This is like CMM and JL's third movie, so I'm guessing they enjoy working together. They have good chemistry. To be honest, more chemistry than Jessica and the Josh character, although to be fair, Loretta Young had great chemistry with Cary Grant (and I adore David Niven). The plot is pretty simple and easy to follow. I like the story. Too many, in particular Lifetime and Hallmark, movies overly complicate the plot. Not every movie has to have a "Save the XXX" or "Down with the Big Bad Corp" message. (Yes yes, I know the plots of The Bishop's Wife and The Preacher's Wife). It's nice to have a movie about love and family. I'm in my 30s and have been loving Christmas movies all my life. As I get older and see the same stories over and over, I'm finding myself enjoying movies that don't always have a meet cute. Movies about rediscovery are becoming my favorites. I enjoy Cranberry Christmas and the latest Mrs. Miracle movie (from 2021) for this reason.
Since I recognized it as an adaptation, I wasn't let down or disappointed by the ending... the story was moving logically towards the conclusion we saw. I like that the movie was about all three leading characters and that Josh wasn't just a prop. I liked that he got his life sorted as well even beyond his relationship.
It's a post-C19/right-after-it movie, and that is evident in how sparse and spread out everything is, but I didn't find it distracting.
It's worth a watch. I've watched it maybe three times btwn 2021 and 2022.
