Sweet Navidad (TV Movie 2021)

Sweet Navidad (TV Movie 2021). Sweet Navidad: Directed by Brittany Underwood. With Camila Banus, Mark Hapka, Melissa Marty, Terri Hoyos. A pastry chef, dreams of opening her own postre shop. Being paired with another chef for a grand event they have to learn from one another and eventually come together to create a truly inspired menu in time for Christmas.

“This is a slight twist on the contest premise in that the contest part is over quickly and it become a kind of gala with Carmen and Jax looking to impress critics to provide future opportunities for their careers.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eCamila Banus portrays an appealing Carmen with one major flaw. She has none of the discipline which is essential for an executive chef. This gets obscured by the fact that she is only the Pastry Chef, but thatu0026#39;s confusing also because she is supposed to be u0026quot;equalu0026quot; to Jax, the executive chef. Throw in all the rabbit trails she leads Jax on and the entire thing comes off as an unprofessional enterprise. Since I am detail oriented, this atmosphere bothered me throughout the movie and I was certain of what would be the conflict in the story.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI said Carmen is appealing and you can tell Jax is falling under her spell. Banus has good energy and Carmenu0026#39;s tendency to dance while doing other things adds some playful fun to the story. Banus and Mark Hapka have good chemistry. They are given plenty of screen time together to develop their relationship.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe acting is good. The dialogue is good but not sparkling. There are no great highs or lows.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI often say about these movies that they donu0026#39;t deal well with reality. In this case, it seemed that reality was stretched to the point of fantasy. Carmen had no business being in the situation she was in, and she knew it at least in the beginning. It just occurred to me that perhaps it is like a Little League coach being put in charge of a Major League team for the playoffs. Baseball is baseball, but the two situations are worlds apart and you canu0026#39;t instantly jump from one to the other.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eFor my rating, Carmenu0026#39;s energy and appeal are a wash with the impossibility of her situation. The relationship is nice. Weu0026#39;re left with a fairly average Christmas movie.”