Flipping for Christmas

7.3 stars. As I'm sitting here in the middle of 'Flipping for Christmas', I watch the leads as they portray an overstated flirtation that could easily crumble into a full-blown burnout. I've seen enough Hallmark love stories to realize what I'm looking at is a caricature of a romance, inflated to give us the impression that these two are immeasurably enamored. I see the pattern leading up to some disappointment. It's the usual Hallmark plot, at least one of about 5 different general plots. In this case it's the one where two people are falling madly in love all too quickly. This always leads to the eventual conflict and the inevitable conclusion full of misunderstandings, anger, resentment, gaslighting...but eventually things get better. Let's not forget the reason why they are working together to renovate this old Victorian house, as they both have completely opposite goals for the end product. This whole "endearing" blossoming affection will end well, but only because it's Hallmark. They can manipulate the pieces on this chess board, because the end is always the same: the king and the queen end up together with some help from the pawns and a couple of knights. I have no idea what I'm talking about, except I'm using chess to describe a Hallmark plot. I didn't love this film, but I do enjoy the leads and how they do actually have a lot of chemistry, in spite of the fact that it looks forced at times with her constant semi-fake smiles. He makes up for it by reciprocating with more genuine expressions. The end was pretty good, maybe there will be a sequel. I wouldn't be opposed to another one, maybe it will be more memorable.

I'm still stuck on the money. Marcus' character Bo doesn't have any. Ashley's character Abby is there doing a favor for her sister. The sister and her husband want to sell the house they inherited and co-own, Abby is there to help make that happen. Bo can't afford to buy them out of the house they co-own, but he wants to turn the house into a B&B. Converting an 8-bedroom somewhat rundown Victorian home into a bed and breakfast takes a lot money for renovations, furnishings, decorations, food, and to hire and pay a staff before it (hopefully) turns a profit somewhere down the line. Where is Bo getting the money do to any of this? Even if we want to believe that because he is a contractor he can do the renovations, he very clearly said he doesn't have money for much else besides his current business. Bo's plan seems like a screw you to the recently deceased Frank's family as Bo is not related to him, he was the contractor that took care of the house and a friend. Also, it is Bo's plan, not Frank's wishes, this is what Bo has convinced himself that Frank would want, when that doesn't at all appear to have been the case, it seems Frank wanted his family and the man who cared for the house to share in the proceeds of the sale. Bo says he understands them wanting to sell and get a house big enough, not to mention extra money, to care for their aging father, but also won't budge on his B&B idea. He has attitude for days, acts like he's a majority owner, not a co-owner, swiftly overruling everything Abby suggests in furtherance of her brother-in-law's wishes to sell the house. This setup doesn't make a lot of sense. And there's plenty more that doesn't make sense, this is just one I'm highlighting because it struck me as dumb to not at least have the Bo character thoroughly thought his B&B plan through if he was going to be so obstinate about it. The romance is weak, not because of the actors, but because not enough time is spent on developing it. The "flipping" they do through most of the movie is I kid you not, just painting the walls so not sure why we heard so much about "design" early on. There's also an additional conflict thrown into the mix related to Abby's day job that just feels unnecessary. And maybe if the time on that storyline was given to making the rest work, this could've been better (and would've allowed for less time spent on some of the movie's weakest and least likable characters). There's a lot going on here and little of it is great. This truly seems slapped together and no one bothered to go through to connect the dots and make this a cohesive script. I'd love to know when this was written, produced, and shot, because it feels very much like they lined up a great cast for what was at the time a good, if not fully fleshed out concept, but maybe got stuck during the writer's strike with a flawed script in desperate need of rewrites and they said, let's just shoot anyway as is and hope no one notices this is a mess because of the good cast. Well, I'll very much look forward to seeing Marcus and Ashley again in the future, they did their best with what they were given and this doesn't detract from their overall appeal. Both have done very good or great movies in the past and will do better ones than this in the future. I'd suggest checking them out in the other Hallmark and Lifetime Christmas movies they've done in the past instead of spending time on this one.

Marcus Rosner is always cute. Very handsome. Scott Yamamura is a good actor. There's absolutely no transition from the bickering and disagreeing between them to the flirting. Like, what the heck happened? They can't just suddenly become different characters. There has to be some sort of getting there. Did not enjoy their story. They have a paint fight AND a snowball fight? That's too much. Whoever wrote this should have been a little more creative with the flirting. Ashley Newbrough does a good job portraying grief at the Christmas tree when she writes Mom on the ornament. The main actors' attempt at chemistry is over the top and obnoxious. It would have been better if they were a little bit more natural about it The father's advice conversation was kind of weird and all over the place. Wasn't into it. It could have easily been better written. The scene in the back of the truck with three pillows was too over the top. Looks like he's about to freaking propose to her. But he just happened to whip that together for a business dinner? Get out of here. Some hallmark movies have gotten better about having drama and misunderstandings that are a bit more believable. This one is one of the ones that still struggles to have a fight between the characters that is believable. She told him it was a innocent thing she did and he gets all bent out of shape. It's just too much. The fights need to be a bit more believable. I love how this sister is folding laundry in a scene. That is just so real and relatable. Often these houses are just so spic and span and look like they're not lived in. So that was a nice small touch. Overall, meh.

