Flipping for Christmas (2023 TV Movie) User Reviews

Just OK

[rhonnie-43139 · 5/10 · 5 November 2023]

I didn't really expected much from this movie but I have watched the lead actress in other movies and found her to be tolerable. So I got my popcorn and settled in for some basic entertainment. And it was basic and totally predictable; well how many times have we seen the fixer upper romance plot?

I think so far in this season of Hallmark movies this is the second movie I have watched where the characters are fixing old houses. The other movie had a ghost living in the house so at least that added a new dimension. No ghost here except for the missing originality in the plot. Basic movie with basic characters delivering basic performance.

Well acted, occasionally touching, but ludicrous

[MichaelByTheSea · 6/10 · 8 November 2023]

Marcus Rosner has become a solid lead at Hallmark, and Ashley Newbrough was in a very good Hallmark movie called "Small Town Christmas" with Kristoffer Polaha which, like many Hallmark movies, including this one, involves Big City developers trying to destroy the charm of a small town. And a flattering bikini shot of in her in her last Hallmark movie, Love in Glacier National Park, was apparently the first bikini shot of a lead ever seen in a Hallmark movie. The problem with this movie isn't the acting.

The movie starts with Abigail giving a pitch to a developer planning to break ground and start pre-sales on 100 units after the holidays. Abigail is apparently a "house flipper" and gives a generic speech about how her mom "loved interior design" and how she "provides families with beautiful homes, while always staying focused on profit and ROI." But none of that matters if she's going to be working as a realtor on pre-sales before the homes are even finished. Nevertheless, she shares her dad's quote that "you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when you're done" (it's a line that's used waaay too many times). That quote gets the developer's attention.

And Abigail's willingness to work "24/7" through the holidays is what convinces the developer to hire her to be his realtor. That's actually a BIG lucrative contract. But as soon as she gets the job, she leaves the city and goes home to help her brother in law fix up an old home he inherited from Grandpa Frank. When she gets there, she finds out that half of the property was left to a contractor named Bo who thought of Frank as a surrogate father.

Abigail (who has apparently decided NOT to work 24/7 through the holidays for the developer) agrees to work with Bo to spruce up the home despite an impasse on what to do with the home. Bo wants to turn it into a bed-and-breakfast and Abigail's sister and brother in law want to sell it, split the proceeds, and use the money to renovate their home to give Abigail's father a place to live. It's set up as one of the movie's Big Conflicts, but it's really a non issue. As any competent real property lawyer could explain, a court would order the property sold. Period.

Also, Bo has quite an attitude for someone who a) doesn't have the money to buy out his co-beneficiary and b) wasn't even related to Frank. And yet he dismisses Abigail's suggestions, pulls off her action item post it notes, and insists on changes designed to facilitate a bed-and-breakfast as opposed to a sale. Also, what exactly was his business plan for the bed-and-breakfast? Was he prepared to give up his work as a contractor? Who would run it with him? And did he understand he would have to share all of the profits with his co-beneficiary in the unlikely event they agreed not to sell?

Not only is he a dick at first, Bo inexplicably rolls paint across Abigail's sleeve in what I suppose the writer thought would be a "playful" moment. That and the ensuing paint war between two people who have literally just met, is supposed to seem "fun." It struck me as bad writing. But, remarkably, the stars still find a way to create some chemistry with each other despite a story line that fails to support a realistic connection between their two characters.

There are also more than a few good scenes. For example, I thought the scenes involving the remembrance tree were quite touching. I was also moved by a surprisingly emotional and well acted scene with Marcus Rosner, when his character reveals his back story and connection to Frank. Bo tells Abigail "Frank used to have this quote to help me see things more positively: 'don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened.'" It's a good quote, and though Bo attributes the line to Dr. Seuss, there is no written record of Dr. Seuss ever having said that. In 1899, German poet Ludwig Jacobowski wrote "Do not cry because they are past! Smile, because they once were!" Scholars regard that to be the earliest known version of the quote frequently misattributed to Dr. Seuss.

