I didn't have high hopes for yet another going home to save the family inn movie. But this one surprised me. Pleasantly.
The two leads,Rachel Boston and Wes Brown, are both Christmas rom-com veterans. In this outing they played warm and genuine people. One had been home for a while while the other is a lawyer in New York, returning home reluctantly.
Predictable holiday rom-com trope number whatever: there's a promotion on the table back in New York.
Predictable holiday rom-com trope whatever+1: there's a feud between their two families.
This is a hundred-year-old non-violent scrap renewed with each generation. Its current form is the two dads competing over whose inn is better decorated, whose family can win the bigger-and-better snowball toss, the Xmas trivia contest, and so on in an absolute whirlwind of perfect Christmas town competitions. Pretty town, at least the 2 shots we see of it (repeatedly)
One significant anti-trope: the two leads are never in serious conflict. The movie completely avoids the trope where they compete, get bitter, stab each other in the back and have to make up for it somehow. The conflict in this movie is all outside their obvious attraction to one another.
Another significant anti-trope: the other woman competing for the same promotion... but to say more would be a spoiler.
The movie works as a good fun story where both parties to the romance are respectful and respect worthy, and you believe the attraction is real. It works, that is, if you can ignore some magickal financial thinking and a complete lack of building-permit concern in future planning.
The two leads,Rachel Boston and Wes Brown, are both Christmas rom-com veterans. In this outing they played warm and genuine people. One had been home for a while while the other is a lawyer in New York, returning home reluctantly.
Predictable holiday rom-com trope number whatever: there's a promotion on the table back in New York.
Predictable holiday rom-com trope whatever+1: there's a feud between their two families.
This is a hundred-year-old non-violent scrap renewed with each generation. Its current form is the two dads competing over whose inn is better decorated, whose family can win the bigger-and-better snowball toss, the Xmas trivia contest, and so on in an absolute whirlwind of perfect Christmas town competitions. Pretty town, at least the 2 shots we see of it (repeatedly)
One significant anti-trope: the two leads are never in serious conflict. The movie completely avoids the trope where they compete, get bitter, stab each other in the back and have to make up for it somehow. The conflict in this movie is all outside their obvious attraction to one another.
Another significant anti-trope: the other woman competing for the same promotion... but to say more would be a spoiler.
The movie works as a good fun story where both parties to the romance are respectful and respect worthy, and you believe the attraction is real. It works, that is, if you can ignore some magickal financial thinking and a complete lack of building-permit concern in future planning.