsay and Ryan Paevey as the main couple. Their performances were charming as usual. I like them separately, and they were OK together, but just OK. Maybe they are both just too nice to generate much romantic tension with each other. It all starts out with a little girl and her father reading a fairy story about a magical town called Wunderbrook. Sadly the Dad dies and the little girl and her mother move away. Before she goes, she gives her storybook to her best friend Anderson and she promises to send him her stories as she writes them. When next we see her, she owns a bookstore. Her aspirations to be an author have died on the vine due to her lack of self-confidence and fear of failure. Meanwhile, we catch up on her childhood friend Anderson who is now a surgeon who is questioning his calling due to losing a patient. We also meet a married couple who have grown apart and are on the verge of divorce and an old man who is very lonely since his beloved wife died. Through various magical means (a detour on a road, a wrong number, getting lost, and a flooded basement) they find themselves together in Wunderbrook. It is the magical town of the storybook come to life. It turns out that they all had the book as children, but for some reason, it is only Brooke that starts to make the connection between the story and the real-life town they find themselves in. She is poopoo-ed throughout the whole movie, almost. As they spend time with the owners of the B&B and their daughter (really the King, Queen, and Princess), and the other denizens of the place, including the wicked witch, they start to get cured of what ails them. The hostile bickering couple starts to repair their marriage and the old man finds a friend in the owner of the bar/restaurant who is also bitter and lonely (the witch.) The two childhood friends start to fall in love as well as, in the end, get over the fears that are holding them back from fulfilling their dreams. It all comes together at the end with not only our friends on a happy road to love and success but Wunderbrook itself being saved, thanks to a certain aspiring writer. Their individual stories of love and learning are told by a storyteller as if they were characters in a storybook. This was a new path for Hallmark to take and I liked and appreciated the creativity. Christmas Magic is a common trope but usually has to do with Santa and time travel. This was something quite different and, again, I appreciated it. Unfortunately, they forgot to find engaging stories to put in all that creative framing. It was, to paraphrase one of Brooke's publisher's rejections, "cute" but not entirely enough for me.

While not everything about this movie Wow'd me to a high rating, it was so creative I have to reward it. The Chapter format with fairly tale pages to begin and end each 12 minute segment (commercials, don't you know) was very cool, and the entire idea for the story simply broke the mold. Not often do we get an enchanted town. :-) The town comes from a fairy tale book all the guests of the town owned and loved as children, and the premise is that those who have broken places in their lives come to the town to heal. It's really a very nice idea and they pulled it off. The relationships and the mystery might have been sold harder, but I can enjoy what they did, and we'll watch it again.

A Fabled Holiday (2022) - Playing the role of Anderson in this film, Ryan Paevey always melts me slightly, especially his gorgeous voice. Brooke D'Orsay on the other hand just tends to annoy me in most of the films that I've seen her in. As Talia in this one she was too girly and smiley, but I assumed that she was chosen specifically for that, because the film itself was trying to be fun and even comical in its way, with a narrator and other elements, but for me it just came over as gimmicky. What I did like was that it was an ensemble piece to some degree, without compromising on the romance of the two main leads. I got to see a variety of relationship barriers and issues being dealt with and that gave the magic a bit more depth. That magic element was a tad daft and childish and might have been dealt with better if the whole film had been played much more comedically. Perhaps something similar to 'A Clusterfunke Christmas' (2021), which this one actually bore similarities too anyway. Also, Talia's Dad was very odd and kind of freaked me out. If I watched this one again, it would most likely be for Ryan alone and I would probably realise that it wasn't that good, while I still had loads of new films filling my Skybox to watch. And that's when I'd turn it off, but it was certainly acceptable for one viewing. 4.75/10.

A Fabled Holiday is a 2022 Festive Romantic Fantasy starring Brooke Dorsay and Ryan Pevey along with a special appearance by Lindsey Sterling. Two childhood friends named Talliuah and Anderson(Dorsay and Pevey)magically get a phonecall for a trip to stay at the Gingerbread Inn in Wurstbrook during the Christmas holidays where they meet two other people one is a couple who is having a hard communicating with each other,while the other is a lonely widowed man who hates Christmas. Could this new town be the same town Talliuah and Anderson read as kids and its coming to life? Overall I actually enjoyed this film. Sure it was predictable and I knew where it was going as it had a familiar plot(think Inkheart meets Disenchanted sorta) and you get this. Will definetly be adding this to my Christmas collection.

7.4 stars. A group of people are whisked (sort of) to a hidden fairy tale village in the middle of nowhere, but apparently somewhere between Idaho and Seattle. I Being a resident of Olympia, this movie piqued my interest a bit more than the average viewer's. Brooke D'Orsay with her usual schwa de vivre, and Ryan Paevey with his old fashioned charm, are the leading couple. In this story they were best friends as children until her father died and they parted ways for almost 30 years. Coincidentally, they meet in her bookstore and then a few days later they both end up at this peculiar inn due to strange circumstances. There are several other people also who end up at this mystical place "by chance". The rest of the tale is about odd occurrences and magical things that happen to help each of our guests find purpose, happiness, and love. As the story continues, rumor has it that the fate of this place depends upon specific outcomes being met for each of the various guests. Our leading female has a strong feeling that she's been here before. Don't expect great romantic chemistry, drama, or excitement, because they are not the intent of this film. This is more of a super light and fluffy version of 'Grimm', or 'Once Upon a Time' with the potential of invoking that feeling you get when immersed in a children's story book (ages 4 and under). This is a light film with an esoteric feel, importantly it is uplifting, distinctly festive and elevating in a manner most stories fail to accomplish. That is to say it encapsulates the fairy tale of Christmas better than most. And this is not a Santa version, but more like a faerie or elvish angle.

Favorite scene with Talia Munro (Brooke D'Orsay) - Confronting Judy and Miles about Wunderbrook being Magical, Demanding to Know what is Going On, and being told that she's Ridiculous, Got Carried Away, and has a Very Active Imagination by both a Very Upset Mildred and Anderson. I Love Brooke D'Orsay (Talia Munro)! She is So Dang Adorable!!! And Ryan Paevey (Anderson) is So Dang Charming and So Dang Hot!!! BTW #1, I Loved this Movie! It was A Very Charming Storybook Story/Fairytale! I Loved the Mystery Aspect of it! I Loved that it had a Very Serious Vibe to it! BTW #2, Brooke is my Mom's name! Set in Washington.