A Very Merry Mix-Up (2013)

People are voting emotionally.

Good movie but grossly overrated

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

This movie's plot is very much alike to While-You-Were-Sleeping, unfortunately a bit less believable. Yet I shouldn't complain, this is Hallmark, and that's the reason why I watched it. I do however belief this movie has too many cringe-worthy moments such as Matt pointing out his grandmother was such a fox! Or the cookie frosting lip "accident". Overall the movie had much more potential seeing as the lead actress, Alicia Witt, is actually very believable. Her fiancée too delivered a great performance as a horrible business person. I would have preferred another ending. Matt not coming to look for her, but meeting her by surprise (grocery shopping). Her disappointment with (Will) ending in a break-up, and Matt visiting her in NYC a few weeks later. However that would mean it wouldn't be Christmas anymore.

The first two thirds of this movie is really good, above average for a Hallmark Christmas movie. The plot is actually somewhat interesting and not the typical woman goes to small town and meets an old friend romance thing. Nobody is a marketing director trying to finish the "big job before Christmas," but yes of course they are all from New York City. One of the main relationships in the movie is not very convincing, but the other is pretty believable. Unfortunately, after two thirds of good plot, the movie implodes and the irresistible ridiculous events of Hallmark Christmas movies and questionable leaps of logic and timing start to occur. One "yeah right" moment happens after another, leading up to an ending that is the biggest can of cheese ever. A desperately desired epilogue is cut to a few irrelevant moments. But Alice is refreshingly believable and unique for a leading lady in a movie like this. Worth watching but the ending makes you puke.

A charming, if predictable, holiday romance.Alicia Witt, as a sweet and artsy semi-ditz happily running her family's antique store, is engaged to a polished, money-focused, big-city real-estate salesman. Through a series of cute travel mishaps on her way to meet his family for the first time, she ends up at the wrong house a couple of days before Christmas. That warm, happy family, by a credulity-stretching coincidence, welcomes and cherishes her in their extremely - but tastefully - decorated home. Of course they have a very nice son who falls for her, and shares interests and values that aren't on her fiancé's radar. Complications, emotional struggles, and a happy resolution ensue.Apart from that one weak plot coincidence to get her into the family, and the general niceness of both men when the chips are down, the only thing that annoyed me was the heroine's little speech at the end, in which she declaimed about a character issue that was not well set up.Overall, a nice way to spend 2 hours while you're writing Christmas cards.

Hallmark follows pretty much the same story line with some slight variations. The good guys are incredibly good, the bad guys are terribly bad and there doesn't seem to be any gray areas in either group. The movie is saved by some nice performances, especially by Alicia Witt. She seems a genuinely nice person and you root for her to be happy. Of course, you pretty much know after the first 15 minutes how this will all turn out.Alice owns an antique store and somehow hooked up with a stuffy corporate type which stretches belief right off the bat as there is absolutely no chemistry between them and they apparently have nothing in common (in first 5 minutes he plunks a really cheesy artificial tree the middle of her quaint antique shop). Because of the ever-present "deal", she ends up traveling to meet his family for the first time all alone. In an incredible coincidence, she ends up meeting a man who shares the same last name as her fiancé and off we go to Hallmark World where she falls in love with a perfect but unrelated family. Once she learns the truth, she's off to the sterile mansion with the stony-faced, uptight soon-to-be in-laws. If you can't figure out what happens next then you've never seen a Hallmark movie.I found the music distracting - as a matter of fact most of the newer Hallmark movies have that issue. The music is too loud or the voices are too soft but I often miss things and have to use closed captioning. I love Christmas music but tone it down already!