Christmas Lodge (TV Movie 2011)

Christmas Lodge: Directed by Terry Ingram. With Erin Karpluk, Michael Shanks, Rukiya Bernard, Rebecca Toolan. During a weekend trip to the mountains, Mary finds herself at the now run-down lodge where she spent the holidays with her family growing up. She becomes determined to restore the building to its former glory.

“While the story works OK for a u0026#39;cuteu0026#39; movie and is very family friendly, I found the main couple (Mary and Jack – such original names!) in this movie to have no chemistry at all. None! In fact, Mary seemed downright embarrassed and uncomfortable around Jack, especially when he brought up any serious topics. And as for Jack, after watching this actor in many of the Stargate shows, I know he is capable of much better acting and have no idea why he was pigeonholed into something like this.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe show was ultimately not realistic, and Mary would have known better than to go begging about how her project was a labor of love – very unprofessional. The story line was very amateur at times, with plenty of time dedicated to watching everyone be called to dinner and eating, Mary and the family all joining in for care-taking, etc. While an instance or two of this is good and emphasized family involvement, showing it over and over again was tedious overkill and added nothing to the plot. It was almost as if they were looking for filler fluff. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOverall, fine for a family showing, with good moral lessons, but lacking if you were looking for anything more.”