Wrapped Up in Christmas (2017 TV Movie) User Reviews

Another pleasent Christmas romcom

[Jackbv123 · 6/10 · 1 January 2018]

This movie has a slightly different premise than most, but still has at least two of the old standard plot devices - 1) we're going to lose our store and my girlfriend is responsible; 2) the protagonist's kid (or niece) asks Santa, who happens to be the other protagonist, for a boyfriend for Auntie and the guy uses that but hides it.

The conflict is light. The characters are nice. Tatyana Ali and Brendan Fehr connect. Ali plays a reserved character so sometimes she doesn't seem to have any spark, but you can tell she's interested.

Like so many Christmas romcoms, how much you enjoy this will depend a lot on how much you enjoy the genre. This one fits the mold pretty well.

BTW, this is Lifetime, not Hallmark, but for this movie you can't really tell the difference.

Charming Schlock

[rschiwal · 6/10 · 25 November 2018]

If you're looking for a fun holiday movie that checks all the boxes and may even be part of a drinking game involving predicting plot twists look no further! You would however think that an aspiring artist would have more talent then the average 5 year old.

Wrapped up in charm

[TheLittleSongbird · 6/10 · 7 December 2021]

Like Hallmark, and just as much, Lifetime are hit and miss when it comes to their Christmas output. 2017 was not one of the worst examples of this, but it was hardly an exception. Some of their films are charming, easy to like and heart-warming, while others are very cheesy, thinly plotted and too sugary. Tatyana Ali has struck me as a winning actress in what has already been seen of hers, though her filmography isn't as consistent (liked 'Christmas Everlasting', didn't care for 'Jingle Belle').

'Wrapped Up in Christmas' is in the middle of those two and is closer in quality to the former than the latter in my view, while not being as good. It is an uneven film and had room for more improvement, but 'Wrapped Up in Christmas' is a pleasant, inoffensive way to spend a couple of hours providing that not too much is expected. As far as Lifetime's 2017 Christmas films go, it's somewhere in the middle and not one of the best or worst.

Am going to begin with the good. Ali gives another winning performance, it being full of charm, warmth and poignancy and it was refreshing to have a female lead character that was ambitious but handling it in a mature and true to life way which made her relatable. The supporting cast are solid enough in roles that have enough personality while not being exaggerated.

It's not too drab or garish in photography and the scenery is lovely, nothing here looks cheap even when the budget was not expensive and time constraints were probably tight. The script isn't too corny or syrupy, instead having good intentions and emotional impact. The story is different from the usual formulas that were already starting to feel overused and it's heart-warming and doesn't take itself too seriously.

Not everything worked. Brendan Fehr came over as stiff and didn't seem as engaged. His chemistry with Ali never quite ignites, not non-existent but the spark is not there enough and their relationship is not developed or used enough.

Didn't find much memorable about the music and it could have been used less. The worst thing about 'Wrapped Up in Christmas' was the ending, which did not ring true at all, was absurd and too sugary sweet. It also felt too tacked on neat.

Overall, not bad at all and has a good deal to like despite being uneven. 6/10.

The cheesiest ending ever

[Kijofreg · 26 December 2019]

Predictable and cringe-worthy, just as expected. But it's the predictability that makes me watch cheesy Christmas romances, so...

Cute movie, just okay

[herrcarter-92161 · 6/10 · 13 September 2023]

This was a cute holiday romance, and I wanted to like it. There was certainly potential there. I liked Tatyana Ali's performance as Heather the most. She was consistently sweet, warm and engaging, and her winning smile lit up the screen whenever she flashed it. Her niece Molly was pretty cute, and you really wanted her wish to Santa (i.e. That Heather would get a boyfriend) to be fulfilled. Seems like the perfect setup for a Christmas story with a happy ending.

Unfortunately, much as I wanted to like this movie, there were too many things I couldn't get away from, try as I might. The first was Brendan Fehr as the romantic lead Ryan. His performance was so passionless and wooden that I really had a hard time seeing him as a credible love interest for Heather. I haven't seen him in any other romantic roles, but looking at IMDb, it appears that most of his roles have been in action or horror movies, and I'd say he's more suited to that. A classic case of miscasting.

The other thing I didn't like was the screenplay. Much of the dialog was cheesy and unnatural. The dialog between Heather and Ryan is not the fresh, witty banter you expect from a good rom-com. It was pretty flat. There were awkward scenes, such as where Ryan out of the blue just blurts out to Heather, "Do you want to go to dinner?" I thought it was weird that Heather's friends and family, even her niece Molly, were immediately trying to pair her up with Ryan, a random guy she met at a hot chocolate stand, and whom they knew nothing about. And then there was the whole stupid plotline about canceling the leases to the mall's underperforming stores right before Christmas. Underperforming stores will cancel themselves when they go out of business. No need for the "evil" mall management to do it for them. Plus, how does it make sense to have empty stores in the mall, without knowing who is going to fill them and whether such new stores will be any more profitable. And none of this addresses the core problem, i.e. The fact that people now shop online, and the fact that a new, cooler mall is luring away customers. The whole plotline just doesn't ring true.

The one other thing I found ridiculous is that Ryan had quit his job as a lawyer to become an artist. Only in the fantasy world of Hallmark (sorry, Lifetime, in this case) does that make sense. Someone trains for years to achieve the difficult goal of becoming a lawyer, probably incurring large student loan debt, and then he suddenly throws it away to become a starving artist? Sorry, any rational woman out there would consider this a stupid move and would see the guy as a slacker, not a creative genius worthy of admiration. By all means, pursue your creative endeavors as a hobby, but don't quit your day job!

Okay, I hate to pile on this movie even more, but the over-the-top ending with the snowflakes and reindeer and all their family and friends cheering on, was just a bit too much cheese to digest. A simple, heartfelt, one-on-one meeting between Ryan and Heather would have been more than sufficient.

If you're into sappy, feel-good, Christmas romances, this one will doubtless fit the bill. Just be sure to lower your expectations, and you'll probably love it.

Not bad

[teebear817 · 4/10 · 21 November 2020]

I like Ali. Pleasant....Pretty, Does not overact like most, but the guy was badly cast. A career workaholic falling for a plain deadbeat with no job? Please! As if he could get her, lol and im a white guy saying this. I just watched the ending. OMG. What a fake, phoney, absurd, ludicrous, unrealistic sugar sweet ending. UGH,!!!!!. Im changing my vote from a 7 to a 4 for the ending.

Good but bad ending

[costasricardo · 6/10 · 10 May 2023]

I know I'm doing this review a long way from Christmas but it doesn't matter I was on a streaming site watching something to pass the time and I stumbled across this movie so I why not see it even if it's not Christmas and so I watched it. Critical.

