Actually liked the idea of the story, which had a setting that set itself apart from a lot of Hallmark's festive efforts. Even if it still sounded formulaic, which is pretty much what one expects from Hallmark anyway. The title was quite cute, refraining too much from being too cheesy like film titles from Hallmark can be in game attempts to be cute and catchy. Have liked Taylor Cole in a few other things, though she is a relatively new actress to me, so she was not inexperienced in this type of role.
One would think though that she was if judging her performance in 'Christmas Festival of Ice' without seeing some of her other films beforehand. 'Christmas Festival of Ice' as an overall film is not awful and it has its moments. There are also far worse Hallmark Christmas films as well as worse Christmas films in general. On the most part, to me it was not a good film, does very little with its potential and basically should have been much better.
'Christmas Festival of Ice's' best aspect is the acting, which is mostly acceptable and even good. The best performance coming from Wendy Crewson, who brings vitality and heart to her role and the film. Damon Runyan is an engaging enough male lead, the character is cliched but Runyan at least doesn't look bored or ill at ease. The second best aspect is the production values, which are also quite good. Lovely festive locations slickly shot.
The music has its moments, it sounds Christmassy and some of the choices of soundtrack have a nice nostalgia. The film starts off quite well.
However, Cole didn't work for me. She seemed rigid and like her heart wasn't in it, things that have not been there in some of her other performances. She and Runyan have very little chemistry together, almost disconnected and under-rehearsed, which made it very hard to invest in the romance which never properly develops. Very few of the characters are likeable or interesting, Nick and Carol are minor exceptions and that is because of Runyan and Crewson's acting skills rather than the character writing.
Moreover, the script is very cheesy and soapy with a very stop-start flow to it. The story is as thin as black ice (sorry) and crawls along at a snail's pace, so the film feels very dull. As well as not easy to take seriously, while the ending on top of being too convenient strains credibility beyond the limit. The music has moments but has the problems that a lot of Hallmark festive films have in being used too much and being too loud.
Concluding, very lacklustre but with sporadic good things. 4/10
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