A Christmas Detour (2015) Candace Cameron Bure, Paul Greene, Sarah Strange, Barbara Niven, Kaj-Erik Eriksen Movie Review

A Christmas Detour (2015)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Candace Cameron Bure and Paul Greene in A Christmas Detour (2015)

Another Road to Christmas

Paige Summerlind (Candace Cameron Bure - Journey Back to Christmas) is a writer for a magazine and an utter romantic who is heading home to meet her fiance's well to do parents for Christmas. Bartender Dylan MacKenzie (Paul Greene - A Wish for Christmas) is the complete opposite and is not only cynical when it comes to romance, thanks to something which happened with his ex, but is reluctantly heading home for Christmas for the first time in years. So when they end up on the same plane next to each other they end up winding each other up and even more so when due to a blizzard their plane has to land at Buffalo where they end up in adjoining rooms. Whilst Paige and Dylan constantly antagonise each other they end up befriended by married couple Frank (David Lewis) and Maxine (Sarah Strange) and the four of them end up trying to make it to New York, a long journey where they all get to know each other especially when they end up stuck in a small town on Christmas eve which really loves to celebrate Christmas.

I look forward to the new Hallmark Christmas movies each year and more often than not I enjoy them. But sometimes I come across one which doesn't quite do it for me, not that it will be bad but something about it just fails to really put me in the festive mood. I hate to say this but "A Christmas Detour" just didn't get me in to the Christmas swing of things and whilst I am sure there will be those who enjoy this version of a Christmas road trip movie it was a little bit of a slog for me.

Now to criticise a Hallmark Christmas movie for being obvious is stupid but "A Christmas Detour" seems to be more obvious than most. The minute that Paige and Dylan are introduced and we know they are both heading home you know they will go from being antagonistic to romantically close. On top of that the minute Paige and Dylan meet the comically bickering married couple Frank and Maxine you know they will realise what love is really all about whilst Frank and Maxine have the romantic moments they have long forgotten about. You can also pretty much guess that the journey home will have a few mishaps along the way because "A Christmas Detour" is that text book.

I think being text book more than anything is my problem with "A Christmas Detour" as it is far too obvious and I found myself thinking too much of other Christmas movies which are similar to it. On top of that there is initially the full on nature of Paige which is simply too full on for me and whilst Candace Cameron Bure brings out the softer side of the character she makes her initially so annoying that it borders on the off putting.

What this all boils down to is that whilst "A Christmas Detour" wasn't for me it still wasn't a bad movie, it was just too familiar and too obvious to really keep me entertained.

Tags: TV Christmas Movies, Christmas Movies


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