Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Simply A Masterpiece

Great Film overall

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

The acting is OK, Lindy is cute as always. Micah is also good for her first movie, a bright face.The writing/story is ridiculous.A private music school leases space, the building is for sale, another company wants to buy it. What's the problem?A teacher tries to keep the sale from happening or at least tries to get the new owner to let the music school stay. Huh?What about the school's management? Didn't they know their lease was up and they would have to leave? Happens all the time, you don't have to close a school if you lose your lease, you just have to move.

This was a nice enough movie through the first three quarters. We had a love story. We had a villain. We had a rival love interest. We even had a crisis that needed a miracle.I love Lindy Booth, so I can't be impartial about her. He bright joyful spirit would have made this movie enjoyable if there hadn't been anything else.Unfortunately, I didn't Robin Dunne did his best work. He connected well enough with Lindy, but otherwise he seemed a little dull. I also loved Micah Kalish. I think her part might have worked better about 3-5 years younger, but Micah did a nice job. The villain was played by Damon Runyan and he was good as the heartless, unreasonable boss (even though from the bosses perspective it wasn't so unreasonable.) Cynthia was a little too forgiving as the rival, but Jennifer Gibson did OK too.There was a ton of great Christmas music, especially on piano. We also had Christmas tree shopping including a random collision meeting of the future couple. We had bonding over Christmas traditions like baking cookies, and tree decorating.***Ending SPOILERS from here on*** But this movie was all in the ending. We got several clues about Earl almost from the beginning. Many things about the ending were predictable, but they presented it all very well. More than one aspect of the ending was tear jerking with the last ornament on the tree being Lizzy overcoming her fear and putting on a Julliard worthy performance. I only wish it was longer.

This movie is somehow different from all the other typical Hallmark movies. We know the conflict between the main characters from the beginning and not in the last 15 minutes, which is a good change. The plot is believable. Both main and supporting cast were amazing as well. The dynamic between the leads is nice, no chemistry to die for, but it works. I'm also glad there was no exaggerated drama throughout the whole movie, it makes it more enjoyable. Before I watched it, I hesitated a lot whether to do it or not. I do not regret it at all. This is indeed a lovely Christmas movie to enjoy during the holidays.

The bubbly fast talking niceness of Lindy Booth made this one very enjoyable. The lead actor Robin Dunne was just perfect in his role. He so reminds me of Alex Kendrick from "Facing the Giants" which I love. The supporting cast was just perfect as well. Especially well placed was Derek McGrath (Dr Hebert from DOC). The assistant's part was excellent and played by Robin Dunne's newlywed wife. The role of Cynthia perfect and Sam as well. The scenes with the daughter were some of the best. Yes we will watch this one again.Some things I didn't know. This is Lindy Booth's 4th Christmas movie. She played a terrible part for her in Christmas in Boston in 2005 which was a good movie. In 2011 she stars in Christmas Magic and in 2013 in the Twelve Trees of Christmas (both which I have not seen- but will now). The 2013 movie plot is actually similar to this movie and costars Robin Dunne.