Christmas with a View
Christmas With a View (2018) - Netflix
So Netflix got into this Christmas movie game in a big way in 2017 with the viral sensation that was A Christmas Prince, and some other movie I didn't watch, then stepped up production significantly with even more Christmas movies in 2018, such as this one, A Christmas With A View. At some point in this movie one of our characters looks over a balcony and mentions something about what a nice view it was. I guess that's how they settled with this title. Note that most of this movie was spent watching people prepare gourmet meals so I'm thinking the powers that be probably should've integrated that in the title as opposed to the one time somebody looked out a window. Yet another example how Netflix needs to tighten up their game for 2019 if they hope to compete with the big boys in this arena.
Our film opens with Vivica A. Fox decorating a gingerbread house. I wanted to make sure I squeezed Vivica's name in this because after this opening scene, despite her prominent name in the credits, we ain't gonna see much more of her in this movie. I imagine she's way too busy filming "The Wrong (insert noun here)" series of movies for Lifetime to waste her time on this little movie. Anyway, her daughter Clara (Kaitlyn Leeb) stops in for a visit, but it's a brief one because work has called her away on this snowy day.
Katilyn works as a restaurant manager at this posh resort, and for this holiday season Hugh the owner (Mark Ghanime) has hired Shane the celebrity chef (Scott Calvalheiro) to work the kitchen. It doesn't take long for sparks to fly between Katilyn and Shane, even leading up to a near miss... oh... not a near miss kiss, because these two are totally making out in Shane's car, even though Shane flakes out in the middle of the make out session. Now boy loses girl, but it's kind of early for that but no worries, eventually he gets the girl back which leads to our characters spending a lot of time talking to each other. A lot. In parked cars, in restaurants, in Shane's apartment, in the kitchen... these two really like to talk to each other. During one of these conversations Shane's shirt got wet and he had to take it off. This senseless exploitation of the much maligned male species has to be STOPPED! But back to these endless conversations, sometimes I complain, while watching these movies, that not enough was done to justify our main characters being together, like they didn't spend nearly enough time with each other, but from this point forward I will NEVER complain about that ever again. Eventually I was begging for something else to happen... go Christmas tree shopping, have a snowball fight, bake cookies... I don't care... just. stop. talking. I'm sure what they were saying was important and plot relevant... it wasn't... but I just wanted it to stop. Eventually we get a Christmas Montage... thank goodness... followed by a misunderstanding with boy losing girl yet again.
Now things kind of get convoluted and over plotted with Kaitlyn's boss turning into a Walton family type evil land developer, Patrick Duffy shows up in this movie as the owner of a lodge about to be swallowed by the now evil developer, Shane the Celebrity Chef is actually in town for other secret reasons that don't include being a cook at a resort, though it didn't need to be a secret, and Kaitlyn hates her family. Seriously. At Christmas dinner Kaitlyn was totally hating on her super successful sister, her sister's super successful husband, their super cute baby, and her mom for being proud of her super successful daughter. Yeah, Vivica showed back up for a few minutes. Kaitlyn's reason for being upset with them was because they were happy. Seriously. No joke.
Eventually all this over plotting works itself out, Kaitlyn and Shane declare their love for each other, Kaitlyn somehow ends up owning Patrick Duffy's lodge, the evil boss gets his... not really... Katilyn also learns to cope with her sister's happiness and success and Vivica Fox bookends this movie by showing up at the end but not before the nerdy fiancee of Kaityln's bestie also takes HIS shirt off. Join me people in stopping this exploitation! #StopSenselessMaleExploitation!
Christmas With a View, as a movie, lacks focus. There is a lot going on, too much going on, as opposed to the laser simple focus of your typical Hallmark styled Christmas movie that we are accustomed to, but then this is also an adaptation of a book, so maybe this is the way the book went? I don't know. Still, all of the running around trying to expose the evil developer boss seemed unnecessary, Kaitlyn's drama with her family... which was all generated by Kaitlyn all by herself... seemed unnecessary, Vivica Fox and Patrick Duffy being in this movie, outside of giving it some old school recognizable actor cred, all seemed unnecessary. Christmas, boy, girl, misunderstanding, understanding, kiss, credits. That's all we need really. It probably didn't help that the evil boss was arguably better looking than our male hero, to the point if they completely left the celebrity chef out of this movie, I'd have understood. Probably should've cast an uglier actor to play the boss. Now not being into dudes, normally I wouldn't comment on how one dude looks better than another dude, but we exceptionally handsome dudes have insight on these kinds of things which I feel obligated to share with you.
As far as the vomit worthiness of the movie, it's middle of the road. There is lot's snow, there's plenty of Christmas ornamentation in the background, there was a hot cocoa drinking scene to go along with the forty+ wine drinking scenes and during the montage we got a snowball fight and some skiing. But there was no Christmas tree shopping, no cookie baking... though lots of gourmet cooking which doesn't count... the score was not very Christmassy, and while there was a baby, it had parents. We need Orphan Kids. Plus the movie itself was a strange mix of romance and detective procedural, with Christmas being used as a partial backdrop. Christmas was important, but because of the scatterbrained nature of this movie, it didn't matter as much as it could have.
