Christmas in Scotland

The Scotish town is, obvious, the only star of this good intentioned Christmas film but bad served by script and by acting. Cliches and nothing more. That seems be all, not exactly smart used. The recipe is more than familiar and American - European clash not so inspired used. But, with some serious indulgence, a pretty easy film about a conservative man - his transformation is jus unrealistic - , a free spirit young woman, a town decorated for a Christmas contest and the so predictable end. And, indeed, a beautiful castle and a good fist of historical informations. Enough for balls of thoughts about ordinary problems, for nice images of town and for very - very easy entertainment. The good point, in my case, nice job of Caroline Deyga. Is it enough ? În fact, can you expect more ?

I watched this with high hopes after a binge of British and Scottish Christmas movies this year. As someone previously mentioned, Brooke Shields' 'A Castle for Christmas' with Cary Elwes was very enjoyable - a good script and talented experienced actors made it worth watching. Lacey Chabert and Scott Wolff's 'A Merry Scottish Christmas' was fun and enjoyable, even if incredibly far-fetched. (Their mother wouldn't have inherited the title - it would have gone to the next male in line even if that male was a distant relative. Remember the problems Robert Crawley had finding the next male heir to the Earl of Grantham title before they stumbled onto Matthew? And her children certainly wouldn't have BOTH inherited titles to share.) But Lacey is the Christmas Queen of Hallmark and it was great fun to see her and Scott Wolff reunited playing siblings again all these years after 'Party of Five' so the problems were overlooked for the escapist fun. But this movie was just slow and dreary and never got better. The leads didn't seem to have any chemistry or attraction to each other despite the plot insisting they did, and the female lead, supposedly a high-powered go-getter at the top of her field in NYC just didn't sell it to me. The secondary characters weren't any better. His father was just a stubborn oaf - against things just for the sake of being against them because they are "new". If he truly were the Laird of that castle, he'd be trying anything to generate income and get the estate to profitability. He and the son both complain about the cost of running it and maintaining it (as all the landed peers do) but did nothing to help it. Her father was a confusing mess. Was he an uncouth Ugly American? Was he intended to be the comic relief? He never seemed to settle on a character. The production cut too many corners and the village supposedly decorated for Christmas, didn't look much different and wasn't the least bit impressive, let alone contest-winning. Again when the whole celebration was moved to the castle, it was basically a small dance with a few people taking a few steps of that medieval dance in a small room, maybe a set, maybe a rented room somewhere. But definitely not the interior of that grand castle in the establishing shots. The exterior drone shots were all that was authentic. Someone mentioned what a mess Americans frequently make of English and Scottish Christmas movies. Sorry, but I have to speak up for Americans. Reel One, criticized in another review as an American company churning out trash, is actually a Canadian company. And the lead actress, while American-born, seems to be England-based now. Her bio consists of UK movies and TV and West End theater credits. With all the Christmas movies available on all the streaming channels and platforms out there, don't waste your time on this one. I'm being Christmas-generous awarding 2 stars.

Good movie!

Good movie!

source: Christmas in Scotland

This could have been a Christmas classic but it was disappointing because I was expecting Emma to decorate the castle so wonderfully and at the end I was waiting for her to make a grand entrance in the magnificent castle ballroom all decked out with her Christmas decorations her coming down a grand staircase in that red gown. Instead the end was in some tacky set with hardly any decorations and it looked like a cheap hall not a castle. Very anticlimactic ending ruined the whole point of the movie which was her decorating the inside of the castle. Where are the spectacular decorations that she was going to do inside the castle? The ending could have been magical if the atmosphere was right because it was a good story with good actors.

The acting is terrible and amateurish. So awful you want to vomit. Pathetic and Disgusting and Putrid trash. The music gave me ear cancer. The writing is so stupid it could have been done by an eight year old. The sound is really distracting as every word was recorded in post production so that scenes where people are farther away from the camera sound like they're the same distance away as people close to the camera. This might seem nitpicky, but it's off putting and makes the production seem really low budget. This so-called film approaches the subject matter in a way that might appeal to people who have no idea what kind of authority might or might not be wielded by a Scottish "laird," and the characters are a bunch of halfwits that should be locked up somewhere where they can't hurt themselves. The typical "Magical American" movie, where the moron from New York comes to the rescue of the ignorant-people-who-live-across-the-ocean-where-they-speak-English-with-foreign accents. IN THIS VERSION, THE AMERICAN GIRL TEACHES THE LOCAL VILLAGERS ABOUT THEIR HISTORY!!! Yes, you read that correctly. I've scraped more interesting gretch off the bottom of my shoe in a filthy roadside latrine. I absolutely hated this movie and only watched it because my mom liked it. She's elderly and frail of mind as well as body, so I have to give her some latitude here.

I'm always very apprehensive about US movie makers doing UK-set movies as they are never very accurate. This one does have some British actors, which makes a real difference. There could be more use of Scottish landscape / locations to have better impact. Whilst I have some niggles with the detail, I totally empathise with the multi-generation juggle - there's a good mix of ages, and it's nice to have the young niece rather than yet another bereaved kid and widow(er) situation. With several characters over 50, I won't grow out it like others so would watch again. If you want more about Lairds, watch the UK-made Monarch of the Glen.

A beautiful location in Scotland, but it can't make up for another garbage script from Reel One Entertainment. Their motto is "Quantity over Quality", they just keep churning them out from January to December. A good movie starts with a good script, but that's not a priority for Reel One. If their writers want to learn something, 2021's movie "A Castle for Christmas" starring Brooke Shields and Cary Elwes worked because the script was good, along with the acting. It was funny and had some dramatic moments. Hallmark's 2023 "A Merry Scottish Christmas" didn't work as well, but it's still better than this Reel One disaster. There were some good actors like Lewis Howden, among the leads Watters was much better than Winternitz.

Christmas In Scotland (2023) - This was a film that tried to show the difference between the cultures on the opposite sides of the pond, but ultimately it just made the Scottish people look stupid and backwards and it didn't do much for the Americans either. I think it's rare that the U. S. companies making a Christmas film in the U. K. do them very well and this one was more proof of that theory. It's like they don't know how to direct Brits and don't even think about utilising someone that knows what life is actually like over here or how we really behave. In some ways it feels as if the American style of filming rubs the wrong way against our British way. The story had a lot of similarities to a number of mixed nationality seasonal films, but especially 'A Yorkshire Christmas/A Very British Christmas' (2019), however the leading actor, Mark Killeen was at least hot in that one and the leading lady had an appeal and heart. In fact the acting in this film was generally terrible. Jill Winternitz seemed pretty ineffectual as the lead Emma and the Scottish Dominic Watters was not appealing in his role of Alex. His grumpy character made it a struggle to believe that he would ever mellow or change, even for love. Also, Emma's Dad, Mike (Toby Rolt) was incredibly extreme! I don't know anybody that talks like that, except when they're taking the mickey out of William Shatner. And the first boyfriend Brad (Adam Bond) was more than a bit creepy. He must have paid a lot for the photos on his IMDB page, that's all I can say. Also, my Sister is actually a Laird, because she bought a square foot of land in Scotland, so I'm not sure that being a Laird actually has as much power anymore, as it was shown here. I did give up on this film in the end, because I just couldn't put myself through another one that was going to annoy me. I was riled up very early on and I don't need to do that to myself. Unscored as Unfinished.