Movie Review: The Sweetest Christmas (2017)

Synopsis: After losing her dream job as a pastry chef, Kylie is working as a part-time receptionist for her boyfriend's business. When he offers her a promotion rather than a marriage proposal, Kylie is devastated and breaks up with him. Her only hope for independence is a gingerbread house contest and, in need of an oven, she asks for help from a local restaurant owner that also happens to be an old flame.

Who's in it? The movie stars Lacey Chabert, Lea Coco, Jonathan Adams, Brenden Sunderland and Lara Gilchrist.


Review: After doing some early morning Black Friday shopping, my wife and I wound up crashing on our couch and watching Hallmark movies. While I would have definitely preferred a good horror film instead, I did have to admit this one was halfway decent.

I thought Kylie (Chabert) and Nick (Coco) had some decent chemistry and were believable as a couple as a result. Unlike many other movies in this genre, their relationship didn't seem forced, helped by the fact they had previously been a couple/had lingering feelings for each other to start. Kylie's seamless ability to relate to Nick's son (Sunderland), set up by her being a loving aunt to her sister's kids, helped with the whole "family" dynamic.

Another thing I liked about this movie was how her ex-boyfriend, Alex (Edwards), while a bit clueless, wasn't such a bad guy. While the movie didn't exactly go out of its way to make Kylie's decision between the two men a difficult one, he did at least make an effort to show her he cared about her and redeem himself at least a little bit (though, to be fair, his grand gesture did seem to be a bit desperate).

As is usually the case with movies in this genre, the film did end up being somewhat predictable, especially toward the end. While still an OK movie, I do think it would have been even better had the writers made even a slight bit of effort to throw in some sort of surprise twist that we didn't see coming.

Final Opinion: Truthfully, there's not a lot about this movie that sets it apart from dozens of similar films but the chemistry between the main characters does make this film a lot more watchable than many others and I definitely didn't hate it.

My Grade: B

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