My Christmas film viewings over-time have been a very mixed bag. With some surprisingly good hits, where regardless of how predictable they are succeed in being full of charm, warmth and heart so succeeding in being light-hearted and undemanding fun. But also some quite big misses, where the characters are not likeable, everything is forced and shallow with implausibility too in some of the worst cases, the acting and writing being weak and basically with just nothing to them.
Despite being a long way from perfect or being a complete hit, 'Cold Feet at Christmas' is thankfully closer to the former category. Certainly not a film to humbug on. As far as the 2019 Christmas output as part of my Christmas film completest sake goes, 'Cold Feet at Christmas' is in the high middle category (one would not think that looking at the rating here though), which was a relief after watching this practically straight after watching one of the worst of Lifetime's 2019 output (which, as has been said more than once in previous reviews, was very hit and miss) 'Always and Forever Christmas'.
'Cold Feet at Christmas' has a lot of great things. Best of all being Mimi Kuzyk, who brings so much life to her character and the film and was an absolute joy to watch. Candice Mausner and Joseph Cannata appeal as well. The chemistry between the actors on the whole was warm and connected well. Production values are slick and never drab or garish and the music is mostly quite pleasant.
There are a fair share of amusing moments that never felt overdone and an equal amount of never too over-sentimental serious ones. The writing is a long way from perfect, but compared to some Christmas films seen recently it's acceptable, here not heavy or not going overboard on the cheese. Enough of the story is very charming and heart-warming and even if the characters are not meaty they were characters to me that were worth caring for.
Did feel however that Sara Mitich didn't always seem comfortable, even for her fish out of water character, while Harmon Walsh is somewhat dull in a role that is not very well fleshed out.
Also there is no doubt, with it being the case with all Christmas films made by either Hallmark, Lifetime UpTV etc and being a long way from being a novel premise, that the story is very predictable and quite safe throughout, so there are major plot points and developments that can be seen from a long way away. The ending is easily foreseeable in particular.
Overall, quite decent. 7/10.
