Odyssey Networks, Johnson Production Group,
Erin Cahlill, David Alpay, Dakota Guppy, Donovan Scott
Laurel (Erin Cahill) is recently divorced, lining in her little home town, and her spirits are down. But when she is assigned to head up the town’s Christmas Parade, she a bit overwhelmed because there is only two weeks left. For a number of years the parade has been cancelled, but this year the town has enough money to pull it off. With the help of a magical sleigh, and a helpful woodworker Alex (David Alpay) who is a key person from Laurel’s past, she’s trying to pull off the parade, has time to find her Christmas Spirit, and maybe even find a new romance in this 2016 Premier Christmas Movie from Hallmark Channel. See, Alex is back in town after leaving years ago for his dream job in the big city of New York, while Laurel didn’t even get to say goodbye when he left her behind. Now he seems ready to do it all over again.
This is a rather run of the mill Christmas film, and shows perhaps why sometimes certain people star in these Christmas films year after year after year. Here we have some fresher faces, but the connection isn’t quite there. The gimmicky sleigh that seems to have a mind of it’s own ain’t no Love Bug, for sure, but it does manage to bring people together one way or the other. Of course there’s the usual suspense of whether or not they’ll get together in the end, and of course the sleigh has to help, but there’s a lot of stuff not explained and mostly it’s rather flat. The minor characters in this movie are more entertaining in a lot of ways, than the two lead characters. The two of them are just not sparking the kind of chemistry that we need to get invested in the movie. It’s not a horrible film, and if you’re in the mood for a new film, or if you are just tired of all the old ones, then at all means, watch this one. Hallmark takes on a full plate of new movies each year, and it must be hard to turn out that many new films and make them all excellent. This one is a good idea, but it needed a little more attention to bring it up to the level of many of the others.
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