Movie: Magical Christmas Village
Starring: Alison Sweeney, Luke Macfarlane, Marlo Thomas
Network: Hallmark
Synopsis: A Christmas Village brings the magic of Christmas to the lives of Summer and her family, healing old wounds and bringing new love to Summer and her family.
⚠🛑 Disclaimer: This review may contain movie spoilers
Rating (out of 5 stars): ⭐⭐1/2
Review:
Magical Christmas Village was my number one pick for this weekend and it just fell flat for me. This is one of the worst movies so far this Christmas season for me. My hopes were based on the talents of Alison Sweeney and Luke Macfarlane who I absolutely love. Alas not even they could help make this movie a good watch.
Plot
I'm sorry but what was this movie about? For me this movie just seemed all over the place and there really wasn't a solid plot point. So her daughter moves things around in the village and through the magic of Christmas it causes things to happen in their lives? Her mom falls in love, Ryan is able to move on with love, Summer is able to let her mom control her own life now, and her grandma gets a house. Boring. For me, I found it dull, slow and had little purpose for the whole 2 hours. I wasn't invested in their story or their lives.
The best part of this movie for me came right at the end when Summer declared her love for Ryan in public. It was sweet and the most charming part of the movie. I really enjoyed Luke's reaction and facial expressions during this time. Loved how he just whipped the bear back to the kid to stay in the moment
This got a chuckle from me. Then the kiss in public. Wow. Now that was good!
Chemistry & Performances
The chemistry for me was hot and cold in this movie. We had a great start with the meet cute. I loved their interaction and giddiness on their first date. Then it went cold and there really was no dynamic between them. Only to have a little chemistry again during ice skating. It was kind of like this through the whole movie. Just wasn't feeling the love connection.
Luke Macfarlane was his usual charming self with a smile that just warms up a room. He is a solid leading man and he was in this too. It's a shame that there wasn't much more for him to grasp onto in this one. I'm disappointed that he has announced that this is his last Hallmark movie as it's a shame that he's going out on this one.
Alison Sweeney is one of my favourite leading ladies on Hallmark. She does an ok job as a single mom/architect. She had some nice scenes with Marlo Thomas but again this one is definitely not showcasing what she is truly capable of doing on screen.
It was nice to see Marlo Thomas on screen. She was charming and offered some comedic elements in the movie albeit I found her character a bit too much at times. I can't believe she is almost 85 years old!
Final Thoughts
So unfortunately this movie was a miss for me. I was hoping the pairing of Alison Sweeney and Luke Macfarlane would make this a massive hit but it fell flat. It lacked any real plot and had hot/cold chemistry. One I will not watch again.
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