Again, Netflix needs to work out a few kinks to get this Christmas thing completely right.
Our film opens with Vivica A. Fox decorating a gingerbread house. I wanted to make sure I squeezed Vivica's name in this because after this opening scene, despite her prominent name in the credits, we ain't gonna see much more of her in this movie. I imagine she's way too busy filming "The Wrong (insert noun here)" series of movies for Lifetime to waste her time on this little movie. Anyway, her daughter Clara (Kaitlyn Leeb) stops in for a visit, but it's a brief one because work has called her away on this snowy day.
Katilyn works as a restaurant manager at this posh resort, and for this holiday season Hugh the owner (Mark Ghanime) has hired Shane the celebrity chef (Scott Calvalheiro) to work the kitchen. It doesn't take long for sparks to fly between Katilyn and Shane, even leading up to a near miss... oh... not a near miss kiss, because these two are totally making out in Shane's car, even though Shane flakes out in the middle of the make out session. Now boy loses girl, but it's kind of early for that but no worries, eventually he gets the girl back which leads to our characters spending a lot of time talking to each other. A lot. In parked cars, in restaurants, in Shane's apartment, in the kitchen... these two really like to talk to each other. During one of these conversations Shane's shirt got wet and he had to take it off. This senseless exploitation of the much maligned male species has to be STOPPED! But back to these endless conversations, sometimes I complain, while watching these movies, that not enough was done to justify our main characters being together, like they didn't spend nearly enough time with each other, but from this point forward I will NEVER complain about that ever again. Eventually I was begging for something else to happen... go Christmas tree shopping, have a snowball fight, bake cookies... I don't care... just. stop. talking. I'm sure what they were saying was important and plot relevant... it wasn't... but I just wanted it to stop. Eventually we get a Christmas Montage... thank goodness... followed by a misunderstanding with boy losing girl yet again.
Now things kind of get convoluted and over plotted with Kaitlyn's boss turning into a Walton family type evil land developer, Patrick Duffy shows up in this movie as the owner of a lodge about to be swallowed by the now evil developer, Shane the Celebrity Chef is actually in town for other secret reasons that don't include being a cook at a resort, though it didn't need to be a secret, and Kaitlyn hates her family. Seriously. At Christmas dinner Kaitlyn was totally hating on her super successful sister, her sister's super successful husband, their super cute baby, and her mom for being proud of her super successful daughter. Yeah, Vivica showed back up for a few minutes. Kaitlyn's reason for being upset with them was because they were happy. Seriously. No joke.
Eventually all this over plotting works itself out, Kaitlyn and Shane declare their love for each other, Kaitlyn somehow ends up owning Patrick Duffy's lodge, the evil boss gets his... not really... Katilyn also learns to cope with her sister's happiness and success and Vivica Fox bookends this movie by showing up at the end but not before the nerdy fiancee of Kaityln's bestie also takes HIS shirt off. Join me people in stopping this exploitation! #StopSenselessMaleExploitation!
Christmas With a View, as a movie, lacks focus. There is a lot going on, too much going on, as opposed to the laser simple focus of your typical Hallmark styled Christmas movie that we are accustomed to, but then this is also an adaptation of a book, so maybe this is the way the book went? I don't know. Still, all of the running around trying to expose the evil developer boss seemed unnecessary, Kaitlyn's drama with her family... which was all generated by Kaitlyn all by herself... seemed unnecessary, Vivica Fox and Patrick Duffy being in this movie, outside of giving it some old school recognizable actor cred, all seemed unnecessary. Christmas, boy, girl, misunderstanding, understanding, kiss, credits. That's all we need really. It probably didn't help that the evil boss was arguably better looking than our male hero, to the point if they completely left the celebrity chef out of this movie, I'd have understood. Probably should've cast an uglier actor to play the boss. Now not being into dudes, normally I wouldn't comment on how one dude looks better than another dude, but we exceptionally handsome dudes have insight on these kinds of things which I feel obligated to share with you.
As far as the vomit worthiness of the movie, it's middle of the road. There is lot's snow, there's plenty of Christmas ornamentation in the background, there was a hot cocoa drinking scene to go along with the forty+ wine drinking scenes and during the montage we got a snowball fight and some skiing. But there was no Christmas tree shopping, no cookie baking... though lots of gourmet cooking which doesn't count... the score was not very Christmassy, and while there was a baby, it had parents. We need Orphan Kids. Plus the movie itself was a strange mix of romance and detective procedural, with Christmas being used as a partial backdrop. Christmas was important, but because of the scatterbrained nature of this movie, it didn't matter as much as it could have.
Again, Netflix needs to work out a few kinks to get this Christmas thing completely right.
Well, I was not going to watch the film anyway unless someone gave it an outstanding review. But wanted to tell you that I really loved your review. Great style, light and classy-easy in the writing, and amusing. Will check out your site again. Merry Christmas.
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