Movie: A Maple Valley Christmas
Starring: Peyton List, Andrew Walker
Network: Hallmark Movies & Mysteries
Rating (out of 5 stars): ⭐⭐⭐
Synopsis: Rancher Erica has spent her whole life working the family farm with her mother and sister. When Aaron arrives and disrupts her plans, she starts to question what it is she actually wants.
⚠🛑 Disclaimer: This review may contain movie spoilers
Review:
I wanted to like this one...I did...but unfortunately not even great chemistry, a surprise early kiss and Andrew Walker could make this one stand out for me. I felt it was a typical plot with alot of family fighting. I did however give it an extra star for the kisses!
Plot
Primary - Aaron works for his developer father and is required to go look at acquiring a piece of land in Montana over the Christmas season. He meets a woman after rescuing a stray horse and has some instant chemistry and kisses her after knowing her for a few minutes. He then finds out that the land he wants to purchase is also the land she wants to purchase. He immediately tells his big bad father that they shouldn't buy the land but daddy doesn't want to listen to him. Tensions rise, Aaron quits, Erica gets the land and the guy.
Secondary - Erica's mom decides to retire and movie permanently to be with her new boyfriend. Erica and her sister are now the owners of the Maple syrup farm and can't agree on anything. Erica likes to whine and complain about probably everything going on around her. She wants to buy the new property, even though her sister doesn't. Not sure why they need it as their own business isn't really flourishing by any means. Plus they would need to cut down perfectly good trees in order to plant new maple trees and then wait for years and years before those trees have any sort of profit. Also they make way too many things with maple syrup it's just a little bit crazy.
Meanwhile Aaron's dad wants this land at any cost even though there doesn't seem to be a single reason why he wants it so bad. Aaron owned a firetruck toy, the batteries died, his dad wrote a note and said to his wife to lie to Aaron and tell him it was broken instead of needing new batteries. Aaron has a terrible relationship with his dad, is scarred by the firetruck incident but yet still works for his dad. Aaron confronts his dad, quits his job, his dad decides not to buy the land, buys Aaron a new firetruck even though his son is in his mid-30s and they resolve their issues.
The good
Chemistry - Let me just say that the chemistry between Andrew Walker and Peyton List was electric. The way they would look at each other. You never knew when they were going to kiss as you just thought they were always wanting to and thinking about it. Not to mention that we got a kiss about 15 minutes into the movie which was a complete shocker. And that kiss at the end? They had some serious chemistry.
Andrew Walker - Andrew Walker is a Hallmark leading man for sure. He has been in so many of these movies that sometimes they all seem intertwined. His performance was solid as usual albeit he's been in this role so many times before. He has the ability to do so much with a character and he did show a depth with his character Aaron in this movie.
The not so good
Plot - There was way too much going on in this movie however it was so boring at times. Sometimes I felt nothing was happening and lost interest. I didn't understand why they needed to purchase the land. They were already in over their heads trying to make a billion different products out of maple syrup with only 3 or 4 people. How about scaling back to only offering maple syrup, getting things under control and then expand later if needed.
Erica - First things first I thought that Peyton List had a solid performance. The issue I had was not because of her but of how her character was written in this movie. Erica is an extremely unlikable lead. She complains and argues about absolutely everything. She is so resistant to change and it's her way or the highway. She is upset her mom is retiring, then upset that her mom wants to have a vacation and then upset that her mom has found love. She wants to buy a piece of land and doesn't care what her little sister thinks. WHine, whine, whine. IShe was so unpleasant that it was tough to watch her at times.
Questions
Dad - Why did the dad want the land so badly? There was nothing ever said as to why he needed that particular plot of land. I thought for sure it would tie back to the fact that it held memory due to his late wife but that didn't happen. To me it made zero sense why he was so unreasonable with his son and unwilling to part with that particular piece of property. It would have made a little more sense if there was something behind his reasoning.
Cowboy hat - For me the bit about earning the cowboy hat was a bit much. Can't he just go to a store and buy a cowboy hat?
Final Thoughts
Overall this movie was a slow plot that tried to tackle some serious family squabbles. We have some electric chemistry between the leads and a solid familiar performance by Andrew Walker.
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