A Little Christmas Charm | C

Hallmark Movies & Mysteries Premiere | December 6, 2020

Greg's boss suggests that he should have more Christmas decorations at his cubicle. "You do want to express yourself, don't you?"

I was excited to see this movie because of Ashley Greene. (Yes, I admit I am a Twilight fan.) After the first 30 minutes, I realized that the movie would be a lot more interesting if it were Alice trying to track down the owner of a charm bracelet. A vampire who can see the future is just what this movie needed. And she definitely could have put stalker Greg in his place.

I spy some architecting

On another note, Hallmark has now made it impossible to make a simple gingerbread house. In the past few movies, I have seen gingerbread mansions, gingerbread high-rises, and gingerbread castles. This movie features an entire gingerbread city. I'm afraid that Hallmark is setting its viewers up for disappointment when they try to make a simple, square house and it ends up looking like it should be condemned.

In the end, I feel the writers squandered a good premise and ended up with a fairly average movie. It would have been better if each charm had a story that made me care, or if the owner of the bracelet had been more interesting. And vampires would have been good.

I am now convinced that there is a person at Hallmark whose sole job is to find alternate

names for Google.

Hallmark gets an A on: the train around the Christmas tree; Greg's gift at the end

Hallmark gets a D on: the gender reveal party (I can't stand those); the gross lines like "you know your eyes light up when you talk about your jewelry;" the 1930s train ride (odd); referring to the charm bracelet owner as "Mrs. X;" the stupid fight/overreaction at the end; the gender reveal party (this can't be stated enough)

Grade: C

* Note Grading Scale:

A = This is seriously a good movie. It will remain on my DVR for the season.

B = Totally exceeded my expectations. I'm happy to recommend.

C = This is an average Hallmark movie. Good holiday fun.

D = I'm disappointed... but I watched it. Why not?

F = I actually had a hard time getting through this one. And that says a lot.