Christmas Hotel (TV Movie 2019)

Christmas Hotel: Directed by Marla Sokoloff. With Tatyana Ali, Sean Patrick Thomas, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Telma Hopkins. A big city hotelier finds her promotion is based on returning to her hometown and restructuring the Mt. Holly Inn, where she got her start, which the townspeople are less than thrilled about.

“Corporate fixer goes back to her home town to make peace with town folks opposed to the evil empire. Besides being derivative, the premise is forced as are many of the other plot points. Itu0026#39;s especially forced when Erinu0026#39;s brainstorm idea magically changes everyoneu0026#39;s attitude instantly. The story just doesnu0026#39;t make sense. Like many of the other Christmas movies, the protagonists quest their way to reaching their stated goal, but I really didnu0026#39;t care. I didnu0026#39;t care about the hotel, and I didnu0026#39;t care about the obvious building romance. Itu0026#39;s all just more of the same thing within nothing new or special.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe acting is poor, especially those playing Erinu0026#39;s parents and other supporting characters. Sets seemed cheap and uninspired especially when you consider that the Windsor hotel chain is supposed to be ultra high end.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eMoreover, so many details during the movie belied the idea that this was an upscale hotel trying to impress investors with high end tastes and values. It goes beyond the fact that the hometown atmosphere Erin was promoting isnu0026#39;t really compatible with those high end values. Christmas movies so often rely on DIY mentality and this movie does the same while creating the hotel infrastructure and getting it ready to open. That isnu0026#39;t high end.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eLogistical details in the climax are clumsy and forced. So much in the movie was as if the writers never bothered to learn anything at all about their subjects. Also, I couldnu0026#39;t get over how consistently Erin exhibited childish and unprofessional behavior in the face of her boss.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIn a Christmas romance, there is always the question of chemistry between the leads. Good chemistry often goes a long way toward compensating for faults in the story.I donu0026#39;t think these leads had enough screen time developing chemistry, at least I didnu0026#39;t see it.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAs the movie builds toward climax, the plot followed the exact same patterns as so many other Christmas movies. There was nothing new. Nothing special. The viewer could almost predict each and every plot progression as it happened. I make much of the derivative, unoriginal, and clumsy plot. I realize that with only a few refreshing exceptions, most of the Christmas movies are going to be that way. But in this case it is a matter of degree. This movie seemed to me that it was extreme in that regard.”