I had the sense that this had more potential than it actually achieved, but it's pretty cute and there was plenty to like if you're a fan of the Chritmas rom-com (guilty or shameless). For starters it's a better performance from Denise Richards than I've seen from her for a long while. I felt like she tapped into something genuine and personal and really made the character of Brooke feel like she had some human dimensions. I believed the relationship with her estranged husband.
The lead actors were likable and the supporting cast did their best with the material they were given. Jonathan Stoddard as the romantic lead reminded me at times of a Gilmore Girls era David Sutcliffe, and that's no bad thing. His IMDB page says he has 14 projects coming up, so clearly we'll see lots more of this actor.
On the negative side, there were points where the script was just running headlong toward its inevitable conclusion like a sprinter with plans after the race, even more than others of its genre. On the plus side that meant that the moments of cringe were generally brief and breezed through.
I am a little confounded as to why no one called any of the characters at the radio station out on their horrifyingly abrupt (off the air) phone conversation techniques. It was almost like they were speaking to voice mail, except there was a person looking stunned and baffled on the other end of the line. But those people never called them back and said 'Hey, buddy, wtf was that?'
On the whole it was an unstressful way to spend an hour and a half, with some good performance, that just could have used a bit more care on the script.
