Cute but no sizzle!The main actors were good, but the story just lacked panache.Skip it and watch something else!

The movie begins with Riley Vance (Shenae Grimes-Beech) struggling to find employment when she gets a tip on a personal assistant job. When they call her name to be interviewed they call Riley V., and while in the interview she realizes that the interview was suppose to be for Riley Vanderdale but she was already committed and hired so she just goes with it. So Riley becomes the assistant to William Young (Steve Lund) who has inherited his father's massive company and is challenged to perform well to prove his worth. William is faced with possibly closing the company's flagship toy factory in Dover, New Hampshire. While in Dover several delightful characters are introduced such as Piper (Hannah Spear) who is resourceful, delightful and fills several roles for the town; Mayor Martin Keegan (Ron Lea) is cheerful, funny and provides William with wonderful advice; the sheriff, and several others contribute to the fun.The chemistry between Riley and William feels real and you know they will be great together. This is a fun and romantic movie that shares to spirit of Christmas.Victor J

Film historians of the future will no doubt teach seminars on the impact of the Canadian film factory (heavily taxpayer subsidized) on the content circulating through north America from approximately 1985 onwards.Hollywood bluebloods hate the Canuck film machine because it takes food off the table. But, based on a lower dollar, the Canadians have found multiple "niches" where year after year they can slip almost-generic content into the maw, each one virtually into profit the moment the film leaves the camera because of the lower costs.Some 90% of the movies that flood the airways around X-mas, in particular, are of this origin and most Americans don't have a clue.This film is unusual for two reasons. Behind the camera is David Perlmutter who has been a Canuck film producer since the 80s and is by no definition a Johnny Come Lately.And in front of the camera we have Shenae Grimes-Beech, an actress possessed of enough charisma for two leading ladies. She carries this film on her back and in the many areas where the script fails, or the casting of the extras (all too-familiar Canadian faces) fails, or the set design fails (the "toy factory" looks like an empty warehouse with a cheap sign installed at very the last minute) she simply cracks a smile and the audience decides to stick with the film for a few moments longer.Finally and for the benefit of newbies to these sorts of films, a "6" rating is veritably an Oscar nod for such a film. I have seen worse.

I'm only three quarters through this movie and it is so unbelievably awful I had to immediately get on here to vent. I don't even get excited anymore when a newly released Hallmark movie is announced because I'm finding that they are mostly not good, just poorly rehashed, poorly acted, poorly directed versions of the ones that came before. Let me be clear that I don't expect a whole lot from this type of movie, they are after all meant to be light, feel good romances. My idea of a good one is The Nine Lives of Christmas for an example of how I'm not that picky. Christmas, inc. is a travesty throughout, completely unrealistic scene after scene, and absolutely no chemistry between the leads. She acted and spoke like an over eager teenager and he seemed very awkward and uncomfortable. I've seen him before and he wasn't bad so maybe it was this particular role he had to play. Just skip this one unless you have a couple of hours to waste.