"There are no coincidences at Christmas."
Hello everyone!
I don't know what it is, to be honest, because I usually like more than just a few.
This year seems to be a weird one, however, either with the lineup in question, or just because of the weird year altogether.
ANYWAY, tonight's choice is still a good one however because it has one of the most popular actresses for the production, and that's saying something with all the other veteran ones out there, but the camera does love her, so.
Either way you look at it, it's a movie that's got a little something for everybody that wants to watch it if you ask me.
So let's not waste any more time and jump straight into Gingerbread Miracle, shall we?
Links to previous reviews this month can be found at the bottom of the page, as usual.
Gingerbread Miracle stars Merritt Patterson as Maya, a freelance attorney who hasn't made it big yet (though not for lack of trying) and who actually divorced her partner because HE was making it big and her career (and life) was being pushed aside.
So now she's living in her parents' apartment above their garage and just trying to score an interview for something regular and stable, while using the local bakery, Casillas Panadería, as her unofficial office.
That's right, you read it here folks, this is a Mexican fusion kind of movie, and to be honest I really liked it, especially once we're introduced to the charming owner Luis, and his nephew Alex (Jon-Michael Ecker, who I haven't seen in a Hallmark production before but am thinking he should do more of them).
Now Alex was Maya's high school crush and she wrote him a letter in which she poured out her feelings right before heading for a semester abroad in France, but there was nothing from him so she invented a French boyfriend to convince herself (and others) that she was SO over the guy.
But it's totally the case of the one that got away when Alex shows up back in town, a big shot lawyer himself (and slowly coming to regret it since his boss has him working over the holidays, too), to help with his uncle's bakery sale.
Yep, it appears the Casillas will be selling their place after who knows how many decades, but the thing is, it used to carry a little bit of magic, aka if a Casillas made you a custom gingerbread cookie, and you made a wish on it, that wish usually came true. Now, that magic seems to be pretty much gone, so it's time for someone else to take the reins.
That someone else - after Alex pretty much sabotages every prospective buyer by either not liking them or finding ridiculous excuses not to like them, while Maya's just trying to help Luis out here - turns out to be a baker with a silly French name, triggering some things for poor Alex since said baker also wants to take Maya out to dinner while he's at it.
But at least his offer's good, and at around this same time Maya scores an interview with one of those big firms she's been dreaming about ... though it turns out she's going to have to work like a mule so the partners at the firm can have a better work-life balance, not that everyone in the firm gets it, as per advertisement.
Thankfully she's got the town's annual Christmas things to cheer her up, including but not limited to a gingerbread house race (which is exactly what it sounds like, you have to make a gingerbread house but you race through different stations with it to do so) which both her and Alex lose after colliding and dropping to the ground.
As the bakery's sale is pretty much complete by this point, Maya and Alex also confront their feelings for each other, as Alex admits he DID find her letter, but much too late, and by that time she was already with her "boyfriend". And even though the two kiss now, the timing is again off for the both of them with everything else going on.
So instead they focus on what's happening, throwing a last supper kind of party at the bakery before it's sold, with the help of Maya's mom who has her own event planning business, inspired by Maya's own freelance work to do as she pleases, something she reminds Maya of while they chat.
And it's during the party that Maya finds a red briefcase, the same one from a cookie Luis makes her at the beginning of the movie, and it turns out to be Alex's, which cinches it for her as she decides hey, she's okay with her freelance work, and no she doesn't want to date the other guy in the movie since he isn't the one for her.
Which is good, because the other guy has to withdraw from the bakery purchase, and Alex steps in to take over, fed up with the big shot attorney life, and also because he's always been the most comfortable in the kitchen, but didn't want to disappoint his aunt and uncle who raised him, and wanted more for him than just being a baker and/or chef (side note, the wishes start coming true again after he starts making the gingerbread cookies!).
That said, Maya and Alex also iron out the last of their differences, deciding to go for it, and the movie ends as they rejoin the party inside, a delightful mix of Christmas and some very lovely Mexican traditions, while end credits play.
Like I said, the camera loves Merritt, and she shines in any role she takes on, but Jon was no slouch either in this department; my favourite giggles were his best friend, the local vet, who kept trying to ask Maya's best friend out, and it never worked until much later in the movie; the two guys giving one another advice was something else, let me tell you.
But overall this is a non-complicated, lovely sort of hour and a half of watching, a gentle mixture of two cultures, and some really funny moments as the leads try to one-up each other and play off the fact that the characters have known one another all their lives.
Add in some wonderful supporting cast, and you've got yourself a movie to watch, even if it isn't a blockbuster!
Definitely recommend.
xx
*images and video not mine
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