Hallmark For All Seasons

I am so behind on movies!  It’s already Tuesday and I have only watched two of this weekend’s movies.  Of course, I had a good excuse: The Christmas Con in New Jersey.  You guys, it was so much fun and if you did not have the opportunity to go this year, you should definitely plan on attending next year!  It was a blast!

Upon arriving home from the whirlwind weekend, I watched the two movies featured on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries this weekend.  “A Blue Ridge Mountain Christmas” aired on Thursday, November 7 at 9 p.m. and starred Benjamin Ayres and Rachael Leigh Cook.  It was set in the mountains of Virginia, but filmed in Pitt Meadows, British Columbia, Canada.  It’s a pity because I think Virginia is beautiful and there are such rich areas of central Virginia that could have stood in for, well, VIRGINIA!  Drive down Hwy 29 from Gainesville to Danville and you pass many lovely areas where this movie could have been filmed.

In a nutshell

This was a weird movie.  The characters lacked depth, connection and motivation.  And that’s very strange considering this movie was based on a book called “A Christmas Bride” by Hope Ramsay.  But looking at the description of the book, it appears they made some significant changes for the movie, so perhaps that’s why it was missing its soul?

Plot

Willow (Cook) returns to her Virginia hometown to help prepare for her sister’s wedding, only to discover that the inn that her family once owned is back on the market. Widower David (Ayres) owns the inn and lets Willow repurpose the inn’s barn into the location for her sister’s upcoming Christmas wedding.  Willow reignites her love for the old inn, and discovers unexpected romance with David.

Actors

I haven’t seen Benjamin Ayres in too many things but I know he is popular on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries thanks to the “Chronicles Mysteries” series he did with Allison Sweeney earlier in the year.  He was also on the Canadian TV show “Saving Hope” for many years.  Rachael Leigh Cook starred in one of my favorite teen romances back in the day, “She’s All That,” which was a modern retelling of “Pygmalion.”  She is also in the popular Hallmark “Vineyard” movies co-starring Brendan Penny.

As for Six Degrees of Kris Polaha, Benjamin Ayres is a mere two steps away.  He had a role in 2014’s “Death Do Us Part” in which he shared the screen with Emilie Ullerup, who was Polaha’s co-star in the 2016 Hallmark fan favorite “Hearts of Christmas.”

Chemistry

On paper, these two leads should have worked – but they didn’t.  I mostly blame this on a lackluster script that never really showed these characters sharing valuable time together.  Sure, they interacted when it came to the decorations, but I never really saw true moments of connection between these two characters, and then suddenly at the end Willow is eating cookies and admitting she has feelings for David.

Not only that, but David only seemed vaguely interested in his daughter, when compared to his desire to sell the inn and become a partner at his law firm.

Feelgoods

Sadly, none.

Tropes

This movie was a bit boring, so at some point I stopped tracking the tropes.  But the ones I did notice were the Big City skyline camera shot to open the movie, a lead character being a single parent, a lead character HAVING a single parent, cookie decorating and drinking hot cocoa (with the bonus of RLC using both hands).  She also wore at least one big scarf near the beginning of the movie.

Either way, comment below and tell me what I missed.

Bingo Card Score for “A Blue Ridge Mountain Christmas”

Nowhere close to getting a bingo with this movie.  Only 8 squares got covered and they were all over the board.

Did I Hear/See That Right?

There were two things that were inconsequential, and one big thing.  The two little ones were just weird whereas the third one was a major reason I didn’t like the movie.

First, in the cookie decorating scene, the daughter spends a good portion of the scene using red icing in the most messy way possible to decorate a cookie.  However, near the end of the scene, the bloodbath cookie has been replaced with a perfectly decorated green cookie.  That’s just a continuity error there.

Secondly, one subplot of the movie is that the daughter has misplaced her favorite reindeer stuffed animal.  She was playing hide and seek with her dad, and forgot where she hit the stuff toy.  At the end of the movie, Willow goes into the inn’s library and picks a book off the shelf.  What does she find?  This MASSIVE reindeer doll has been behind the book the whole time.  The same 2″ wide book that was only sticking out from the other books by maybe 1″.  With a toy measuring at least 3″x8″ in size.  No way.  NO. WAY.  *sigh*  C’mon, prop master.  Surely you can find a better stuffed animal, or go ahead and have 3-4 books sticking out on that shelf???

Let’s talk now about my major issue with this movie.  As you may recall, I LOVED “Two Turtles Doves,” a movie that dealt with the nature of grief head on in a very mature and emotional way.  “Blue Ridge” very briefly mentioned the fact that the reason David wanted to sell the inn was because it reminded him of his deceased wife.  However, in NO WAY did this movie develop the character enough that we saw HOW the inn caused him to continually grieve the loss of his wife.  It was just talk.  The movie had no heart, no emotion, no connection at all.  And David in NO WAY showed any interest in Willow until the last ten minutes when the inn finally sold – and even then it felt completely shoehorned into the story.  I can’t help but think that the folks who adapted the book for the movie dropped a lot of REALLY valuable scenes wherein the two characters share meaningful conversations around feeling the loss of loved ones during the holidays.  Because we got almost none of it.

Re-watchability

I have no plans to ever watch this movie again.

The Ranking

Very close to being the worst movie of the year for me.  I knew it would be.

