Michael's Movie Grade: B-
Review: A sweet and charming romantic comedy, even if there is nothing that we haven't seen many times before.
What makes this movie work is that the characters are just so likable. They feel often to be fully developed and we actually do feel sorry for them at times. With the exception of two characters (more on that later), all the major characters avoid being the easy romantic comedy movie stereotypes that we have seen a million times. This is not because they do fit into these stereotypes (which they often do), but because there is more to their characters than just that. No character is without faults, but there is also no character in which there is nothing likable about. In other words they feel like real people. While the story here has been done a million times before and anyone who has seen even a few romantic comedies will recognize the film as nothing original, it is handled quite well. The movie never tries to present itself as anything new. It is as aware of the fact that we all know this story as Hallmark Christmas films are and like the best of those movie, if we except this unoriginality we can still have plenty of fun here. And this movie is fun. We know what is going to happen, but we also enjoy watching unfold. The story simply tells this story as simply as possible and there is a charm to that.
However on the bad side, the scenes with the newscasters are just too annoying. I can see that there is meant to be in element of satire in this, but it falls flat. As such I was glad when each of these brief scenes ended. Similarly the character of Bernardo is rather annoying. I understand what they were trying to do with this character, but it still falls flat. Similarly there is the character of the in-jail Grandma, who is nothing but the romantic comedy stereotype, the other characters could have so easily been.
On a whole, if you do not except this movie to bring anything new there is a lot to enjoy about it.
-Michael J. Ruhland
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