As much as I admired the acting, and a surprisingly creative ending, I couldn't buy into the premise that Abigail would suddenly abandon her business in the city (and her biggest client) to take on a renovation of an old home over an hour away as a favor to her sister and brother in law. And Bo's behavior towards Abigail in the beginning, and his insistence that the home be turned into a bed-and-breakfast without having the money to buy out the other beneficiary really bothered me. I was also stunned at the chutzpah of Abigail's assistant to contact the developer about a new issue without checking with Abigail first. And, assuming Bo was able to get his wish to run a bed-and-breakfast, and somehow convinced Abigail to stay in town with him, would that mean she would be giving up her entire successful business in the city? I hate when women give up successful and rewarding careers for a small town man they just met. And when did Abigail have the time to become a lawyer and look up obscure code sections? If she has the time to do that, she' should also probably review what it means for realtors to have a fiduciary duty to a client. She sure breached that duty.

We were let down by this one

[MIssM19 · 5/10 · 14 November 2023]

Abigail is tasked by her sister to "flip" a house his husband half inherited and sell it, there she meets Bo, who inherited the other half of the property. Problem is both have different intentions about what to do with the house and Abigail somehow has to fix that.

First things first, I'm now finding out Ashley characters is names Abigail. Secondly I still don't understand if she is a realtor or an interior designer and why has her sister asked this of her. The only thing we see her doing is painting the house, which I believe, as an interior designer, you have someone else do.

So, the plot is not the best. Some things at the beginning are simply dumb. (And some at the end too, they fixed the problem of the house because they "fell in love"?) However, as the movie moves along, some things do make sense. Personally, I really liked the leads conversation about grieving someone and how it affects us, going through that myself. Things start to make sense then, it's like they bonded over that.

I thought they had great chemistry. At least, there was good banter. The actors made this kind of salvageable.

Remember when Marcus Rosner used to play the main character's ambitious ex boyfriend who would show up to propose only after she moved on? I'm so happy he gets to shine as a leading man.

Anyway, I had big hopes for this one and was disappointed.

Another forgettable Hallmark film

[mblake-62426 · 7/10 · 20 November 2023]

Marcus Rosner is always cute. Very handsome.

Scott Yamamura is a good actor.

There's absolutely no transition from the bickering and disagreeing between them to the flirting. Like, what the heck happened? They can't just suddenly become different characters. There has to be some sort of getting there. Did not enjoy their story.

They have a paint fight AND a snowball fight? That's too much. Whoever wrote this should have been a little more creative with the flirting.

Ashley Newbrough does a good job portraying grief at the Christmas tree when she writes Mom on the ornament.

The main actors' attempt at chemistry is over the top and obnoxious. It would have been better if they were a little bit more natural about it

The father's advice conversation was kind of weird and all over the place. Wasn't into it. It could have easily been better written.

The scene in the back of the truck with three pillows was too over the top. Looks like he's about to freaking propose to her. But he just happened to whip that together for a business dinner? Get out of here.

Some hallmark movies have gotten better about having drama and misunderstandings that are a bit more believable. This one is one of the ones that still struggles to have a fight between the characters that is believable. She told him it was a innocent thing she did and he gets all bent out of shape. It's just too much. The fights need to be a bit more believable.

I love how this sister is folding laundry in a scene. That is just so real and relatable. Often these houses are just so spic and span and look like they're not lived in. So that was a nice small touch.

Overall, meh.

Abigail and Bo connect!

[rgilkison-61237 · 6/10 · 16 November 2023]

