Merry Swissmas

source: Merry Swissmas

It's an ok Christmas movie. Not the best I've ever seen, but enjoyable. The photography is the best! Now let's talk about the acting: From top to bottom The kid Hudson Robert Wurster rocks it. Sweetin is ok. Rozar always plays the same kind of character, so I don't understand the surprise. But the worst of all was and will be Mikaela Lily Davies. Her performance was at kindergarten level. Awful!! Now the plot: the kid's father knew that Sweetin was leaving, since she was an architect that traveld a lot when he invited her to join him and the kid on Christmas activities, but then blamed her for his son's caring for her!? That was ridiculous. She tried to make a child happy. Watch it but don't expect too much. P. S: I'm tired of this kind of movie in which the woman has to leave everything behind, even her dreams "for the sake of the family". Are we in 2022 or what?!

Merry Swissmas is my latest review. Hey, the beginning of November marks the holidays for me so why not. Directed by John L'Ecuyer in yuletide postcard fashion, "Swissmas" follows the beats of most Lifetime silly season flicks like a manual. You've got the two leads who each lost a loved one a couple of years ago. You've got the female lead traveling from the big city to a faraway place and maybe staying there for a long time. You've got that big smooch at the end (it's compulsory people). Finally, you've got those endless Christmassy festivities leading up to the big day (that would be Xmas day of course). Let's pour out a little eggnog shall we. So OK, Merry Swissmas has one big hook that keeps it from being in the snowy basement. It takes place in Switzerland (hence the title). The movie looks really good, like you've gone to Christmas heaven while floating on the Pearly Gates. You can smell the hot chocolate, you can feel the fire crackling, and you can hark the warmth of wearing a bad sweater. Notice I haven't gotten to why I can't recommend "Swissmas" yet. It's coming, just like the 25th which is over a month away. Merry Swissmas is about an architect who meets an older man while visiting her family in the Playground of Europe (Switzerland's nickname, I looked it up). Starring Jodie Sweetin and Tim Rozon, "Swissmas" has two actors whose characters are supposed to fall in love but who's kidding. Their chemistry is nil, like passing ships or a platonic combo, it's a strange courtship. Now I do believe Sweetin can act but her performance here felt off, all pauses and reacting like an unvarying read through. As for Rozon, well he just looks distinguished yet downtrodden. Wha?? Every scene between these two felt ill at ease. I mean c'mon guys, it's the most wonderful time of the year. Yeesh! Minimal on plot, a pace that suggests watching ice melt (pun intended), and very little conflict until the hour mark (a little tiff between the lovebirds). Besides the winsome scenery, that's what you get while viewing Merry Swissmas. This "Swiss misses" the mark.

This one has a dumb title (Merry Swissmas was the title it had when I decided to watch it). The plot did not look all that interesting either. The only reason I decided to watch it was because I have really come to appreciate Jodie Sweetin. She has a natural down-to-earth style in both her acting and her looks that I like. Jody plays a successful architect and head of her own firm that travels the world for her job. She decides to visit her mother, who has just bought and is renovating an inn in Switzerland for a family Christmas with her brother and his wife and family. She is not told that Mom and her best friend has conspired to invite her estranged former best friend to the inn as well, in an effort to force a reconciliation. Jodie's first love painfully dumped her and it took her awhile to recover from her pain. To add insult to injury, her former best friend started dating him soon after. Although I didn't understand Jodie's anger that her best friend took up with her old boyfriend, I thought this was a very dirty trick. The family's constant manipulations to get them back together were annoying in the extreme. But she handles it with good grace, and, in fact, the two women are eventually reconciled. Then the old boyfriend shows up unexpectedly and it turns out her best friend didn't tell her she was engaged to him. The love interest for Jodie didn't bowl me over. He played a single father/widower who is torn between his attraction for Jodie and desire to protect his young son from further heartbreak after his mother died. It ends with a "happy for now ending", but I don't buy Jodie's plan to stay in Switzerland with her new love and his son while she has a thriving business which requires world-wide travel.

