Jackbv123

The network I watched this on and the production company that produced it can both be hot and cold, so when I chose between two Saturday night rom/coms, the Hallmark movie won. And it had one of the worst premises I have ever seen so I was done in 15 minutes and switched to my recording of this movie.

The story is fairly common where it revolves around the week before a wedding with some leisure and some planning. Shane is a huge movie star. Jessie was once a top photographer but left the rat race behind with a vengeance. She has some aspects of her personality that are borderline irresponsible. She might be mistaken for a slacker, but she keeps coming through.

I'm not a fan of when the leads meet and one or both tears into the other. This movie had a brief moment where the big movie star said leave me alone, but they quickly cleared up the misunderstanding. I liked it.

The conflict is done a little differently than you might expect in a couple of different ways. And unlike a lot of rom/coms that blow something totally out of proportion, in this movie it makes sense why one of them is so upset. In this genre you know there has to be a reconciliation, but this obstacle was almost too much to overcome.

Natalie Dreyfuss and Anthony Konechny have good chemistry. A lot of screen time early is spent with them getting to know each other. The banter is good.

BTW - this movie gets a D-, almost an F, in my pet peeve, size of text messages.

The title implies it, but when I read the synopsis, suggesting Beau was like her book "prince", I thought no more about it. Until ... Turns out this story plays like any other Royal Christmas movie. Beau is part of a very rich family that acts like royalty right down to Mom picking her son's potential bride. Mom is strict and controlling just like the typical queen perhaps one of the meaner ones. (What American mother books the venue for her son's wedding without consulting him about the date?) The different worlds theme is also a big part of the story. And have you ever noticed that almost every Hallmark Christmas movie has suppliers who bail or don't deliver on commitments without any consequences? There is an interesting twist to the fake fiancé trope since the fake couple are not both the lead couple. Actually there are a couple twists in that, maybe a few.

This movie probably has the most serious romantic conflict of the 4 Unwrapping titles.

There is a side story with Mia's sister. I caught some early foreshadowing to something late in the story, but only because of the way it was presented in the story.

The acting is OK. Much better than in Olivia's Reunion. Mia's awkwardness was natural to the story and had nothing to do with Beau the man. There is some quiet chemistry between Kathryn Davis and Nathan White. The dialogue is a little too hyperbolic. So much of it revolves around idolizing the book Christmas in Derbyshire.

I'm not a fan of Royal movies. While this movie checks a lot of the Royal Christmas movie boxes, it adds some things that aren't quite so typical.

There is almost no story, at least not beyond the basic outline - two ex's get stranded together by accident when Olivia delivers gift-wrapped presents to Ben. Jen, the store owner who appears a couple of times, would like to date Ben, but he doesn't reciprocate. After that setup there is almost nothing but the relationship between Olivia and Ben with Jen being a third wheel. And I don't really buy into there being anything serious between Ben and Olivia. Most of the time between her arrival at the door and his parents returning there is a whole lot of awkwardness between them. With that much awkwardness how can there be any chemistry? There are no great highs or lows or surprises. The brightest high spots in the script were about the dog who had been left behind with Olivia's gift wrapping partners.

Since I already watched two of the others in this "series" I knew something for sure about the ending of this one. Perhaps something I couldn't predict was how that was accomplished. BTW, after 3 of the movies, I can't really see that there is a definite order to watch them. This might be the first, but I can't see a problem with any order.

The movie was weak on details. For example, Olivia is reading a particular book and has been for a day or two. This is in direct contradiction to when she is seen with the book open after that and she is clearly only a few pages in. Yet she is able to say how good the book is. The entire business makes no sense about they can't get to Jen's grocery store but seem to get back and forth to between houses I can understand a bridge being closed for ice, but a covered bridge? Jen has no heat, but looks warm enough in a light sweater-shirt which is short enough for her midriff to peak out. Over a foot of snow and endless blizzard is only an hour north of the city where there everything looks clear most of the time, at least in this episode.

I will eagerly watch a movie with Jake Epstein in it, but this one was a disappointment. I have never been impressed with Cindy Busby. She never feels natural in her acting. As hinted above, the two have no chemistry. The dialogue is bland. As also implied, the story is boring.