There never has been any bias against Lifetime's output, much of it is formulaic sure and some of it has just as much corn and schmaltz of that of Hallmark's but with the right leads and the right amount of charm and heart they can have some likeability. Provided that not too much is expected from it and enough of their output has been surprisingly good. Their 2019 output was a very mixed bag, some were surprising hits and others were mediocre at best or outright failures.
'Christmas Hotel' regrettably is one of the outright failures and very close to being among their worst. Really did want to like it and Christmas films set in hotels have worked (a primary example being 'Home Alone 2'), but 'Christmas Hotel' is a case of the setting not working and not being used well. Sadly that's not even the worst aspect of the film, nearly everything fails and this is not being said with pleasure and also when taking the film for what it's meant to be.
Its least bad aspect is some of the scenery which is quite nice, but that is pretty much it with the praise.
Despite some nice scenery, 'Christmas Hotel' doesn't really look too good. Some of the decor looks gaudy, and the photography is usually a lot better than how it is here. Which in this case is very drab and static. Worst of all is the disorganised editinng. There is nothing memorable about the music, there could have been less of it, some of it is too treacly and it doesn't always sound very festive. It doesn't feel like there is much direction going on, indicative of inexperience or indifference.
Which really does affect the acting, which is near-uniformly poor, apart from some (underused) vim from Sheryl Lee Ralph. Neither Tatyana Ali or Sean Patrick Thomas are convincing, she trying too hard and he not enough. They are very stiff and disconnected together and it was like the film was shot with not much rehearsal time. None of the characters are worth investing in, with uninteresting personalities or/and exaggerated flaws, the female lead character's unprofessionalism is to be seen to be believed.
Calling 'Christmas Hotel' cliched sums it up well, both story and characters, and that is being generous. Some familiar (well actually well worn out) story tropes here, all predictably executed. The first portions are slow and quite thinly plotted, uneventful at times, and some decision making seemed contrived. The script lays it on too thick with the corn and slushy schmaltz, not unexpected but it was overkill in places. The film doesn't get off to a particularly good start, very cheesy and quite dull, while the ending is rushed and too tidy and the lack of tension and conflict severely hurts what little there is of the drama.
On the whole, not good. 3/10.
