My last Hallmark movie didn’t blow my mind away. My decision to watch this one is borne out of my reviewer’s curiosity which refuses to believe you are as good as your last show. “Angel Falls A Novel Holiday” is not Hallmark’s last show and even if it were, it is not the writers and directors and actors last show. And it may even turn out to just be a bad day for the artists. Or for the studio. So I watched “Amazing Winter Romance” with a relatively live hope, not big but alive, that this one might turn out well. It didn’t and it was straightforward in the way it did(not). You know, when you watch watches like “6 Underground” and “Joker” and you criticize them, there are things to criticize, the process or the manner in which they attempted to deliver the story. With “Amazing”, the story falls flat at the stage of delivery.
The film begins with a Winston native Julia played by Jessy Schram in Chicago trying to keep her arts together. She sucks at Yoga, she sucks at her writing in a magazine where it seems she only keeps her job because the editor happens to be her friend. In search of inspiration, she decides to go home. Christmas is at the corner and it is snowing. In Winston, she meets her best friend-zoned buddy Nate played by Marshall Williams and they hit it off again. Of course, they started platonically and plush whenever they are asked about romance between each other. The perfect reluctant lovers and unassuming just like in “A Novel Falls” and in every other Hallmark movie, I could swear.
There is no need to keep from making this review a narration of the movie because there is no twist, no bends, no arc to be developed or queried, no suspense, no intrigues, no memorable scene, no outstanding quote, no outburst of reckoning, nothing. It is one long story that screeched to a predictable end. Nate and Julia are in each other’s arms and kissing by the end of the film.
Should you watch “Amazing Winter Romance?”
It depends on who you are. If you are the type who likes fairytales, if you want to watch a Garden of Eden type of story, where there are no strives, no anger, no pain, and everyone goes about jumping up and down like mountain goats, playing with giraffes and chimpanzees and eating of the claws of tigers. That kind of peaceful setting will suit you? Then this is a movie for you. A movie without conflict.
But is it possible to have movies without a conflict? In elementary literature, the first thing you learn about the plot is conflict. They tell you that Mister A wants to get to point B but he has to scale a wall. The wall is the conflict and that is what makes literature literature. Conflict is what makes a movie a movie. “Amazing Winter Romance” doesn’t have a single conflict. If you are the type to watch movies irrespective of conflicts, a movie where the whole town gathers in a snow maze and play hide and seek then this is the movie for you.
Code 8 movie review
I learned that the average review contains up to 1000 words. Well, the average review is a way of saying a review of a film that has something to talk about. This one is easy enough, nothing noteworthy happened and if it is the kind of films you don’t mind watching, then go see it.
Rating
My review of “Angels Falls: A Novel Holiday” was rather unflattering; I didn’t enjoy the show. But looking back, the show has a lot to offer. It is the delivery that was a problem but they tried to bring in conflict. There were more serious actors there and a subplot. It will bore you, you will suffer but there is no denying the fact that the producers were trying to make a movie is enough consolation. There is no consolation for me in this show.
But mercifully, I didn’t suffer watching this. It was just an occupier of 80 minutes. You could sleep for 55 minutes of the time and not miss anything. I wouldn’t rate this movie harshly because I didn’t suffer in its hand. It doesn’t have the capacity to make me unhappy. In fact, it couldn’t even annoy me. I will rate this film 5/10. The kids were cute and should go places.
Image source: Hallmark Channel
