Movie #1465 ........................."Trading Christmas"

Movie #1465 "Trading Christmas" --- somewhat stolen idea here from a very popular commercial film starring Kate Winslet, Jude Law and Cameron Diaz entitled "Holiday" where they switched houses.  Same idea here, and I felt one story worked better than the other --- the mom (Faith Ford) still grieving over hubby's dead 3 years ago, wants to be with her daughter who decides not to come to see her (didn't catch where her gem of a place was, but her daughter is in Boston) so she decide to catch a flight to Boston --- when she gets there, she finds out that her daughter is with her boy friend in Arizona.  But that's okay, because the guy who is switching places with her has a brother who is supposed to watch the place and he starts taking care of her and falling in love with her.  That's the believable part of this film.  The other part is a far fetched love story between the guy who traded houses with the mother, and her best friend who was goin to surprise her so she wouldn't be alone.  That's far fetched for a number of reasons ---- first all the coincidences (it's enough to have some in the other house, but to have them in both houses??? that's nuts); plus the writer is a curmudgeon who hates Christmas (of course), played by Cavanagh, who mumbles through a lot of is lines to get his anger at constantly being interrupted by numbers and her best friend --- but then it even goes further.  The friend is stranded due to weather! (yet no where else are there weather problems?  hmmm) and guess what?  she starts to read this guy's book and guess what again?  He takes her critiques to heart!?!  yeah right.  and even further --- they fall in love, while having nothing in common, really.  They are like oil and water --- that was what set up the initial humor, but once they persuaded us to see how different these two were, they push them together , and we are supposed to believe that since they are sharing one house.  And it's christmas.  And the friend helped him out with his writer's block.  Too many coincidences, but I still liked a lot of it (well, at least 1/2 of it) to give it 3.8 out of 5 stars.  If you aren't expected much out of these Hallmark movies, this one will be fine~!  And it is a good one to be the last one for me to watch this xmas season!

Trading Christmas (2011)

G |  1h 27min | Comedy, Romance | TV Movie 26 November 2011

The Christmas season is approaching. In South Woodbourne, Washington, widowed second grade schoolteacher Emily Spengler loves the Christmas holidays, as do all the townsfolk, and the traditions she had built with her now deceased husband, Frank, who passed away almost three years ago, and her now grown daughter, Heather. As usual, she is expecting Heather to come home for the holidays from Boston, where she is going to school. In Boston, Massachusetts, novelist and English professor Charles Johnson is an unsentimental man, who, like his workaholic brother Ray, owner of his own lucrative business, doesn't celebrate the season. Emily and Charles meet on a house swapping website as they decide to do a one week swap with each other in the lead up to Christmas. Emily wants to go to Boston to be with Heather, who has told her that she isn't planning on coming home for the holidays. And Charles is having problems meeting deadlines for his latest novel and needs somewhere quiet and out of the way to complete his writing. Their house swap doesn't end up being anything as they expected, first and foremost because of the Christmas spirit either missing or overwhelming the other's house. In Boston, Emily learns upon her arrival that Heather has left town with her boyfriend, Jason, Heather who seems to be trying to test her adult wings without Emily's influence. But Emily meets Ray, the two who slowly fall for each other. They will have to determine both their professional and personal futures past this week, and if the other person factors into that future. And in South Woodbourne, divorced corporate events planner Faith Kerrigan, Emily's best friend from San Francisco, shows up on Emily's doorstep planning on keeping Emily company during the holidays in Heather's absence. Out of circumstance, Faith is forced to stay at the house with Charles for the better part of the week. The question with the two is whether they will both survive each other's company for the week, as it is hate at first sight, that perception based largely on the negative way their most recent respective relationship ended.

Director:

 Michael Scott (as Michael M. Scott) 

Writers:

 Debbie Macomber (novel),  Bruce Graham (teleplay) 

Stars:

 Tom Cavanagh,  Faith Ford,  Gil Bellows