Ice Sculpture Christmas (2015)

Many, many problems with this movie. The lead actress was visibly quite a bit too old for the character she was playing. As someone who worked in the kitchen of an elite country club with a Cordon Bleu trained chef, I can promise you that the portrayal of that environment in this movie was laughable. And the whole ice sculpturing angle was never fleshed out and seemed to be nothing more than a gimmick.But the biggest problem was that there was ZERO chemistry between the two love interests. None. For the first three quarters of the movie I kept waiting and thinking they were going to introduce another man to be her love interest, because she did not seem to have the slightest interest in the guy one way of the other. He seemed to just bore her and frankly I still have no idea how all of a sudden with about 25 minutes left, with nothing leading up to it and for no apparent reason other than the impending end of the movie demanding it, she suddenly decided that she loved him. And when it happened . . . it was totally unconvincing.There are soooooooooo many better Hallmark Christmas movies. In fact . . . every single one that I have ever seen (at least a dozen) are much better than this one. Give this one a pass and try another instead.

This Christmas movie is about a chef who starts a dishwasher (Rachel Boston). She runs into a rich guy (David Alpay) she met a long time ago as a kid. They enter a competition for best ice sculpture and the ice sculpting is quite interesting to watch if you ever wondered how they are made or who makes them. They're a cute couple with their big eyes looking at each other with attraction.There are some annoying parts of the story. When she gets angry with him for little it's a bit annoying. And referring to him as Princeton gets old fast. The way they enter the competition is kind of too fake. The back stabbing chef rival is quite a realistic thing though.This is one of those Hallmark movies that is a little annoying but not the worst of the lot.

This is a slightly above average Hallmance which at least did keep my interest. I liked the ice sculpture theme and the setting in an acclaimed kitchen of a master chef both of which I found educational and interesting. The touch of villainy and rivalry with the sous-chef was balanced by the lack there of with the boyfriend and the wisdom, fairness, and niceness of the head chef. Her romance with our heroine's widowed father added a further touch of piquancy. Rachel Boston is always reliable, though I find her giggle distracting. Her romance with the boy she met briefly in childhood but never forgot was rather dull. Her misunderstanding of his relationship with his work partner was not understandable, so thank-goodness, it was brief. I guess the reason I did not like the romance much was because I did not like the hero. First of all, his lack of height and too handsome face bothered me. I thought his behavior showed a lack of character. He let his partner shoulder all of the responsibility of meeting the very important proposal deadline while he was romancing Rachel. The romance should have waited. She wasn't going anywhere. His stupid arrogant move in entering Rachel in the ice sculpture contest in the first place was just incredibly clueless (and she told him flat out not to and why!). After writing this, Maybe I didn't like it as much as I thought I did!

Having not seen each other since they were kids, aspiring chef Callie (Rachel Boston) and rich man's son David (David Alpay) are reunited and fall in love while working together to win an ice sculpture competition. Enjoyable Hallmark movie that benefits from very likable leads and a pleasant tone without some of the more irksome parts of the Hallmark formula. Don't get me wrong, this is a routine Hallmark movie in many ways. But having seen so many of these things I really appreciate the ones that try to mix it up even a little. For example, the guy in this one does not have a witch of a fiancée and the girl does not have a fiancé that focuses too much on work. Those are two of the more common Hallmark tropes and I was happy to see neither present here. In fact, there is no love triangle in this, save for a brief point where Callie is given the wrong impression about David's relationship with a friend of the opposite sex. That alone is a refreshing change in the made-for-TV romcom landscape. But there are some elements you will have undoubtedly seen in other movies like this. For example, David's subplot about not wanting to take over his father's business is pretty trite and the ambitious and jealous coworker of Callie's is a walking cliché. But the movie needed a villain, I suppose.I actually think one of the reasons it works so well is that there isn't much of the usual romcom cartoon villainy, outside of that one character (and maybe David's dad in one or two scenes). The plot provides some bumps in the road for the couple but never any major roadblocks. To some, that might sound boring, but to me it's one of the reasons I like Hallmark movies. This is feel-good entertainment that's easy to digest. Rachel Boston is a delight and David Alpay has an easygoing, gentle quality about him. Their chemistry is believable, which is half the battle. It's a good way to pass the time for a couple of hours. If you're a fan of Hallmark's usual output, you'll likely enjoy this.