Don't let the title mislead you on this one. If you like Hallmark movies to witness a developing romance, you may enjoy this. It's really a traditional "opposites-attract", and, fortunately, they cast (and focused on) two Hallmark veterans, Ashley Newbrough (Abigail) and Marcus Rosner (Bo), both very attractive, onscreen. Marcus Rosner has earned a good reputation as an antagonist, and plays it well against Ashley's character, Abigail. She is a career-driven, big-city woman, and Bo, is a small-town craftsman, still reeling from a divorce from a young romance, making him a little disdained with the assertive Abigail. They clash over a house, that Bo partially owns and has an emotional attachment to, because his recently deceased guardian, Frank, had lived there for years. Abigail wants to rennovate it, only to "flip" for profit. They compromise, and decide to improve the home to decide the outcome, later. There may have needed to be some "filler" time, here, as a few script-free scenes were playful banter between Bo and Abigail, a paint and snowball fight. But, considering that Bo hadn't restarted mingling, and married too young, it isn't shocking he would "break the ice" (no pun intended) this way. Their relationship starts to warm as Abigail begins to admire Bo's heart - she sees his creativity (and taste) in finishing the home decor, without her opinion (hand-crafted), and his unselfish soul - he donates his time and talents to the community. Her heart begins to open and she empathizes for the town, when she realizes she inadvertently enabled her entrepreneur connections to develop the town. By movie's end, there relationship has believably evolved into a blooming romance. This is why I'd rate this a 6-star. In many of this season's releases, "Never Been Chris'd and "The Santa Summit", ie., there's no screentime devoted to evolve the characters beyond attraction. Your left being apathetic about the characters. I could easily have bumped my rating to a seven-star, but the screenplay, (ie. Background musical score), and most of the supporting-cast, was overly enthusiastic, which made the early scenes somewhat corny...

I didn't get it.

[garyrobbins-1 · 2/10 · 4 November 2023]

So after watching this movie twice I have to say I still don't get it. There's no reason for the leads to like each other. There's no reason for the lead to even be there. The premise of the movie is missing. The sound track didn't always go with the dialog. Why does the female lead fall in love or even like her romantic interest? He is never nice to her. The story needed more. Why does a complete outsider have so much invested in a place she has nothing in the game? This review is all over the place because the movie is all over the place. I can't say it was time well spent to watch it twice so maybe this is a movie you can miss.

Typical W Movie Christmas Fare

[DVK1234 · 6/10 · 4 November 2023]

The characters were holding hot dogs at one point, then all of a sudden they had their hot dog-holding hands down by their sides and they stopped eating the hot dogs. In the next scene the couple are at the tree farm and the male lead is carrying an open wood tool box, but it looks like nothing is inside. When they reach the tree that is holding the ornaments, suddenly there are small discs of wood in the box and the character is pouring them out of the box into another receptacle. You really notice how little W cares about the plot, cast and continuity when you pay closer attention. My husband and I had a lot of fun looking for all the inaccuracies. It made up for the film having no plot. Which is what we expected: no plot. Merry Flipping Christmas!

Cringeworthy at first

[Jackbv123 · 4/10 · 4 November 2023]

I want to say worst premise ever, but I'm sure there are worse. But why is the professional designer assigned the task of convincing the co-owner to sell? And Abby, whose job depends on pleasing customers does practically everything possible to annoy Bo. Bo isn't much better, maybe worse. At first he is totally rude for no reason to Abby, the stranger. Later he basically assaults her with paint based on no previous relationship to justify it as a fun prank. As the movie goes on, it is incredible how poorly she treats clients and potential clients. Does anyone listen to what others are saying ... to them?

The dialogue is either sparkling and funny, or terrible. Actually there are a lot of good moments with it. I lean towards the latter, but I'm sure it will appeal to many.

Apparently this is grade school because Abby and Bo first have a spontaneous paint fight and then a couple scenes later a spontaneous snowball fight. This seems to be how they build the romantic relationship. Abby giggles as her clothes get spattered. These two are complete opposites and their natural reactions to each other's opinions doesn't bode well for a long term future, but maybe when they have the next conflict they will have a food fight and giggle. Their animosity disappears quickly, but their differences do not go away that easily even though the story will make you think both of them changed personalities.

This is Hallmark, so we have to have an evil developer who wants to "gentrify" a small town and make a lot of money. So the plot theme becomes largely about "saving" the small town.

Clearly the architects of this movie intended it to be light, upbeat and funny. It's too bad they led with rudeness. That is the vibe I picked up in the beginning, so I missed a lot of what was meant to be fun.

Someone dropped the ball

[vanhockeymom · 7/10 · 14 January 2024]

While going on about trying to prevent the developer from building a condo with a big chain coffee shop in it that would put the little village coffee show out of business, Abigail sips on a coffee cup with a Starbucks logo on it. If they wanted to keep the integrity of the premise of the movie they should've had the logo of the town coffee shop on the cup.

This is actually a very cute movie. Great chemistry between Bo and Abigail. There aren't many of these movies I'd like to see a sequel to but this is one I'd like to see more of.