1. Two Turtle Doves (air date: Nov 1) – 742 pts – weighted score: 123.7 (86.8%)
2. Christmas Wishes and Mistletoe Kisses (air date: Oct 26) – 719 pts – weighted score: 121.0 (84.9%)
3. Love to the Rescue RE-RANKED (air date: March 23) – 708 pts – weighted score: 120.6 (84.6%)
4. Winter Love Story (air date: January 19) – 685 pts – weighted score: 115.8 (81.2%)
5. Mystery 101 (air date: January 27 (HMM)) – 454 pts – weighted score: 94.2 (80.5%)
6. Love on the Menu (air date: February 23) – 642 pts – weighted score: 113.8 (79.9%)
7. Bottled With Love (air date: April 13) – 649 pts – weighted score: 112.2 (78.7%)
8. Love Takes Flight (air date: April 27) – 670 pts – weighted score: 111.0 (77.9%)
9. Love, Romance & Chocolate (air date: February 16) – 627 pts – weighted score: 110.2 (77.3%)
10. The Last Bridesmaid (air date: June 22) – 643 pts – weighted score: 109.2 (76.6%)
11. Love, Fall and Order (air date: Oct 12) – 636 pts – weighted score: 109.0 (76.5%)
12. Paris, Wine & Romance (air date: May 4) – 638 pts – weighted score: 108.3 (76.0%)
13. My Boyfriend’s Back: Wedding March 5 (air date: June 8) – 635 pts – weighted score: 108.0 (75.8%)
14. Over the Moon in Love (air date: Oct 5) – 613 pts – weighted score: 106.3 (74.6%)
15. Flip That Romance (air date: March 16) – 597 pts – weighted score: 105.8 (74.2%)
16. My One and Only (air date: Aug 31) – 597 pts – weighted score: 105.6 (74.1%)
17. Mystery 101: Playing Dead (air date: June 23 (HMM)) – 425 pts – weighted score: 86.5 (73.9%)
18. A Summer Romance (air date: Aug 17) – 577 pts – weighted score: 103.7 (72.7%)
19. True Love Blooms (air date: April 6) – 598 pts – weighted score: 103.1 (72.3%)
20. Forever in My Heart (air date: Sept 14) – 560 pts – weighted score: 102.4 (71.8%)
21. The Story of Us (air date: February 9) – 605 pts – weighted score: 101.3 (71.1%)
22. A Brush with Love (air date: March 30) – 563 pts – weighted score: 97.7 (68.6%)
23. Ruby Herring: Silent Witness (air date: January 20 (HMM)) – 357 pts – weighted score: 79.5 (67.9%)
24. Love, Unleashed (air date: July 6, 2019) – 559 pts – weighted score: 96.2 (67.5%)
25. Love Under the Rainbow (air date: March 9) – 581 pts – weighted score: 96.0 (67.4%)
26. One Winter Proposal (air date: January 12) – 535 pts – weighted score: 95.8 (67.2%)
27. Just Add Romance (air date: March 2) – 548 pts – weighted score: 95.6 (67.1%)
28. Christmas Scavenger Hunt (air date: Nov 3) – 561 pts – weighted score: 95.4 (66.9%)
29. From Friend to Fiance (air date: May 25) – 555 pts – weighted score: 94.8% (66.5%)
30. Christmas Camp (air date: July 11) – 530 pts – weighted score: 93.9 (65.9%)
31. Love and Sunshine (air date: Aug 3) – 504 pts – weighted score: 91.7 (64.3%)
32. Crossword Mysteries: A Puzzle to Die For (air date: March 10 (HMM) – 354 pts – weighted score: 74.1 (63.3%)
33. Sister of the Bride (air date: June 29) – 516 pts – weighted score: 89.8 (63.0%)
34. Valentine in the Vineyard (air date: February 2) – 503 pts – weighted score: 89.5 (62.8%)
35. Love, Take Two (air date: June 15) – 507 pts – weighted score: 87.8 (61.6%)
36. All Summer Long (air date: Aug 24) – 512 pts – weighted score: 87.7 (61.5%)
37. Snowcoming (air date: January 26) – 485 pts – weighted score: 87.3 (61.2%)
38. The Winter Castle (air date: January 5) – 475 pts – weighted score: 85.9 (60.2%)
39. Merry & Bright (air date: Nov 2) – 483 pts – weighted score: 84.4 (59.2%)
40. Nostalgic Christmas (air date: Oct 31) – 446 pts – weighted score: 79.2 (55.6%)
41. A Merry Christmas Match (air date: Oct 25) – 455 pts – weighted score: 78.3 (54.9%)
42. Sailing Into Love (air date: May 18) – 455 pts – weighted score: 78.0 (54.7%)
43. Rome in Love (air date: July 27) – 436 pts – weighted score: 76.7 (53.8%)
44. A Blue Ridge Mountain Christmas (air date: Nov 7) – 398 pts – weighted score: 72.3 (50.7%)
45. A Taste of Summer (air date: Aug 10) – 403 pts – weighted score: 70.9 (49.7%)
46. A Winter Princess (air date: January 18) – 380 pts – weighted score: 70.5 (49.5%)
47. A Feeling of Home (air date: May 11) – 386 pts – weighted score: 69.7% (48.9%)
48. Love in the Sun (air date: June 1) – 361 pts – weighted score: 62.5 (43.8%)

To see where this movie lands in my overall rankings of Hallmark movies, visit my Hallmark Movie Rankings page!

What did you think of “A Blue Ridge Mountain Christmas”?  Comment below and let me know!

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