Hotel for the Holidays

Xmas Movies ❄️☃️🎄

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source: Hotel for the Holidays

In the fairly recent "Riverdale" TV series Madelaine Petsch was cast as Cheryl Blossom, a smart, hard, mean, scheming person and she does a great job in that role. So I was anxious to see her in a quite different role. In this Christmas-themed Canadian movie, set in Manhattan, she is Georgia, a smart, efficient, and kind manager of a small hotel with a dedicated staff friendly with each other. She is very good in her job and is working a side hustle, the possibility of becoming part owner and general manager of a new hotel. She needed to keep that from all the others for obvious reasons. There are several interesting side stories. The chef at the hotel is interested in Georgia. An out-of-touch female pop singer comes to the hotel and hopes to rekindle interest among her fans. A prince from abroad has rejected his title and seeks to find himself a new life. And a couple of others. Admittedly some of the characters and some of the situations are a bit too silly, but Petsch is really good in her role and holds everything together. The movie has predictably happy endings for everyone. So, while I can't rate this movie very highly, my wife and I were entertained. At home, streaming on Amazon Prime.

This movie isn't Oscar worthy, but it isn't as bad as some of these reviews would lead you to believe. I've definitely seen worse on Hallmark. Like several others, this caught my eye because of Mena Massoud, who is as charming as ever. He's not in it as much as I would have hoped, but I liked the leading lady as well. It's a simple film with the typical lack of communication trope, but I enjoyed the sweet characters and lack of drama. Some of the set pieces were pretty rough - the fake snow was obvious and I was a bit confused by the roof dinner scene, since there was "snow", but no one seemed cold? However, it was exactly the type of movie I was looking for while wrapping presents. Low stakes, holiday themed, and a happy ending all around.

This is not as bad as a couple of our reviewers indicated, nor is it as good as a couple of our other reviewers indicated. In fact, it's a pretty typical streaming roncom. The sad thing is that the cast here is, overall, fairly good. It's not a scintilating script. It's an "okay" script. Mena Massoud ("Alladin") is a goood actor who deserves better projects; frankly I don't get it. But, note to Mena -- get a better haircut and a better shave if you want to be a leading man. Madelaine Petsch is pretty perky here. Enjoyable. Max Lloyd-Jones is good, as well. I wasn't familiar with either of them. Personally, I enjoyed Aldrin Bundoc, another actor I was not familiar with. The other actors and actresses did their jobs. The plot is "okay". Although there were a few things that weren't thought through very well. For example, dinner on the roof...with no heat...while it's snowing. What was on the menu? Pneumonia? And yes, it did look genuinely Christmasy. You could do worse...for sure. Will I want to watch it again? Nope. But it was a decent way to spent 90 minutes.

The whole Christmas season decor and ambiance was probably the most exciting thing here. I did not feel any chemistry between the female lead and anyone she interacted with. The famous pop singer guest posing as a "normal" person was more fun than the main storyline yet her lip syncing at the holiday party was so bad. It just bothers me that they didn't realize that in editing together the film, her song was cute but so hard to watch. The male chef was of course gorgeous, but whenever we were hearing him talk about the prince my daughter and I just wanted to bust out in the Prince Ali song from him being Aladdin. I didn't deduct the movie points for this but I guess these reviews have a character quota to fill so I had to add this comment :)

This is a multiple storyline holiday romance that takes place in a classic New York hotel, The Hotel Fontaine. The manager, Georgia, a lovely young New Yorker played by Madelaine Petsch, dreams of owning something and has worked months on a proposal to open a new ultramodern hotel to pitch to The Fontaine's owner who is vacationing somewhere tropical. Meanwhile pining away for her and making her daily special lunches is friend and hotel chef Luke, who just hasn't worked up the nerve to tell Georgia How he feels. Then there is the maintenance manager, Milton, who thinks he receives a secret gift from the bartender, Florence...but is really the maid, Anna's gift for her secret lover cook Victor. There is recently divorced Aj whose dog Dickens runs away and is rescued by handsome Hunter who is eager to help Aj navigate his new single status. A runaway prince, Prince Raymond, might be the backing for the new modern hotel that Georgia needs. The other celebrity guest is a singer songwriter named Pandora who is trying to get back in touch with her fans by becoming an ordinary girl like them. There is a quick talking crazy 12 days of Christmas finding hotel concierge, Kiki, who has been exchanging barbs with the bell ringing Santa all week. This is fun, filled with Christmas color and was entertaining in that it followed more than just the main storyline. At the end of the day it is a holiday romance...so I recommend it to romance fans and holiday movie fans out there. Everything culminates at the hotel's holiday single mixer which is a fun party idea to the accompaniment by Pandora at the piano. (Also, can I just say I am so excited to find out that not only was Madelaine born in my home state of Washington, but she was born in the small town of Port Orchard...where my mom grew up!)

This movie is a family film. No violence, sex, or curse words. Children 5 to 10 might like it. Kids under 5 probably won't be interested. But it won't hurt them if playing in the background. It's extremely silly and unrealistic. Adults won't like it. Even teenagers will roll their eyes at it's simple unrealistic premise. The whole movie is based on unrealistic silly misunderstandings. All the adults in the film are very sophisticated socially and occupationally. But they have absolutely no social skills when it comes to dating or relationships. It's as if they're all virgins who have never had a date in their lives. And as professionally sophisticated as the main character Georgia is. And as much as she depends on her cellphone, you would think she would have some portable chargers in her purse. I've never heard of a hotel whose doors only open and close with an app. New York City is portrayed as a small town where strangers continually bump into each other on the street. But children 5 to 10 won't care about that. And hopefully as they grow up, they'll realize the difference between silly family fiction, and reality.

Main characters potential is very high. Mena already an Oscar winner. Although the movie suffer from bad scenes, camera position, lighting & decoration. At a lot of scenes you see camera tilted 15 degree and in the next shot it's aligned but then back tilted. Decoration is very home set. CG is very poor. There is nothing related to Newyork in this movie. Script is very shallow. That even the most predicted phrases is not said completed. All other characters are not worthy of rule in school play. To much facial expressions, childish acts. This kind of movies u watch by mistake at Netflix or "in my case" due to my wife choice 🤣