My daughter and I watched and laughed at how the snow always seems to fall just as that kiss happens :)

A Seriously Flawed Script Dooms This One

[jazznu · 3/10 · 25 November 2023]

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.

Flirting for Christmas

[MickyG333 · 7/10 · 28 November 2023]

7.3 stars.

As I'm sitting here in the middle of 'Flipping for Christmas', I watch the leads as they portray an overstated flirtation that could easily crumble into a full-blown burnout. I've seen enough Hallmark love stories to realize what I'm looking at is a caricature of a romance, inflated to give us the impression that these two are immeasurably enamored. I see the pattern leading up to some disappointment.

It's the usual Hallmark plot, at least one of about 5 different general plots. In this case it's the one where two people are falling madly in love all too quickly. This always leads to the eventual conflict and the inevitable conclusion full of misunderstandings, anger, resentment, gaslighting...but eventually things get better.

Let's not forget the reason why they are working together to renovate this old Victorian house, as they both have completely opposite goals for the end product. This whole "endearing" blossoming affection will end well, but only because it's Hallmark. They can manipulate the pieces on this chess board, because the end is always the same: the king and the queen end up together with some help from the pawns and a couple of knights. I have no idea what I'm talking about, except I'm using chess to describe a Hallmark plot.

I didn't love this film, but I do enjoy the leads and how they do actually have a lot of chemistry, in spite of the fact that it looks forced at times with her constant semi-fake smiles. He makes up for it by reciprocating with more genuine expressions. The end was pretty good, maybe there will be a sequel. I wouldn't be opposed to another one, maybe it will be more memorable.

How to ruin a story with the lead's first scene

[mooregg-59363 · 1/10 · 9 November 2023]

Abigal goes to a coffee shop, which has a sign: be back in 10 minutes. She asks Bo, who's hanging decorations or some such. A normal person would've said, "She'll be back any moment." Instead, Bo gives Abby grief with multiple evasions to this simple question.

In short, he acts like a grade-A jerk for absolutely no reason. In real life, she'd told him he's a jerk (or a more descriptive term) and absolutely useless. Then, she would've walked (driven) away, probably providing a single-digit salute.

I can't imagine why she ignored his jerkiness and became friends, let alone fall for him.

When they can't reach a decision on the house they inherited, she should've consulted a lawyer and forced the issue.

Most Hallmark movies require a healthy suspense of disbelief--this one is a bridge too far.

This is a movie of all time

[ajd-31256 · 1/10 · 9 November 2023]

This movie is exactly what you think it is. The plot is revealed in the first 10 minutes. Bo is unbelievably rude to Abby for literally no reason at all, but somehow she falls in love with him.

The script was written by an AI. The dialogue is horrible. The actors are the worst.

I'm not convinced that Bo is a human. He is referred to as a "rebel" and apparently has this crazy ability to make a huge amount of handiwork and raid a West Elm and fully furnish a house all within the span of a day or two. My guess is that he rebelled against santa's oppressive use of child labor and became a real boy in this fake hallmark town.

Abby has literally no reason to love this man. He's like actually a horrible person to her but she's like omg he splattered paint all over me this is so hot and funny omg let's be besties and love each other.

Also, there is no house flipping that occurs in this one. They turn the house into a B&B because of course they do. Deceptive title, 0/10.

Love the actors, love the house, love some of the flirty banter...would have liked a less messy story/script.

[cgvsluis · 5/10 · 12 November 2023]

I like both Ashley Newbrough (from Privileged fame) and Marcus Rosner. They look really great together and for the romantics is some flirty banter in this flipping Hallmark holiday romance...but I think the overall story might suffer from bad editing? Either that or there were issues with the writing.

I am going to attempt to summarize the story... Abagail's sister Claire and her husband inherit a house and talk her in to fixing it and flipping it (which is her profession). What they don't tell her is that they are only part owners and the other owner doesn't want to sell...he wants to fix it up into a bed and breakfast AND they want Abagail to convince Bo to sell?!?! (I still don't understand why that would be her job or even something they would ask her to do.) Bo is a pillar of the community, which is part of why he wants to turn the house into a B&B...to honor the previous owner. Meanwhile, Abagail has some big time developer that she is working with who gets wind of an available parcel of land that he purchases for development from the mayor...which will change the whole town? Then Abagail realizes that she messed up and figures out a way to prevent it...and keep the house as a B&B...which will bring in some money for her sister's family and help get her sister's house expanded by Bo doing some of the work so her mom doesn't have to live in the garage.

