“Baby, It’s Cold Inside” is the 2nd Hallmark movie to be filmed at Hotel de Glace in Quebec. The first was 2019’s “Winter Castle.” Screenplay writer Barbara Kymlicka has been writing Hallmark movies for 10 years. Some of them I love, and others have received some of my lowest scores. According to iMDb, she and director Marita Grabiak have worked together often, including on the aforementioned “Castle.”
What gave me hope for “Inside” is that it starred Jocelyn Hudon and Steve Lund. I adored Hudon the first time I saw her, in From Friend to Fiance. She was positively radiant in that movie. Steve Lund was great in 2020’s Unlocking Christmas and don’t even get me started on his hilarious performance on many episodes of “Schitt’s Creek.” Putting those two actors together in a movie was a great idea and I was looking forward to the movie.
In a nutshell
Despite the ice hotel, despite the likeable leads, I found that this movie lacked energy. Because of that lack of energy (and lack of any real plot), I found myself losing dedicated focus while watching it, which is never a good sign.
The Plot of “Baby, It’s Cold Inside”
When Hannah, a travel agent up for a promotion, is directed to forgo her tropical vacation to instead visit the world-famous Ice Hotel, she discovers her sacrifices are more than compensated.
Actors & Chemistry
I love Jocelyn Hudon but she gave her character a weird quirk that was very noticable in this movie. I’ve not watched “From Friend to Fiance” lately to see if she does it in that movie, but I’d have been more inclined to forgive it in that movie over this one. Many, many times Hannah would kind of dismissively laugh at the end of her sentences, to the point where it made the character lack credibility.
I don’t know if it was a choice to show that Hannah doubted herself, or to be used as a device to show that Hannah is young and adventurous and fun. Either way, it happened a LOT in the movie and by the end was a disservice to Hannah, who may have been in a job she didn’t like, but was respected enough professionally to be considered for management. With the laughing she came off as though she was a bit young.
Steve Lund was very restrained in this movie. He was fun in the Christmas lock movie, and I’m a fan of his, but this movie was not elevated despite his starring in it.
The secondary characters were off-putting. Brigitte was creepy, Chagnon was weird. The best friend was generic and her ex-BF/fiance even moreso. The only character I wish we had more of was the glassblower.
Tropes
I figured since this was a winter movie we’d end up with a lot of tropes, but I was surprised by how few there were. Hannah was up for a promotion at her travel agency. We got a sleigh ride! A snowball, but no snowball fight. Oh well.
Did I Hear/See That Right?
Ableskivers feature in two categories of this synopsis, the first being a SMH moment. Ableskivers are circular pancakes. They are to be baked and served immediately, just like pancakes. The problem in the movie is that Hannah supposedly created a croquembouche, which is a huge number of cream puffs made from a choux pastry that are baked and then set into a tower.
The characters in the movie kept having side conversations that were supposedly “quiet asides” wherein not everyone can hear them, but they were so obviously LOUD NORMAL CONVERSATIONS. This was particularly true when the snowshoeing folks ended up at the glassblowers’ home.
She got fired for an inch of water at a hotel? Really? Had it been a foot of water, I’d understand why ignoring the leak for the night would have been a big deal. But an inch of water is nothing. I know this because my office sprung a roof leak and flooded my office a couple years ago. We had much more than an inch of water and it was a relatively simple cleanup, all things considered.
Glassblowing is not fast work. NOT fast work. And yet Ben asked the glassblower to design, make and mold who knows how many of those little ice castles – which he has to make ONE AT A TIME since he only has one oven – to give away to guests. And the glassblower said YES! THAT’S NOT REAL LIFE! *lol*
Feelgoods
Staying in an ice hotel has officially been added to my bucket list. I love the cold, and think an ice hotel is right up my alley.
Ableskivers! I am a HUGE fan of ableskivers, or the Dutch version, “poffertjes” (POFF-ert-juhs). I was first introduced to them in 1999 when my husband and I traveled to Amsterdam for our 2nd anniversary. In the Netherlands they are called poffertjes and they are more like small pancakes and I LOVE THEM. They are light and fluffy and bite sized and served with butter and powdered sugar. I ate them by the dozen in Amsterdam and loved watching the pros make 100-200 at a time.
A show my daughter and I recently got into was “Blown Away” on Netflix, which was a reality competition involving glassblowing. We both came away really fascinated by this dying art. If yo uwere at all inspired by the tiny fraction of what the movie showed, I highly recommend you find “Blown Away” if you are a Netflix subscriber. The work that glassblowers do is AMAZING.
I love Christmas decorations – the more, the better. As such, I loved Ben’s forest lights on their way to the maple syrup farm.
Random Thoughts
This movie is literally “Winter Castle” with a new cast and new title. They even made the maple syrup taffy again, although in “Castle” they made it during the day instead of at night.
I had no stakes whatsoever in Phoebe’s relationship with her ex-boyfriend. I’m not sure why the writer decided to include this secondary plot to the movie at all. It was a plot device merely to get her best friend in the room when Hannah needed someone to talk to and give movie watchers information, or when the writer wanted Hannah to be forced to go off with Ben. I also had NO FEELINGS whatsoever when the boyfriend proposed to Phoebe later in the movie. There was not enough development of those characters to make me care.
Re-watchability
Sadly, I have no plans to watch this one again. But it did make me want to watch “Winter Castle” again if only to compare just how alike the two movies are.
The Ranking
“Baby, It’s Cold Inside” is not the worst of the year, but it’s definitely going to stay near the bottom of the rankings for a long time.
- It Was Always You (air date: Feb 27) – 668 pts – weighted score: 114.2 (80.1%)
- Taking a Shot at Love (air date: Jan 2) – 641 pts – weighted score: 108.9 (76.4%)
- Don’t Go Breaking My Heart (air date: Mar 27) – 636 pts – weighted score: 108.5 (76.1%)
- Right in Front of Me (air date: Apr 18) – 637 pts – weighted score: 108.0 (75.8%)
- As Luck Would Have It (air date: Apr 10) – 638 pts – weighted score: 107.7 (75.5%)
- A Winter Getaway (air date: Jan 23) – 620 pts – weighted score: 104.4 (73.3%)
- Mix Up in the Mediterranean (air date: Feb 20) – 590 pts – weighted score: 102.5 (71.9%)
- Two For The Win (air date: Jan 16) – 603 pts – weighted score: 101.8 (71.4%)
- Chasing Waterfalls (air date: Mar 20) – 570 pts – weighted score: 100.3 (70.4%)
- Fit for a Prince (air date: Mar 6) – 546 pts – weighted score: 94.6 (66.4%)
- A New Year’s Resolution (air date: Jan 9) – 516 pts – weighted score: 90.5 (63.5%)
- Baby, It’s Cold Inside (air date: May 8) – 495 pts – weighted score: 85.6 (60.0%)
- Playing Cupid (air date: Feb 13) – 466 pts – weighted score: 82.6 (58.0%)
- Beverly Hills Wedding (air date: Feb 6) – 431 pts – weighted score: 80.6 (56.5%)
- Snowkissed (air date: Jan 31) – 402 pts – weighted score: 76.0 (53.3%)
To see where this movie lands in my overall rankings of Hallmark movies, visit my Hallmark Movie Rankings page!
What did you think of “Baby, It’s Cold Inside”? Comment below and let me know!
I basically agree with you on this one. I think the plot could have been thickened a bit more!