I'm still stuck on the money. Marcus' character Bo doesn't have any. Ashley's character Abby is there doing a favor for her sister. The sister and her husband want to sell the house they inherited and co-own, Abby is there to help make that happen. Bo can't afford to buy them out of the house they co-own, but he wants to turn the house into a B&B. Converting an 8-bedroom somewhat rundown Victorian home into a bed and breakfast takes a lot money for renovations, furnishings, decorations, food, and to hire and pay a staff before it (hopefully) turns a profit somewhere down the line. Where is Bo getting the money do to any of this? Even if we want to believe that because he is a contractor he can do the renovations, he very clearly said he doesn't have money for much else besides his current business.
Bo's plan seems like a screw you to the recently deceased Frank's family as Bo is not related to him, he was the contractor that took care of the house and a friend. Also, it is Bo's plan, not Frank's wishes, this is what Bo has convinced himself that Frank would want, when that doesn't at all appear to have been the case, it seems Frank wanted his family and the man who cared for the house to share in the proceeds of the sale. Bo says he understands them wanting to sell and get a house big enough, not to mention extra money, to care for their aging father, but also won't budge on his B&B idea. He has attitude for days, acts like he's a majority owner, not a co-owner, swiftly overruling everything Abby suggests in furtherance of her brother-in-law's wishes to sell the house.
This setup doesn't make a lot of sense. And there's plenty more that doesn't make sense, this is just one I'm highlighting because it struck me as dumb to not at least have the Bo character thoroughly thought his B&B plan through if he was going to be so obstinate about it. The romance is weak, not because of the actors, but because not enough time is spent on developing it. The "flipping" they do through most of the movie is I kid you not, just painting the walls so not sure why we heard so much about "design" early on. There's also an additional conflict thrown into the mix related to Abby's day job that just feels unnecessary. And maybe if the time on that storyline was given to making the rest work, this could've been better (and would've allowed for less time spent on some of the movie's weakest and least likable characters). There's a lot going on here and little of it is great. This truly seems slapped together and no one bothered to go through to connect the dots and make this a cohesive script. I'd love to know when this was written, produced, and shot, because it feels very much like they lined up a great cast for what was at the time a good, if not fully fleshed out concept, but maybe got stuck during the writer's strike with a flawed script in desperate need of rewrites and they said, let's just shoot anyway as is and hope no one notices this is a mess because of the good cast.
Well, I'll very much look forward to seeing Marcus and Ashley again in the future, they did their best with what they were given and this doesn't detract from their overall appeal. Both have done very good or great movies in the past and will do better ones than this in the future. I'd suggest checking them out in the other Hallmark and Lifetime Christmas movies they've done in the past instead of spending time on this one.
Bo's plan seems like a screw you to the recently deceased Frank's family as Bo is not related to him, he was the contractor that took care of the house and a friend. Also, it is Bo's plan, not Frank's wishes, this is what Bo has convinced himself that Frank would want, when that doesn't at all appear to have been the case, it seems Frank wanted his family and the man who cared for the house to share in the proceeds of the sale. Bo says he understands them wanting to sell and get a house big enough, not to mention extra money, to care for their aging father, but also won't budge on his B&B idea. He has attitude for days, acts like he's a majority owner, not a co-owner, swiftly overruling everything Abby suggests in furtherance of her brother-in-law's wishes to sell the house.
This setup doesn't make a lot of sense. And there's plenty more that doesn't make sense, this is just one I'm highlighting because it struck me as dumb to not at least have the Bo character thoroughly thought his B&B plan through if he was going to be so obstinate about it. The romance is weak, not because of the actors, but because not enough time is spent on developing it. The "flipping" they do through most of the movie is I kid you not, just painting the walls so not sure why we heard so much about "design" early on. There's also an additional conflict thrown into the mix related to Abby's day job that just feels unnecessary. And maybe if the time on that storyline was given to making the rest work, this could've been better (and would've allowed for less time spent on some of the movie's weakest and least likable characters). There's a lot going on here and little of it is great. This truly seems slapped together and no one bothered to go through to connect the dots and make this a cohesive script. I'd love to know when this was written, produced, and shot, because it feels very much like they lined up a great cast for what was at the time a good, if not fully fleshed out concept, but maybe got stuck during the writer's strike with a flawed script in desperate need of rewrites and they said, let's just shoot anyway as is and hope no one notices this is a mess because of the good cast.
Well, I'll very much look forward to seeing Marcus and Ashley again in the future, they did their best with what they were given and this doesn't detract from their overall appeal. Both have done very good or great movies in the past and will do better ones than this in the future. I'd suggest checking them out in the other Hallmark and Lifetime Christmas movies they've done in the past instead of spending time on this one.