Christmas on the Menu (TV Movie 2020)

Christmas on the Menu: Directed by Jake Helgren. With Kim Shaw, Clayton James, Cynthia Gibb, Katrina Norman. Celebrated chef Josie heads home for the holidays and creates a special festive menu for her mom’s new bed-and-breakfast bistro, where she runs into Tanner, the famous food critic who panned her old bakery in a review. Soon, a holiday romance begins to blossom between them just in time for Christmas.

“This movie uses the common trope of a Bu0026amp;B hosting reviewers which will affect their business. Throw in a little of the evil editor who changes the original reviews and add that itu0026#39;s not just the Bu0026amp;B but the owneru0026#39;s daughteru0026#39;s desserts that are getting reviewed. The conflict was created in a slightly unusual way but the surprise was dampened a little bit because you could see it coming from several scenes earlier. There are a lot of technical details about cooking sprinkled through the movie. There arenu0026#39;t that many of the traditional Christmas activities that are so formulaic in other Christmas movies.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI thought most of the actors were consciously u0026quot;deliveringu0026quot; their lines as opposed to dialogue happening naturally and the dialogue wasnu0026#39;t that great. Kim Shaw overdid Josieu0026#39;s early anger for Tanner. Just watching the story and not inferring from external clues, for a while it was a tossup which guy, Tanner or Nolan, would get the girl. Both were good choices with no apparent flaws. But Jesse Kove had no chemistry with Shaw. Clayton James had some chemistry with Shaw but it wasnu0026#39;t sparkling. So much screen time revolved around the cooking that it diluted James and Shawu0026#39;s chances to sell the romance.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eShanica Knowles does a song performance with some sultry moves. I wasnu0026#39;t impressed with her voice, but thatu0026#39;s just me.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThis is a watchable movie despite slightly below average acting . The story has some common elements with a couple of things out of the ordinary for Christmas movies.”