GAC Family have literally just about been formed, but it's not faring too badly. Sure, there have been misfires, such as 'The Great Christmas Switch'. There have also been winners, primarily 'Much Ado About Christmas'. Also saw 'Jingle Bell Princess' for the leads, have seen both Merritt Patterson and Trevor Donovan in other things and have seen that they can be good with the right material. Was very willing to give it a fair chance, despite the storyline not sounding particularly promising.
Feelings overall for 'Jingle Bell Princess' were rather mixed. There are quite a lot of things done well, with the best aspects being close to great. There are though some major shortcomings that stop it from being above decent, and it does very little new with an overused formula (an overuse that one does feel). 'Jingle Bell Princess' is a long way from being a disaster and is a superior film to 'The Great Christmas Switch' for instance, but it doesn't have the same amount or kind of spark that 'Much Ado About Christmas' had.
'Jingle Bell Princess' good things are going to be mentioned first. Donovan is incredibly likeable and charming in his role, never stiff or personality wise even when having an understated acting style. The chemistry between him and Patterson has moments of charm. The supporting cast are solid, even when having cliched characters to work with.
Production values are attractive to look at, the scenery is beautiful in particular. The music is easy on the ears and doesn't feel too much. There are charming and light hearted moments sprinkled throughout.
However, Patterson overdoes it in a performance that comes over as over eager. Her character is underdeveloped and her exaggerated flaws stop her from being likeable. Her chemistry with Donovan has moments, but on the whole it's bland and walk through like, indicative of writers that were too indifferent in fleshing out the relationship and a director that had their mind on other things. The writing is too corny and doesn't flow naturally on the whole.
The story is very predictable, doing nothing new with a type of story that was old long before 'Jingle Bell Princess' was made, and some serious suspension of disbelief is needed for too many situations that don't make sense due to a lot of choppiness and motivations being left vague. The pacing is all over the place, the film is dull due to seeing on screen pretty much exactly what was to be expected, while also having a lot of jumping about, am sure that more parts were filmed that somehow didn't make it into the film. The ending is too neat.
Overall, some good and some bad, could have been a lot better as well as worse. 5/10.
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