I didn't even have to look at the stats to know that it was probably filmed in Eastern Canada (Quebec) which is stunningly beautiful, however, this movie was just so sparse on all levels. This is a Hallmark wannabe. I have streamed countless Christmas movies over the last couple of years on several streaming services during the pandemic, good, meh and bad. This was between meh and bad. I like Jodie Sweetin since "Full House" and beyond. The girl can sing too. However, she was the only big name that I'm familiar with in this and she could have done so much better. The main guy was ok, nice looking, but he didn't impress me. The kids were cute and I'm not a fan of children. I have noticed that this years crop of Christmas, there have been a slew of overbearing parents who are trying to still run their adult children's lives, whether it be trying to match up their kid with someone (that's what happens here) or trying to convince the kid to move back home. In the moving back home movies, it's usually the woman who is the one who is making the concession of moving back even if she has a successful life elsewhere. It's all in the name of love. I'm ready to see movies where the guy is making the move back home. The mother in this was so annoying. She keeps telling Jodie, oh, so you're meeting Liam for coffee and it's not a date? She also asked Jodie's ex best friend to come a visit without telling Jodie so that the former friends could patch things up. I would have been upset too when I found out. I think the best character was the woman playing Beth, the former best friend of Jodie's. She seemed sincere. The interior of the inn where a lot of the action takes place just didn't charm me either. Most of these types TV movies run a such low budgets and I get that, but this one could have used a lot more charm. I've have seen some this year and some that are a few years older that have a sparkle and are delightful.

Jodie Sweetin's Alex travels the world for her job and decides to spend Christmas with her family at her Mom's new inn in Switzerland. Problem is that Mom has invited her ex and his live-in girlfriend too and Beth used to be Alex's BFF. Alex takes the unwritten law that you don't date your best friend's ex pretty seriously. It is made worse by poor communication on the part of everyone leading to hurtful secrets. While the reunion is going on, Alex spends time with Tim Rozan's Liam who is Mom's inn manager. There is some chemistry but nothing spectacular. Liam has a son which always adds a cute factor in a Christmas story. This is a very simple story with no great highs or lows or surprises. The acting is decent. The dialogue is OK but nothing great. The viewer gets to see some Swiss Christmas customs.

I don't understand what other reviews are talking about. This movie is so cute! Filled with gorgeous Swiss Christmas traditions and love stories from romance to family to friendship. I have watched this on repeat in the lead up!!!! Love it so much!!!!! The Swiss traditions are ones i never knew about. It's wonderful they are sharing them - I'm going to take some on board for my family. Christmas movies are meant to be a little cheesy! However the actors make up for the classic cheesy script, they are wonderful, especially the main two. This movie has definitely got me into the Christmas spirit this year and will be on my list of yearly re-watches!

While I haven't been to Switzerland (yet), from friends who have, this seemed to be a poor representation of the country at Christmas, which I'm told is pretty spectacular. I guess the holiday traditions portrayed were genuine? Did anyone bother researching? The second issue -- as much as I adore Jodie Sweetin, there was ZERO chemistry with the inn manager, who was about as dry as toast, and pretty emotionless. I've loved watching Sweetin in other Christmas movies, as well as her Full House co-star, Candace Cameron Bure, they make cheesy Christmas movies fun to watch during the season, and I mean that as a compliment!

When people abroad try to make a film about your homecountry it can be really good or really bad. Here there is so much bad. There's really nothing much swiss about this film apart from the swiss flags everywhere (which we don't really have except for 1st of August). It seems like it's someones idea of what the country might be like from looking at a tourist brochure from 30 years ago and mixed it up with a clearly American house and American scenery with a view swiss mountain pictures added in as transitions. The film itself continues to disappoint. The acting isn't great, the plot is very simple, not really believable and just flat. Having those two former friends meet with those semi love quarrels and OF COURSE the handsome hotel guy is a widower for whom the main character falls for.. i mean its just so blatantly bad. I'm glad i didn't pay for this. What a waste of time though.

And just what DID she say? "If you don't have anything good to say,...come sit by me". That pretty much describes my sentiments about this cinematic reduction. A self-respecting Swiss village would never be found with dreadful and gauche displays--of everything. The general store? On the street where you shop? The village Christmas tree? In the inn? Pointy, plastic, scantily dressed garland? Another commercial for the 12-days of Christmas starting in early October? And filming, in part, on a Warner Brothers backlot and green screens? A chef that couldn't microwave a seal-a-meal? And then...not knowing wines appropriate to a frozen dinner? Tell me not. And just how could an attempt be made for some degree of authenticity--a nod to the real stuff? If on-site visits are not possible due to budget or pandemic constraints, watch some famous tour group leaders' DVDs on the REAL Christmases in Switzerland (and many other places in Europe as well). Find the richness of the many European traditions noting the lack of materialism as the primary reason for the season. (I'm not against capitalism--just how it is used, displayed and perceived.) Seeing that this movie was a 2022 production it was a surety that I hadn't seen it before. Although sounding like a Scrooge, I actually love Christmas movies. A couple of weeks before Thanksgiving my quest begins for a variety of holiday flat-screen events. And it provides me some degree of pain to have to admit that I was taken in by the year of release and movie title. I have a hope that the new Christmas movies will blow our socks off given the pent-up well of creativity so badly stifled by Covid--and I'm going to keep hoping. As for the final analysis? Come sit by me...I still have nothing good to say.