Christmas Wedding Planner (2017)

Number Rolled: 53

Movie Name/Year: Christmas Wedding Planner (2017)

Tagline: Love is the greatest gift of all.

Genre: Romance

Length: 86 minutes

Rating: PG

Production Companies: Brain Power Studio, HQ Marquee #3 Productions

Producer: Stan Hum, Patrick McBrearty, Beth Stevenson

Director: Justin G. Dyck

Writer: Keith Cooper, Rebecca Lamarche

Actors: Jocelyn Hudon, Stephen Huszar, Kelly Rutherford, Rebecca Dalton, Eric Hicks, Joey Fatone, Melinda Shankar, Gabrielle Graham, Samantha Helt, Ted Atherton, Celeste Desjardins, Joseph Cannata, Meghan Heffern, Melanie St-Pierre, Taylor David, Severn Thompson, Brian Scott Carleton, Michael Romano, Milan Carmona, Hattie Kragten

Blurb from Netflix: A wedding planner’s world is turned upside down when a handsome private investigator is hired to disrupt one of her biggest jobs.

Selina’s Point of View:

At first, I was rolling my eyes at Christmas Wedding Planner. Then, I was pleasantly surprised. By the end of it, though, I was rolling my eyes all over again.

When I came across this film on Netflix I figured it wouldn’t be much different than The Wedding Planner (2001). I thought the biggest difference would revolve around the time of year the story took place. As the movie started, I was even more certain that’s what I was in for, but I was wrong.

The meet-cute at the beginning was so incredibly typical that I could almost guess the exact words that were about to be said. And there was an annoying voice-over narration that was just outdated and ridiculous. I get that exposition can be necessary… but a lot of what this movie gave me wasn’t.

As Christmas Wedding Planner went on, I began to actually care about the main characters. Some of the supporting characters were too annoying to ever give a fuck about, but the main characters were endearing.

Unfortunately, the amusement I felt was killed by the ending. If the film ended just about seven minutes earlier, it would have been a much better final product.

As for the acting, it wasn’t awful. I don’t think I’ve ever had a problem with Kelly Rutherford (Dynasty, Night of the Wild, Gossip Girl), and Stephen Huszar (Magical Christmas Ornaments, Hometown Holiday, Letterkenny) was believable. As for Jocelyn Hudon (Ice, 21 Thunder, The Christmas Cure), she came off as a bit of a discount Felicity Jones (Inferno, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, The Theory of Everything), but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

I’m comfortable recommending this movie as something to watch while curled up on the couch… but not if you’re looking for too much substance.

Languages

Speech Available: English, French, German, Italian, Spanish

Subtitles Available: French, English, Spanish, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – None

Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 11%

Metascore – None

Metacritic User Score – None

IMDB Score – 4.3/10

Trust the Dice: Selina’s Rating – 2.5/5

Movie Trailer: