Love Always, Santa (2016) Directed by Brian Herzlinger
Sure, I often praise the Hallmark Channel Christmas movies but that of course doesn't mean that every movie that airs on it is at good as the other. This one just didn't do for me. It felt a tad bit too serious and was missing that special kind of Christmas feeling in it.
It in essence just is a very basic and simplistic love-story, that lacks charm and overall never comes across as anything convincing. The movie is just too short for the build up and overall love-story to work out and it doesn't help much that it's a very predictable one as well. Absolutely nothing ever comes as a surprise in this movie and you already know how things are going to play out and eventually are going to end up like, 5 minutes into the movie already.
And this really is the biggest problem for the movie. It also does very little with any of its other characters and side-plots to still make things a bit more surprising and fun to watch. I feel that this is the type of movie that could have benefited from following some more characters- and different story lines, that all were somehow connected and involved romance and/or Christmas story elements. Instead it now remains a very bland and straightforward movie, that ends up being an extremely forgettable one.
The lack of any good Christmas spirit also really was a problem for me. As a matter of fact, I can't even really call this a Christmas movie as well. There are just far too little Christmas connections to the story. It's not a very warm and joyful movie either. I feel that the movie takes itself a tad bit too serious for that and the atmosphere of the movie seems a bit too dark, instead of either cheerful or winterly-like, which are both always far more suiting for a Christmas movie.
In some ways it's still a very fluffy movie but unfortunately never in the movie its advantage. The story and characters all feel a bit too exaggerated in parts. This obviously is something that makes the movie far from convincing but it also never adds enough to the fun or warmth of the movie unfortunately, mostly because it seems too forced.
It doesn't feel like a total waste of time though. It's in no way a terrible movie and its still innocent and decent enough to have a good time with it, if you're in the mood for something light. Just don't expect a warming and highly fun Christmas movie experience.
5/10
It in essence just is a very basic and simplistic love-story, that lacks charm and overall never comes across as anything convincing. The movie is just too short for the build up and overall love-story to work out and it doesn't help much that it's a very predictable one as well. Absolutely nothing ever comes as a surprise in this movie and you already know how things are going to play out and eventually are going to end up like, 5 minutes into the movie already.
And this really is the biggest problem for the movie. It also does very little with any of its other characters and side-plots to still make things a bit more surprising and fun to watch. I feel that this is the type of movie that could have benefited from following some more characters- and different story lines, that all were somehow connected and involved romance and/or Christmas story elements. Instead it now remains a very bland and straightforward movie, that ends up being an extremely forgettable one.
The lack of any good Christmas spirit also really was a problem for me. As a matter of fact, I can't even really call this a Christmas movie as well. There are just far too little Christmas connections to the story. It's not a very warm and joyful movie either. I feel that the movie takes itself a tad bit too serious for that and the atmosphere of the movie seems a bit too dark, instead of either cheerful or winterly-like, which are both always far more suiting for a Christmas movie.
In some ways it's still a very fluffy movie but unfortunately never in the movie its advantage. The story and characters all feel a bit too exaggerated in parts. This obviously is something that makes the movie far from convincing but it also never adds enough to the fun or warmth of the movie unfortunately, mostly because it seems too forced.
It doesn't feel like a total waste of time though. It's in no way a terrible movie and its still innocent and decent enough to have a good time with it, if you're in the mood for something light. Just don't expect a warming and highly fun Christmas movie experience.
5/10
