Bonnie Somerville is fine as Maddie ("Madison Avenue") Duncan the Big City Girl from New York with an Oh So Very Busy Career and Brennan Elliott is solid as ever as Kevin Tyler, The Handsome Small Town Widower who loves the slow paced life of running a Christmas tree farm in Ohio. And Madison Brydges is simply adorable as his daughter "Jo" (a shout out to Little Women?).
And there's obviously plenty of Christmas spirit in a town called Christmas Valley, which is practically a character by itself. The town is also full of lots of nice, pleasant people who all fall in love with Maddie, even though she's from the Big City, has only been there a couple of days, and is too busy to do anything besides work on her computer.
Hey, it's a Hallmark Christmas movie, so there's plenty of sugary sweet moments. It's why people like me watch a LOT of Hallmark.
But Holy Moly is this movie packed with a bunch of implausible plot lines.
Maddie, who's too busy to eat breakfast without doing work, apparently has the time to drive across the country. In December. In an old Mustang. To go from NYC to a wedding in Denver. A "client's" wedding.
Uh, OK.
Kevin has an accident on a highway in the beginning which results in a bunch of his Christmas trees falling out and blocking the highway. But literally no one helps him load the trees back onto his trailer.
Maddie's Mustang needed a new alternator and the Singing Mechanic didn't have one in stock. But apparently FedEx doesn't service Christmas Valley because it took several days to get the wrong one delivered.
Two things can be true: (1) You can need to stay in touch with the office and with clients on your phone because it's part of your high paying job, and not have to put up with condescending criticism; and (2) You can have the courtesy to silence your phone in a restaurant and call or text people back at a more convenient time without jeopardizing your job or client relations.
Maddie the Marketing Expert demonstrates how good she is at her job by telling Molly, the owner of a diner in Christmas Valley called Stan's, that she should change the name to Molly's and, get this, put up some Christmas decorations. Pure genius.
And Kevin's Christmas tree business is about to go out of business according to somebody at the bank who apparently doesn't mind sharing private financial information with customers at the diner.
But fear not, Maddie the Marketing Expert has a solution, even though it's almost Christmas: sell more trees. Pure genius.
I really hate the "almost" kiss trope. But I REALLY hate it when it happens twice in the same movie.
So, in 2016, when a man and a woman live 500 miles away from each, and then fall in love over the course of a few days, who do you think should quit their job and move? The man or the woman?
And there's obviously plenty of Christmas spirit in a town called Christmas Valley, which is practically a character by itself. The town is also full of lots of nice, pleasant people who all fall in love with Maddie, even though she's from the Big City, has only been there a couple of days, and is too busy to do anything besides work on her computer.
Hey, it's a Hallmark Christmas movie, so there's plenty of sugary sweet moments. It's why people like me watch a LOT of Hallmark.
But Holy Moly is this movie packed with a bunch of implausible plot lines.
Maddie, who's too busy to eat breakfast without doing work, apparently has the time to drive across the country. In December. In an old Mustang. To go from NYC to a wedding in Denver. A "client's" wedding.
Uh, OK.
Kevin has an accident on a highway in the beginning which results in a bunch of his Christmas trees falling out and blocking the highway. But literally no one helps him load the trees back onto his trailer.
Maddie's Mustang needed a new alternator and the Singing Mechanic didn't have one in stock. But apparently FedEx doesn't service Christmas Valley because it took several days to get the wrong one delivered.
Two things can be true: (1) You can need to stay in touch with the office and with clients on your phone because it's part of your high paying job, and not have to put up with condescending criticism; and (2) You can have the courtesy to silence your phone in a restaurant and call or text people back at a more convenient time without jeopardizing your job or client relations.
Maddie the Marketing Expert demonstrates how good she is at her job by telling Molly, the owner of a diner in Christmas Valley called Stan's, that she should change the name to Molly's and, get this, put up some Christmas decorations. Pure genius.
And Kevin's Christmas tree business is about to go out of business according to somebody at the bank who apparently doesn't mind sharing private financial information with customers at the diner.
But fear not, Maddie the Marketing Expert has a solution, even though it's almost Christmas: sell more trees. Pure genius.
I really hate the "almost" kiss trope. But I REALLY hate it when it happens twice in the same movie.
So, in 2016, when a man and a woman live 500 miles away from each, and then fall in love over the course of a few days, who do you think should quit their job and move? The man or the woman?