To begin with, I like the two characters: Heather, an employee of the big mall, and Ryan, a modest painter and former lawyer. The two are not of the same social class and I like love stories like that. Ryan helps his aunt to save her Christmas shop but is unaware that Heather has unwittingly signed the store's closing. Friend for Christmas, in a combination of circumstances Ryan found himself to be the Santa Claus of the store because of the unavailability of the one who did it. Molly therefore makes her wish and at the beginning Ryan is not more excited than that but following his multiple "hazardous" encounters with Heather and the advice of his aunt and other vendors at the mall, he decides to try his luck with her. And Ryan and the little hassles of each that will resurface. And as often the little hassles take over and provoke an argument between the two characters who question themselves and then end up finding each other, a classic Christmas movie scenario. That the end and especially the argument between Heather and Ryan in this film did not please me. Since the beginning of the film the two protagonists fear that the other learns their error: Heather will cause the closing of the store of Ryan's aunt and the latter is afraid that Heather will learn that he has inquired about her in a somewhat intimate way. From an objective point of view, if we compare the two errors, Heather's is much more serious: she is going to close Ryan's aunt's shop while the latter has devoted her entire life to him, it would break his heart if it closed, and then there is a notion of money in all this knowing that Ryan has no real truth profession and painter brings in very little. And as far as Ryan's mistake is concerned, it's true that we don't "spy" on people like that, but he was forced to and somehow Molly insisted that he and Heather get together. Closer and even his own entourage one encourages him to inquire about Heather and then who has never spied or asked advice to flirt with a girl, it is not so serious when you think about it. So logically it is Ryan who should be mad at Heather at the end of the argument for what she did. Well unfortunately let me tell you that it's the opposite that will happen: it's Heather who will be furious with Ryan! You may be asking me how it happened and well I'll tell you by analyzing the argument. It starts when Santa Claus from the mall is still absent and asks Ryan to replace him once again, shortly before Ryan had learned that Heather had signed the shop closed by looking at her aunt's mail. He then dresses up as Santa Claus and meets Heather by chance in a shop she is surprised to see Ryan as Santa Claus and Ryan wants to speak with she of this closing of the toy store, the two go outside and the argument begins: Ryan shows the mail to Heather and reads it aloud in front of her, Heather immediately understands her mistake and aunt to justify herself like her can. At this moment Ryan totally dominates the debate as he is the victim and Heather is a little head down knowing that her mistake could be fatal to her. But a completely unexpected turn of events will happen and that is why I didn't like this argument. Continuing the argument Ryan will mention Molly for a moment for a reason that I forget and when Heather hears Molly's name she remembers that the latter had made a wish for her at Santa Claus and since she had seen Ryan as Santa Claus before the argument she understands that Ryan was the Santa Claus Molly was talking to. Heather asks Ryan since when he has been Santa Claus, he answers that he started a year ago. Week which goes back to the day Molly made her wish, Heather now knows that Ryan seduced her from the beginning. And from that moment everything changes: Heather totally dominates the debate now and it is now Ryan who starts to bagayer and to justify himself. Totally unpredictable turn of events we thought that it was Ryan who was in good cause but he made a revealing slip on Molly which is fatal to him Heather has now taken the upper hand in this argument she commence to raise his voice and harass Ryan with questions. Lawyer but painter. Ryan replied that he wouldn't think Heather would be satisfied with just a painter and said that they both made a mistake and they both need to forgive each other's mistakes ,and obviously that's where the worst happens because if Ryan forgives Heather for what she did, Heather she does not forgive Ryan saying that she no longer trusts him and that she is not sure it works between them, she calls him a liar and then leaves, leaving Ryan distraught by what has just happened. Clearly is Heather? And then why does Heather not forgive Ryan? Now it's Ryan who's going to have to apologize to Heather and I can't stand the idea, Ryan has nothing to reproach anyone with finding out about a person you're in love with and then being forced to do it. Heather gets off very well she closes the aunt's business and blames Ryan it sucks, the fact that Heather "won" this argument is insane she was clearly the most wrong. But the end is worse: now that Heather hates Ryan we could say to ourselves that she will let the store close, well no and those for no reason really she does it but there is no triggering event she just looks at a drawing and told herself to save the shop, it's nonsense 2 minutes before she told her family that Ryan was just a dirty liar and that she didn't want to hear from him anymore but just by looking at a drawing from Molly she decides to help Ryan it's WTF. She manages to save the store by offering them a partnership with another store and when she and Ryan meet for the end it is once again Ryan who passes for the salot : he even told his aunt that Heather hated him like he forced himself to pretend to be the culprit and he apologized to Heather at the end but Heather....didn't don't excuse! It's crazy, the woman is always right in her films where what!? She ever thought once that she hurt Ryan and her aunt? No argument, no end, the man is still the idiot and it annoys me the only positive point is the reversal of the situation I did not understand at all that Heather hates Ryan but otherwise it sucks .I apologize for this long criticism but you have to stop making women look like victims in your films, they can do anything and everything as long as they are women they will be right! Rage about it but otherwise the film is nice I invite you to see it.

What a disaster!

[conoula · 4/10 · 26 December 2019]

An "attorney" who hasn't heard of Dickens' A.Christmas Carol??? A shopping mall "leasing manager" who wipes her full of handcream hand on her business suit??? Grandparents who tease their daughter that she can't cook and they bring ..pizza??? In the same scene, they bring pizza because they were worried their granddaughter didn't have anything to eat and, before the girl eats, her parents say it's time for ..bed??? It seems that every house has more than 2-3 Christmas trees ( there is one even in the ..bedroom ). Who in the world wrote this script?

Very enjoyable. Not the same old story

[jk-692-236394 · 8/10 · 31 December 2017]

I enjoy most of the Christmas movies from Hallmark. They are bit like eating marshmallows. Lots of air, and some of them make you feel sick on sweetness, lack of chemistry and some bad acting. But they are still mostly fun and enjoyable each year. Recently I discovered Lifetime had been making some holiday movies as well. I enjoyed this one. It was fun to see different actors, and actors I have not seen for a long time in this movie. Also I liked that is was not a "single parent with a child". Hallmark needs to ditch that trope for a bit. Way too many with that story. Kudos for strong family and strong female leads who were into their careers and not suffering for it. Also I liked that the lead actress likes her job and is ambitious in a normal manner. There were also no "evil" characters. Thank goodness. I did not feel the acting was wooden at all. I was not familiar with the lead actress, Tatyana Ali, and I really liked her in this part. She was very believable.

Disappointing ending

[owellbryan · 5/10 · 10 November 2023]

I discovered it this year for Christmas and that's pretty much like what I expected, an idiotic and fun romance with always small problems that play the holiday troubles to be comed by the wish of Molly who wanted her Aunt is a lover for Christmas. The scenario was classic and predictable overall but I did not appreciate that they made Ryan feel guilty in the end he was losing the store of his aunt and we reject the fault on him Because .... for a story of SECRECY IIDOTES. YOUR THAT STILL A FILM ENTIVING TO WATCH FOR NOEL I Even advise you if it is not a great acting game it remains nice to look at time or To laugh a little, that's all I said good film.

Sweet Christmas Movie

[daphparker · 8/10 · 25 November 2018]

I am a fan of Tatiana Ali and I was happy to see her in this sweet little Christmas movie/love story. It is similar to Hallmarks Christmas movies but this is apart of the Lifetime movie collection. I adored it, and I've added this to my Christmas movie collection to watch once a year. I hope to see more movies like this.

Disappointing

[antfitz · 2/10 · 8 December 2018]

This was supposed to be a Hallmark Hall of fame movie. That used to be a sign of something exceptionally good not the same old schlock. This is just in the long list of Hallmark Christmas movies . If I had a young daughter, I would not allow her to watch these movies, because they give a false impression of what love and finding the right person is. I expected more out of the Hallmark Hall of fame trademark. I remember one exceptional actresses like Glenn Close appeared. ( This is nothing against Tatiana Ali.)

Rotten Tomatos

[ronbokirk · 1/10 · 27 November 2017]

When I watch a Christmas movie, I expect to be left with a little more Christmas spirit at the end. I expect the players to do more than just hit their mark and say their lines. I expect real acting. I should also feel their emotions. Casting is responsible to see that players cast are capable of that. There was absolutely no romantic spark, and no Christmas mojo. This movie goes on my "do not watch again" list. Since we don't have zero's,I gave it a 1

Really Disapointing

[yannhalmack · 3/10 · 7 March 2024]

I saw this TV movie last Christmas and I was extremely disappointed with the ending. I didn't understand it and it pissed me off! Ryan had done nothing wrong, it was Heather who was most at fault, she could have closed Ryan's aunt's store. But they make Ryan look like the culprit because of a stupid misunderstanding, and in more Heather doesn't question herself after that. At the time of the argument Ryan was angry with Heather which was normal then at one point Ryan talks about Molly's wish to Santa Claus and Heather understands that Ryan was Santa Claus. And at that moment I was afraid of what was going to happen next, I said to myself "she will learn his secret but will remain the one at fault" but no, the worst scenario happened! Heather being furious with Ryan made no sense, all just because he found out about her, to seduce her. She calls Ryan a liar and walks away victorious in this argument, it sucks! I hated that!

