Finding Christmas (2013)

Very well executed

Excellent, a Must See

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

Whoever didn't like this movie must either be the Grinch or Scrooge.

I went into this knowing that the synopsis of this film was nearly identical to "The Holiday", but I was still curious to compare the two. And the title of this review is pretty much all you need to know. This was a decent movie, the acting is passable, and if I hadn't already seen "The Holiday" I probably would have thought the idea was pretty unique. The problem is that the story lacked the depth and charm that "The Holiday" has. They took elements from the original movie and watered them down. I'll give some examples but just be warned, mild spoiler alert. Two guys suffer major relationship blows right before Christmas and they decide to do a house swap. Now I know house swaps are a thing but they're not really that common. Instead of England and LA, the guys trade their places in New York and North Carolina. The city guy has a difficult time adjusting to country life at first, just like Cameron Diaz's character in "The Holiday". Country boy makes friends with City boy's assistant and the slow-burn romance commences. City boy meets Country boy's sister who is unlike any woman he's ever been in a relationship with. They date, all the while she keeps her son a secret from him. This works in "The Holiday" because you don't previously know that Graham has daughters, so it's a shock (and pleasant surprise) that the girls who are calling him aren't looking for a hookup, they just miss their dad, whereas in "Finding Christmas" you know from the first or second scene that Ryan has a son. City boy's almost-fiancée follows him to the country to get back with him. All of the problems are resolved and both couples spend the holidays together.Like I said, it's an OK film (plus Owen is pretty cute!) but "The Holiday" is so much better. This story is very superficial and bland, but in "The Holiday" you see real character development from all of the characters, especially Iris and Amanda. I am definitely biased because "The Holiday" is one of my favorite movies of all time, let alone favorite Christmas movie.

I really wanted to love this movie, but I simply did not. I liked it. The story was sweet.CONTAINS SPOILERS ~ ~ ~ ~This was a cute story, like many Hallmark Christmas movies, about finding love. There was not a lot of chemistry between some of the actors/actresses and that is the only reason I could not rate it higher. Country Boy and City girl were adorable together, very believable as a couple. I liked their characters and the acting was not too bad. I don't think for one moment anybody would believe city boy would be interested in any girl. They should have cast a different actor so that the "connection" they spoke of would be believable. Their story had no sparks and at the end of the movie I thought, they wont last.In the end the movie was alright, but I felt there was something missing to the plot. They could have dropped the scenes with some extras and added to the plot about Ryan's past, Shawn telling her everything about his and maybe helping the audience to believe they really like one another.Anyhow, that is just my opinion. I still think the movie is worth watching.

"You woke me up, Ryan. You made me realize that if I'm always planning for the future, I won't be present for it when it comes. You showed me how to be present." I think that's the quote gsuddy914 was looking for.Though it's a story line that has been done before, it wasn't a bad production. I've seen other Hallmark Christmas productions that I enjoyed much more, but it was still a nice movie. The only thing that started to bug me was J.T. Hodges, who played Owen, side burns. There are some shots in the movie when he is in profile and his sideburns look as if they are colored in with a brown marker. It doesn't even come close to his hair color and looks as if there are two streaks on each side, not that close together. It kind of threw me out of the movie a bit after I noticed it.All in all, not the best but still a nice movie for the holiday.