Movie: A Kismet Christmas
Starring: Sarah Ramos, Carlo Marks, Marilu Henner
Network: Hallmark Channel
Synopsis: Sarah is a children’s book author who returns to her hometown, where she reconnects with her family and Travis, her teenage crush. She soon discovers that a long-held family legend might actually be true.
⚠🛑 Disclaimer: This review may contain movie spoilers
Rating (out of 5 stars): ⭐⭐⭐
Review:
Overall this movie was just ok for me. We had some good performances from Sarah Ramos and Carlo Marks but that was over shadowed by a little too much "kismet" magic. Yes I realize it's a Hallmark movie and it's supposed to be Christmas "magic," but when the whole town constantly runs around and is giddy about kismet cookies...a little too far fetched for me. It's an ok movie to watch once but not one I'll go out of my way to watch again.
Plot
It's just ok for me. I found that the movie was way too focused on the kismet cookies to the point where it was flat out annoying at times. And speaking of annoying....Jazzy. Yikes. The movie could do with alot less Jazzy.
So Sarah, when she's younger, gets her heart broken when she has a dream about her love Travis after she put a kismet cookie under her pillow. She runs over to his house to tell him and he opens the door in the middle of his wedding ceremony. Wait what? Yes Travis was getting married. One can only assume it was a shot gun marriage as it was in his house and no one knew about it. Anyway she is upset and runs back to her family house and tears up the coveted kismet cookie recipe and then abandons the town and her grandma. She comes back, Travis is not married any more (SHOCKER!), miraculously finds the kismet cookie recipe all taped up, saves the day, writes her book by hand in a few hours, and reconciles with her true love Travis. A bit far fetched right? Yup.
Chemistry & Performances
The chemistry between the leads is more friendly then romantic but they do have a great dynamic at least. They are comfortable with each other.
Sarah Ramos was pretty good actually. I enjoyed her in this albeit she looked ridiculous trying to pretend she was a teenager wearing a bunch of hair clips in her hair. Not sure what teenager would wear that many clips in her hair but ok.
Carlos Marks was acceptable as the male lead. I really like him as an actor and I think that although he didn't shine it was probably more because the content of the role and movie just wasn't there for him to stand out.
Jazzy was just plain irritating She made alot of the movie unbearable for me.
Marilu Henner and her older friends are what made this movie for me. I actually liked the trio of ladies.
Stand-outs or questions
Kismet - Did anyone else wonder what kismet meant? I don't know if I've ever heard the word before so I actually looked it up before the movie. Kismet means destiny or fate, in case you haven't looked it up yet.
Flashbacks - I think it may have been better to hire a couple of actors to portray Sarah and Travis back in the day. Hair clips certainly didn't make Sarah Ramos look younger and Carlo Marks just looked like Carlo Marks with longer hair and not a younger Carlo Marks. Honestly it looked a bit goofy. You simply can't use 30 or 40 something year old actors to portray teenagers. Hair clips? Seriously?
Wedding - So did anyone else question why Travis's wedding was in his house and why he answered the door in the middle of the ceremony? Also, is it just me or was this a shot gun wedding?
Travis's daughter - Jazzy?? Seriously? By the end of the movie I was thinking I saw or heard too much about her. She monopolized a lot of the movie even when she wasn't on screen. And seriously...her dad told her to go into the house...she leaves and he and Sarah are about to have a serious conversation and yet Jazzy is right there yelling..."come on dad, these books aren't going to read themselves", geez, give your dad 5 minutes to breathe Jazzy. He told you to go inside and get your pjs on for goodness sake. You didn't even do that before barking at him to hurry up.
Kismet cookies - So Sarah said she baked 12 cookies when she found the recipe. Well she gave one to her mom's friend, her grandma had one and Jazzy stole 2. Then grandma says there was a line up out the door for them. A line up? Really? For 8 cookies? Must be a really small town with a limited amount of single people.
Final Thoughts
So overall this movie was ok. It had a far fetched plot and a focus too much on this kismet cookie. There were some solid performances from our leads but with mediocre chemistry. It's not one I would watch again.
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