A Crafty Christmas Romance

So, this is my 3rd Lifetime Christmas movie of the 2020 season. It was pretty difficult to get thru, I must. I found myself multitasking (e.g., grabbing for my iPad) several times, especially during the first 45 minutes or so, which is not a good sign. Don't get me wrong, the story was sweet, and the script was not that bad, though the dialogue at times was a bit 'cheesy'. However, the acting, i.e. the performances by Nicola Posener and Brad Johnson - fresh faces on the screen for me - were mediocre at best. A couple of very awkward scenes included, for example, the one where she accused him of taking the coin and the one at the end of the movie. The chemistry between the two was also quite lacking, which is not good for a romance film. I had to LOL when reading the following by another reviewer on here: 'The two leads were as wooden as a couple of planks.' Indeed, this is a nice way to sum it up, I am afraid. I mean, I am a fan of Hallmark/Lifetime Christmas movies, but, unfortunately, I would not recommend this one, even to fans.

How does this kind of mis casting take place? The lead woman is a pretty actress who is it was not for a huge nose would be beautiful, is cast in a romantic relationship with a man who is 26 years older than her. The wife and I noticed the age difference immediately. I checked both of them.. I consulted IMDb and found out she was born in 87 and he was born in 61. also there's a huge looks difference, she is way above him in the looks Department.. there is no way their relationship was believable ....The srory was not bad, it was different. The acting was good, but the pairing of a younger pretty woman with a bland looking man old enough to be her father was absurd.

Brad Johnson, a coin and a first Christmas Carol edition, a nice enigma are the pillars of this film not bad , not exactly convincing but charming for few basic pieces and, I admitt, for the great contibution of mister Johnson.

It's not that this movie is really bad. It just lacks anything to make it good. It's bland.

The story is a fairly standard found-mystery-letter-quest. The search is pretty normal. There are no real surprises start to finish. The only tension comes from a misunderstanding that didn't really make sense on the offender's part to begin with and then was blown up out of proportion. It could have been resolved with a timely "I was wrong", but what effort was made in that regard seemed half-hearted.

Actually, a lot about the characters seemed half-hearted in terms of acting. In terms of effort, Mandy was passionate about her quest, but I didn't really feel that from Nicola Posener. Likewise in her feelings for Jonah. It didn't seem like she ever looked or smiled at him with any passion. Brad Johnson seemed half-hearted about everything. The best actor of the leading three was Renny Grames, and her part as the BFF was definitely secondary.

The dialogue was frequently boring. It was often too mundane and lacked any wit to spice it up.

To me it's sad because the writing in this movie does one thing as well as almost any. I often lament that a movie dilutes the screen time of the two leads in the romance with other people or sub-plots. This movie has them together almost non-stop until the misunderstanding. And the characters make a real effort to get to know each other. Somehow, that didn't translate into chemistry.

Then there are plot holes. A contractor whose business is in trouble spends way too much valuable time running around with a virtual stranger on a wild goose chase. He has no insurance for accidents. He promises to cook Christmas dinner for his parents yet clearly knows less about cooking than anyone on Worst Cooks in America. And his cupboard is empty. Mandy ignores her business equally, but at least her BFF is there to fill in. When searching for records on a very common last name, they find 4 unique results, all of whom are relevant.

And the thing that irritated me the most - if you are going to center a story around a coin, learn something about coin collecting. The first "expert" Mandy consulted used "proof" and "mint" interchangeably. They are entirely different types of coins. No one with any collecting familiarity would do that. Wear on a "proof" coin would reduce the value exponentially and they were tossing that coin around pretty freely. The first thing anyone with any collecting experience would have advised would have been to put the coin in a special protector, even if it had some wear, and probably would have done it himself immediately. But then a key plot point couldn't have happened.

Boring, predictable and cheesy a Christmas movie It's not the best Christmas movie but it's not the worst. Storyline is so so, kind of drags on. I agree with some of the other reviews - the age difference between the leads is distracting.