Movie: Catering Christmas
Starring: Merritt Patterson, Daniel Lissing
Network: GAC Family
Synopsis: A fledgling caterer, Molly Frost, is hired by Jean Harrison, the perfectionistic director of the renowned Harrison Foundation, to cater this year’s annual Christmas Gala dinner. Things get complicated when Molly falls for Jean’s nephew Carson, a travel photographer with no desire to take over the family’s foundation… until his aunt assigns him to the task of making sure the catered dinner goes perfectly.
⚠🛑 Disclaimer: This review may contain movie spoilers
Rating (out of 5 stars): ⭐⭐⭐
Review:
Catering Christmas was the second GAC Family addition to their 2022 Christmas lineup. Here we had a typical underlying plot, pretty good chemistry, great casting and performances. It wasn't stellar by any means but it was worth the watch. It was slow a little in the middle but overall was a pretty good movie. Not one I'd add to my rewatch list but good for a one and done movie.
Plot
There is nothing new with the plot of Catering Christmas. We have a wealthy family who is putting on a charity dinner and needs to hire a new caterer at the last minute. We have 2 potential candidates and the job is given to Molly who is a new caterer trying to make a name for herself. Molly then meets the handsome nephew of her employer Carson and they end up working closely together to design the best gala Christmas event.
You can see there isn't really anything spectacular about the premise but it was the acting that made this movie better. I did enjoy the meet cute of Molly and Carson where she thought he was her sous chef. I also liked the idea that he wasn't hung up on his family's name and made a name for himself with his own photography.
What I really liked was that we didn't have any mishaps with Molly taking on the job. So often we have a new caterer come in and we have mishap after mishap occur which jeopardizes her integrity and involvement in the job. Instead she steps up to the occasion proving herself and also ends up helping them when the gala is put in jeopardy by something entirely different. This was a welcome change.
I really liked the charitable gala that was the whole driving force of the movie. I also liked how the Aunt and Carson were generally invested in their foundation and their gala. They didn't come across as entitled wealthy people just throwing the gala for kicks and recognition. Instead they were legitimately invested in what they could do to help. Nice change. Nice that the caterer didn't have to come in and show the wealthy elite the true reason for giving. They already knew that and she wasn't there to help them move forward with this kind of change in their lives.
Chemistry & Performances
The chemistry between Daniel Lissing and Merritt Patterson was comfortable. It wasn't an electric romantic chemistry but it was just a warm, comfortable chemistry. Hard to explain really. In order to finish the movie yes the romance was rushed but I just wasn't there yet. I felt it was a slow moving relationship and they were more on friendly terms by the end but the difference with this movie was that I could see them working in the long run. Working after a little more time than the 2 hours allotted to the movie.
Daniel Lissing and Merritt Patterson are strong leads that worked well together. They each offered solid performances and were lovely to watch on screen.
I enjoyed the secondary love story between Carson's Aunt Jean and her "butler." I enjoyed their characters individually and as a future couple. One thing that I was distracted by though was the the actress that played Aunt Jean was Rosemary Dunsmore. I was distracted by her. You see she played Katherine Brook in the iconic Anne of Green Gables movies that I have loved since I was a little girl. I would watch her and think of her playing the uptight school mistress. Don't get me wrong, she played Aunt Jean well but I would often go back and see Ms. Brook in her movements.
Final Thoughts
So overall this movie was ok. It's not one I would have to watch every year but I wouldn't turn it off if it came on the tv one night. The charitable component in this movie I thought was great and I liked the secondary romance that occurred. I also liked how there wasn't too many catering mishaps which I was expecting. The misunderstanding at the end was less than stellar but then again I don't need a misunderstanding in every movie. A solid 3 star movie.
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