Dear Christmas

source: Dear Christmas

Jason Priestley carried of the light humour of his character very well. We feel like he's a friend we know, as regular viewers of "Private Eyes". We enjoyed the non serious nature of the movie, simply as Christmas entertainment! But, my gosh, that awkward basketball that was supposed to be a pregnant belly, was ridiculous!! It was far too large for for a woman so tiny! For heavens sake, something more realistic was definitely called for! Sad indeed! We chuckled every time she appeared, carrying that around! Simply entertaining evening.

A romance Christmas movie with Melissa Joan Hart that others have criticized for being too sugary? Yes, please! What could go wrong, right? Yet it's all Christmas and no story. As low as the bar is for this genre plot-wise, it still manages to fall completely flat: there's no element of conflict or tension whatsoever, no complications and resolution, nothing at all. And it's such a shame because it does have everything else to be the archetype of the feel-good romance Christmas movie: both actors are perfect for their roles, especially MJH, and the chemistry between them works flawlessly. The atmosphere is overwhelminly christmasy, taking place in a fairy-tale universe where houses, cars, shops, people.. everything is perfect in every sense. If only something happened.. Audio is indeed terrible, if you love to hear actors swallowing their food then this is the movie for you, and Natalie's father characther is absolutely unwatchable. But hey, I can live with all that as long as the story keeps me traped wanting for the two protagonists to overcome their ridiculously trivial problems in their perfect lives and get together at the end, that's why we watch this type of movies, right? Unfortunately the whole budget went to Christmas decorations and nothing was left for a screenwriter. Romance TV movies are expected to be predictable, this one however wasn't predictable at all, not because something unpredictable happens but because "nothing" happens! So although it definitely wasn't worth the ice-cream I had watching it, overall I think it's a perfect movie to have playing on TV during a family gathering to provide Christmas spirit, beautiful visuals and a story that can be followed with minimal attention without having to sacrifice conversation.

JP great on Private Eyes and his banter with Cindy Sampson but this movie was totally without any emotion, excitement.. gosh it is Christmas could have had some sparkly chatter with the romance partner. Rather dull. Maybe needed his 90210 love interest to be the partner. And the spooky looking Mom, did that actress no justice. And the baby bump is just laughable, was waiting for it to twist around or fall down.

The first half of this movie is adorable and promising, but around the halfway mark, it falls off the rails a little bit. It starts off with comedy and lovely scenery and a sweet hometown, and somehow gets convoluted along the way with a super contrived conflict. The turning point is when Melissa Joan Hart's character, Natalie, starts questioning if her burgeoning relationship with Chris is moving too fast, despite the fact that they haven't done anything other than hang out and go on essentially one official date. Their relationship seems like it's traveling on a totally believable pace, but Natalie feels the need to pump the brakes for reasons unknown. She changes her mind when she finds a journal from 8th grade with Chris' name in it, marking him as one of her many crushes from middle school, despite not even remembering him when she first saw him since returning to town. She has books like this for every grade full of boys she had (one can assume) superficial crushes on -- especially given that she usually scratched their names out one page later -- but for some reason, seeing Chris' name in this journal is the tipping point for Natalie to rethink her entire relationship with him, and she confesses her love to him on her podcast. Ridiculousness aside, I just couldn't quite get over the hurdle of needing to believe that Natalie would've completely forgotten Chris after crushing on him in school. Looking at other reviews, I can see that Jason Priestley is a favorite among viewers, but he felt awfully miscast here for me. His rugged looks felt like they belonged more in a Christmas-at-the-ranch type of movie, rather than the jack-of-all-trade friendly neighbor bill he was attempting to fit here. On the plus side, I really did enjoy the comedic aspects of this film, especially Chris' grand, slow-motion entrance at the beginning. I love when Lifetime makes a genuine effort at humor in their movies, and that's what kept me sticking around this film. Melissa Joan Hart is also GREAT at comedy and playing roles that enhance the humor. This movie was no exception in that regard!

I love the actors in this movie, particularly Jason P, so I thought this movie would be good. Oh dear, how wrong I was. The acting was not great and the dialogue stilted and awkward. I felt so bad for the actors being in such a disappointing movie, that I couldn't continue watching their humiliation. BTW I don't think it is the actors' fault at all. This is all on Lifetime and their Director etc Really poor job! I hate to say this but Lifetime really needs to up their game. Currently, most of their movies only rival the worst of Hallmark's movies. Even without seeing the opening credits of a movie, I can guess whether it is Hallmark or Lifetime, just by the quality and the style.

Melissa Joan has starred in some of my favorite Hallmark type movies. This one wasn't bad, but it is not going down as a favorite. The main appeal of this one was the pairing with Jason Priestly. They made a good match, and his character was appealing. On the negative side, there wasn't much to the plot. Melissa shines in playing goofy quirky, somewhat hapless characters and the script did not take advantage of her comic talents. But maybe she's getting a little too "mature" for anything other than stock Hallmark heroines with no personality other than being nice and pleasant. The hook on this story was disappointing. It is unbelievable that the character would not remember an 8th grade crush. Even if he was one in a very lo-o-o-o-o-n-g line. I'll say no more on that. Something more could have been made of discovering him as being an entry in a diary. Other than he was one of her many crushes and she drew stars around his name. Did not seem to be a firm foundation on which to decide to commit. Maybe a special memory triggered? But she would have remembered him! Or maybe the got hit on the head trope could have figured in here some where. Oh well. I give up.

So terrible. What a waste of time. Corny no chemistry, no romance. Acting was horrible. The fake baby was best actor. I would not recommend this movie.

Well...since I love Christmas movies, yes, the sappy kind with all out Xmas decor and especially the family pjs and the whole coordinated outfits. What I like to know is where Sally Kruse managed to get the pjs? Been trying to scope out this info... alas... to no avail. This would be a fantastic find!

I love seeing Jason Priestly in this awesome Christmas movie!! Hope he makes more of these!!