I think Katy (this blog's co-founder) and I both watched this movie the same day and immediately started texting each other our opinions. However, we had different thoughts about it's quality. I thought it wasn't so bad once you get through the first eight minutes or so but Katy hated it all the way through.
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Our story begins with Clara, an overworked restaurant manager who devotes all of her time to a mountain resort's fine dining. She, of course, is a disappointment to her mom and has suffered various mysterious losses in her life including something to do with Chicago and her dad who may or may not be dead. I was actually finishing up writing about this one when I got a text from a friend as follows:
That does indeed sum up just about every movie in this genre. But I digress.
The other half of our romantic duo comes to us via a terrible green screened TV cooking show. This is the part of the movie you just have to grit your teeth and get through. It's so over the top and nearly made me turn the show off and move on. But, if you persevere it doesn't stay so bad.
In an unexplained twist of events, our reality TV star, Shane, ends up taking a job at the mountain resort as the new head chef which makes all the girls swoon, although Clara does so somewhat reluctantly. He seems to have some sort of a secret looming over his head (spoiler alert: he has TWO deceased parents) but it takes a long time for everything to come out. It doesn't take long for Shane and Clara to entangle themselves though. I mean, once she cooks him a delicious meal after hours in the resort restaurant, the rest is history.
The entire middle of the movie reads a lot like an episode of The Bachelor. They do a lot of sitting on couches and talking -but never properly communicating- about their mysterious pasts, standing on balconies looking into the distance and talking about a theoretical future together. They share awkward meals at the last family owned B&B on the mountain which happens to be owned by the two worst actors known to man and also bears some weight in both of their mysterious pasts. There's even a snow-activity montage- they really have taken a page out of Chris Harrison's book here. Now, I don't mind the Bachelor-y feel of this whole section, I secretly love The Bachelor franchise but it may not be everyone's cup of tea.
I don't mind some unexplained pasts, family tragedies that need to be revealed, etc., but I feel like you really had to wait a long time for things to get sorted out in this one. It just left me a little annoyed at the constant lack of communication and unexplained details. It's never really a question of IF Shane and Clara will get together but WHEN they will figure out how use words as an effective mode of explaining themselves.
It may sound like I am bagging on this one a bit but it's actually one of the better films I've reviewed so far this year. One thing I thought was actually stellar about this movie was the food. The kitchen scenes seemed pretty believable and the plates coming out of that restaurant had my mouth watering! You don't usually see details done that well in a low budget film like this so I was very impressed that they put some work into the little things that make the whole story more believable.
I would give this one a solid 6 out of 10. It definitely struggled in some parts but overall it's a pretty solid Christmas movie to keep you warm and cozy on a cold night.
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