Don't let the title mislead you on this one. If you like Hallmark movies to witness a developing romance, you may enjoy this. It's really a traditional "opposites-attract", and, fortunately, they cast (and focused on) two Hallmark veterans, Ashley Newbrough (Abigail) and Marcus Rosner (Bo), both very attractive, onscreen. Marcus Rosner has earned a good reputation as an antagonist, and plays it well against Ashley's character, Abigail. She is a career-driven, big-city woman, and Bo, is a small-town craftsman, still reeling from a divorce from a young romance, making him a little disdained with the assertive Abigail. They clash over a house, that Bo partially owns and has an emotional attachment to, because his recently deceased guardian, Frank, had lived there for years. Abigail wants to rennovate it, only to "flip" for profit. They compromise, and decide to improve the home to decide the outcome, later. There may have needed to be some "filler" time, here, as a few script-free scenes were playful banter between Bo and Abigail, a paint and snowball fight. But, considering that Bo hadn't restarted mingling, and married too young, it isn't shocking he would "break the ice" (no pun intended) this way. Their relationship starts to warm as Abigail begins to admire Bo's heart - she sees his creativity (and taste) in finishing the home decor, without her opinion (hand-crafted), and his unselfish soul - he donates his time and talents to the community. Her heart begins to open and she empathizes for the town, when she realizes she inadvertently enabled her entrepreneur connections to develop the town. By movie's end, there relationship has believably evolved into a blooming romance. This is why I'd rate this a 6-star. In many of this season's releases, "Never Been Chris'd and "The Santa Summit", ie., there's no screentime devoted to evolve the characters beyond attraction. Your left being apathetic about the characters. I could easily have bumped my rating to a seven-star, but the screenplay, (ie. Background musical score), and most of the supporting-cast, was overly enthusiastic, which made the early scenes somewhat corny...

Abigail is tasked by her sister to "flip" a house his husband half inherited and sell it, there she meets Bo, who inherited the other half of the property. Problem is both have different intentions about what to do with the house and Abigail somehow has to fix that. First things first, I'm now finding out Ashley characters is names Abigail. Secondly I still don't understand if she is a realtor or an interior designer and why has her sister asked this of her. The only thing we see her doing is painting the house, which I believe, as an interior designer, you have someone else do. So, the plot is not the best. Some things at the beginning are simply dumb. (And some at the end too, they fixed the problem of the house because they "fell in love"?) However, as the movie moves along, some things do make sense. Personally, I really liked the leads conversation about grieving someone and how it affects us, going through that myself. Things start to make sense then, it's like they bonded over that. I thought they had great chemistry. At least, there was good banter. The actors made this kind of salvageable. Remember when Marcus Rosner used to play the main character's ambitious ex boyfriend who would show up to propose only after she moved on? I'm so happy he gets to shine as a leading man. Anyway, I had big hopes for this one and was disappointed.

I like both Ashley Newbrough (from Privileged fame) and Marcus Rosner. They look really great together and for the romantics is some flirty banter in this flipping Hallmark holiday romance...but I think the overall story might suffer from bad editing? Either that or there were issues with the writing. I am going to attempt to summarize the story... Abagail's sister Claire and her husband inherit a house and talk her in to fixing it and flipping it (which is her profession). What they don't tell her is that they are only part owners and the other owner doesn't want to sell...he wants to fix it up into a bed and breakfast AND they want Abagail to convince Bo to sell?!?! (I still don't understand why that would be her job or even something they would ask her to do.) Bo is a pillar of the community, which is part of why he wants to turn the house into a B&B...to honor the previous owner. Meanwhile, Abagail has some big time developer that she is working with who gets wind of an available parcel of land that he purchases for development from the mayor...which will change the whole town? Then Abagail realizes that she messed up and figures out a way to prevent it...and keep the house as a B&B...which will bring in some money for her sister's family and help get her sister's house expanded by Bo doing some of the work so her mom doesn't have to live in the garage. This story was choppy and a bit convoluted...with some things that didn't make sense. As previously mentioned, there was some fun flirty banter...they did look cute together and I can see them eventually having a great small town relationship (I don't know what Abagail will do for a living in their town? Maybe run the B&B with Bo?), but there are definitely better romances and better stories out there. Did I mention that I love the house? I am so glad it is not being modernized. They do not make houses like that anymore and it would have been a shame to destroy it.

Abigal goes to a coffee shop, which has a sign: be back in 10 minutes. She asks Bo, who's hanging decorations or some such. A normal person would've said, "She'll be back any moment." Instead, Bo gives Abby grief with multiple evasions to this simple question. In short, he acts like a grade-A jerk for absolutely no reason. In real life, she'd told him he's a jerk (or a more descriptive term) and absolutely useless. Then, she would've walked (driven) away, probably providing a single-digit salute. I can't imagine why she ignored his jerkiness and became friends, let alone fall for him. When they can't reach a decision on the house they inherited, she should've consulted a lawyer and forced the issue. Most Hallmark movies require a healthy suspense of disbelief--this one is a bridge too far.

Trailer—Flipping for Christmas

This movie is exactly what you think it is. The plot is revealed in the first 10 minutes. Bo is unbelievably rude to Abby for literally no reason at all, but somehow she falls in love with him. The script was written by an AI. The dialogue is horrible. The actors are the worst. I'm not convinced that Bo is a human. He is referred to as a "rebel" and apparently has this crazy ability to make a huge amount of handiwork and raid a West Elm and fully furnish a house all within the span of a day or two. My guess is that he rebelled against santa's oppressive use of child labor and became a real boy in this fake hallmark town. Abby has literally no reason to love this man. He's like actually a horrible person to her but she's like omg he splattered paint all over me this is so hot and funny omg let's be besties and love each other.

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