Christmas à La Carte

Although the script was predicable and had the usual snowball fight, cookie baking and misunderstanding it ended with the kiss. I thought the leads had good chemistry. I disagree with a previous reviewer who called them "uggos". When people judge a movie based upon the looks of the main characters, I wonder what the reviewer looks like. He also must be blind. In addition to being good actors, Erin Agostino is very pretty and Dillon Casey is quite the handsome hunk. The supporting cast was very good especially young Maya Misaljevic and Deborah Tennant. I liked the fact that the houses were not decorated too "over the top" ala Hallmark, but I wish these LA set designers would find out what real snow looks like. You don't have to show the dirty snow and slush, but having supposed day old snow look pristine only emphasizes the fact it's fake. FYI, poinsettias are a tropical plant and would never be outdoors in winter and if we have outside events we clear the walkways and festival sites.

Erin Agostino brings pride to all Montrealers for her starring role in this cute romantic Christimas movie. Her character Carly Hayes wants to host her own TV show. In order to clinch the deal she must do a profile on chef Grant Quinn's (Dillon Casey) new diner. The two do not hit it off at the start. Then they get close, followed by the typical misunderstanding. Grant has a young daughter, who adores Carly. Will they end up as a couple? Will they ever kiss? The ending certainly left the door open for a sequel.

This movie is everything you expect from a Christmas movie minus the tired trope of "big city woman must give up career to find love". The dialogue is snappy and clever, the actors have great chemistry, the set design is lush, and both main characters learn valuable life lessons through trial and error. I also really enjoyed how food and recipes are used as story teling devices - a very clever choice by the writer.

Up until the conflict in the story, this movie was totally derivative. It jumbles together the most common plot devices for a Christmas movie based on the premise where a reporter is sent to do an expose on a famous chef. In this case, it is a show producer, rather than a simple reporter, but the idea is totally the same. And there is no chance you can avoid predicting what will create that conflict. The boss calls seemingly every other scene to hurry up the producer and channel her efforts in a certain way. When Carly does it her own way and produces a simple hometown story, the network entirely reworks her production to make it a gossip piece, just exactly as expected. What takes place after that goes a little way towards rescuing the movie, but can only go so far. The ending and reconciliation are stretched out as Grant stubbornly refuses to listen to the facts, but there can't be an unhappy ending so he finally relents. Like so many Christmas movies, the leading lady has more chemistry with the daughter of her opposite lead, in this case Maya Misaljevic. It's hard to find much with Dillon Casey but there are a few good moments between them. I wasn't impressed with the acting of any of these three, but neither was it bad. The dialogue is likewise decent with some good moments but not sparkling. I think they could have improved the appeal of this movie by reducing the amount of nagging by Carly's boss and spending a little more time with Grant loosening up. As I said, the coming conflict was obvious because it was overplayed. Also, I would have liked a little less stubbornness on Grant's part at the end.