Loved this movie! & THIS IS A LIFETIME CHRISTMAS MOVIE NOT HALLMARK!

[Hallmarklover247 · 10/10 · 16 October 2021]

I've watched this movie every year since it came out in 2017 & I own it on DVD & a digital copy of it on Vudu its so adorable. It's not super busy with alot of depth but these are Christmas movies that bring us happiness & we know they always end up together at the end. And it baffles me how many people don't know what network this movie came from. This is a LIFETIME Christmas movie not a Hallmark Christmas movie! How do you not know what network you watched this movie on? So ridiculous. I love the cast and that Jeffrey & Ashley from Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air are both in it. It gives you all the Christmas feels and is 100% worth watching!

Not only about the film

[romodomo · 2/10 · 6 November 2022]

Sorry, but no. I usually like Brendan Fehr, but in this film he was awfully boring, so were the other actors with these false smiles. The niece seemed to have false hair in addition. I wonder how it is that there are reviews that are very short and I have to write 332 characters more. I wornder why some reviewrs post reviews with horrid grammatical errors.

In one review somebody wrote 'we'll done' instead of 'well done' . I think it is a kind of lack of respect . My suggestion is to have your review corrected before you post it. I don't think they should employ a proof reader to read those reviews, but on the other hand, why not?

Hallmark delivers again!!

[treakle_1978 · 8/10 · 19 November 2019]

Tatyana Ali Brendan Fehr were great in this movie. Loved the story and location.

Entertaining with great music

[getmgate-39521 · 10/10 · 2 December 2020]

Fun, entertaining movie with a talented, recognizable cast. Tatyana Ali's performance of Heard the Bells is stunning. It would be a No.1 hit if she ever released it. Everyone asks about it, so what gives? It's beautiful.

Happy and predictable

[dbuckshnis · 8/10 · 26 October 2023]

Oh, I am a sucker for Christmas movies and Christmas movies that are pretty predictable, but you don't really get all the characters until they gel together.

The ensemble cast was great, and there are only a few actors that I recognized and it was magic as it's Christmas.

I love the Christmas scenes with Santa and the kids as that reminds me of the days that we used to go see Santa. Santa of course is the guy that the aunt hooks up with ... so cute.

The set designs are great of course because it is Christmas. The lovely scenery of Utah always is wonderful.

If you're feeling down or or you feel like you need a good pick up me up movie... This is the movie to watch. Kismet at its best!

Heartwarming Christmas Film

[dshannon1042 · 8/10 · 24 December 2023]

"Wrapped Up in Christmas" is a heartwarming holiday film that truly shines, thanks in large part to Tatiana Ali's exceptional performance. Ali brings a delightful blend of charm, sincerity, and emotion to her role, captivating the audience with her on-screen presence. Her portrayal adds depth to the character, making the story even more engaging.

Throughout the film, Ali's ability to convey genuine warmth and authenticity contributes significantly to the overall festive atmosphere. Her chemistry with the cast, especially during key moments, enhances the emotional resonance of the narrative. Ali's nuanced performance allows viewers to connect with the character on a personal level, fostering a sense of empathy and joy.

Beyond her acting prowess, Ali's charisma brings a special magic to the holiday spirit portrayed in the movie. Her commitment to the role, coupled with a natural flair for storytelling, makes "Wrapped Up in Christmas" a memorable and heartening cinematic experience. Tatiana Ali's performance is undoubtedly a highlight, elevating the film to a must-watch during the festive season.