This story was choppy and a bit convoluted...with some things that didn't make sense. As previously mentioned, there was some fun flirty banter...they did look cute together and I can see them eventually having a great small town relationship (I don't know what Abagail will do for a living in their town? Maybe run the B&B with Bo?), but there are definitely better romances and better stories out there.

Did I mention that I love the house? I am so glad it is not being modernized. They do not make houses like that anymore and it would have been a shame to destroy it.

Missing half the plot beats

[sub780lime · 3/10 · 19 December 2023]

Before Christmas, Abigail agrees to help her sister with what she believes will be an easy flip of an inherited home. Things get tricky when Bo has a different idea.

You see enough of these and it's easy to pick out the good ones. They tend to have just enough of the hallmark/lifetime holiday tropes while maintaining stable plots, dialogue, and being above average acted. This is not one of those. It's as if the characters defining character features became their only features. The only refreshing part was the male lead was portrayed as more of a jerk than the female lead, which is honestly the way most of these movies go. If you took every key plot point of a typical one of these holiday movies, you'd find that Flipping for Christmas skips about every other beat. The male lead literally goes from outright rude with no established reasons why all the way to completely flirty paint play. Even the McGuffin here of the house being left to the grandson AND his contractor is never really fleshed out. Like, the number one question is why would he leave this house to BOTH his grandson and the contractor and the movie barely touches on it. Really, the plot should be about the upset grandson having the estate gift from his grandfather split and how the grandson needs to find the spirit of Christmas.

It's not the worst movie I have seen, but I just can't get past the weak premise

[seekingkindredspirits · 3/10 · 31 December 2023]

Hallmark Christmas movies are reliable holiday fare: usually lightweight, predictable and an entertaining escape for an hour or so. Any watcher of Hallmark movies knows, you have to suspend disbelief and embrace the implausible and unrealistic.

In this movie, Abby, a designer is called upon by her sister and brother-in-law to help prepare recently deceased Grandpa Frank's home for sale. Abby leaves her high-pressure job and new career-making opportunity to go to small-town USA to help her family out, and for no compensation either, as far as we can tell. Hmmm.

Upon her arrival in town, Abby has a conversation with a guy working outside a coffee shop. There's a "Be back in 10" sign on the door, and she asks if he knows when the owner will return, e.g., has it been 10 minutes or did s/he just leave? The guy inexplicably acts like a complete jerk. I wanted smack that smirk off his face myself (only in my imagination. But I would have been supremely irritated).

Then we learn that Grandpa Frank didn't just leave the house to Abby's BIL (I think his name is John), but the inheritance is split 50/50 with Grandpa Frank's contractor, Bo (played by Marcus Rosner). The rude jackhole Abby encountered outside the coffee shop. Of course it is.

Did GF leave instructions for the house? Nope. Bo and Abby's sister and BIL are just supposed to figure it out. Therein lies the so-called plot. Bo wants to convert the house to a B & B. Abby's sister and BIL want to sell it so they can improve their own situation- It seems that Abby's widower dad is living with with her sister and BIL in the garage because they don't have room in the house.

Bo can't afford to buy Abby's sister and BIL out. He is self-employed, doesn't have savings, cash flow, whatever. How then, does he expect to float a bed and breakfast? Does he even have a plan? And how does this help Abby's sister and BIL? They need money to improve their circumstances and house their father somewhere that's not the garage. Bo hears this, but he's unswayed. This guy is so self absorbed! In real life, if one person can't buy out the other, it forces a sale. Done.

So - Abby's sister and BIL take a big step back and say, "You two work it out." Meaning Bo and Abby. What? So instead of sitting down and looking at practical things, such as whether a bed and breakfast is even practical, they immediate start trying to impose their design/remodel opinions on each other. With neither doing any listening or compromising. Why go through the exercise of making decisions when there is no actual plan for this property?

Instead, they tear off wallpaper. Buy paint in two colors because they can't agree. Romantic sparks ignite after Bo purposely gets paint on Abby's clothing (again, why would he for one moment think that was okay?), and they chase each other around this large house having a "paint fight." Unless the place is going to be gutted, no one has a paint fight inside a house. After being assaulted with paint, Abby starts to like Bo- for no apparent reason.

Hallmark still needed to fill a good hour after that, so there's an evil developer wants to destroy the town's park side plot, and Abby must intervene.

My biggest issue with this movie is not that they are trotting out all the tropes, but the story doesn't have any foundation to build on - either the conflict or the characters. We all know how it's going to end, but I just want to fast forward through the movie to get there.

I Fast-Forwarded Through Most of This Movie!

[sonicgeekette · 4/10 · 7 January 2024]

I'm sad to say I actually found a Hallmark movie I just couldn't sit through. I generally like most of the actors in this movie, Ashley Newbrough, Marcus Rosner, Natalie Lisinska, and Peter MacNeill, all great actors I've seen in other Hallmark projects, but in this movie I just found them irritating. The chemistry between the leads. Abby and Bo was gritty like sandpaper. I found Bo antagonistic from their very first meeting when he just couldn't tell Abby about the coffee shop owner stepping out for a few minutes. And Ashley Newbrough's performance as a professional constantly on the go just seemed fake. I also wanted to slap Abby's sister Claire when she just couldn't find the right time to tell Abby there was a co-owner in the inherited house, although that part of totally predictable. I made it through to the initial assessment of the house where Abby started going through putting post-it notes on everything that had to go with Bo going behind her and removing all her notes. The way those two squabbled through the house reminded me of middle schoolers that constant bicker over everything, but not in a cute or adoring way. I was going to just exit out of the movie but thought maybe it would get better as it played out, so I fast-forwarded to the middle where they go tree shopping. The snowball fight around the trees seemed forced and fake. When Abby told Bo, "Oh, you're really the outdoor type." about a minute into their snowball fight I wanted to lose my lunch. I just didn't see the fun loving chemistry that's normally in a Hallmark movie between the leads. I fast-forwarded it to the scene where Abby is having a heart to heart with her dad and asking him for business advice because he's always told her you don't quit when you're tired you quit when you're done, but he tells her he was wrong and regrets not taking the time in his meetings to spend with the ones he loves most, speaking of her mother, his late wife, and I thought, okay, here's the Hallmark moment. Abby missed her mother and she's going to see that you need to slow down and enjoy life. But then she goes in and asks her sister for advice saying she's confused after speaking with their dad, and I just wanted to slap the sisters. Fast-forwarded the movie again to the last 9 minutes when Abby saves the day and breaks the deal to buy the house after she accidentally sent the information to her assistant and lead the guy she's supposed to be working for to town to buy the house she's been working on for her sister. Totally predictable ending. However, Bo's still mad at her for almost selling his house and can't stop to listen to her explain what happened. The dialogue between them again feels forced, just feels like they are reading from a script, very mechanical with no emotions. Even the scene with them on the porch under the mistletoe seemed forced, no chemistry, like she only kissed him because she had to but couldn't wait to part lips with him. And how could he kiss her with so much lipstick on? Do yourself a favor, save some time and skip this one. (I never thought I'd say that about a Hallmark movie, ever, but trust me on this one!)

Nothing to write home about

[rdubz-23518 · 5/10 · 21 December 2023]

I liked the chemistry between the leads! It was a cute little rival-to-lovers type vibe, although for the most part it was silly and childish. I had a feeling Abby would give in to Bo's B&B idea by the end, and so she did.

I honestly thought it was odd that they gave Abby's sister a whole family but we barely saw them throughout until the end. And, for a movie entitled Flipping For Christmas, we didn't get to see much of the renovation process at all. Unless you count the little paint fight that Bo and Abby had early on. That was sort of an odd choice there.

It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't great, either. I think the writers intended it to be a simple carefree and heartfelt offering, but some of those more emotional beats were hit or miss. The dialogue was pretty fun, at least between Bo and Abby. I'd say watch this if you enjoy Marcus Rosner, because he's fairly decent in this one, but otherwise skip it.