Midnight Masquerade (2014) Autumn Reeser, Christopher Russell, Richard Burgi, Helen Colliander Movie Review

Midnight Masquerade (2014)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Christopher Russell and Autumn Reeser in Midnight Masquerade (2014)

Cinder-Lawyer-Fella

When her father, Howard Samford (Richard Burgi - F6: Twister), decides the time has come to retire he hands over his multi-billion dollar candy empire to his daughter, Elyse (Autumn Reeser - Love at the Thanksgiving Day Parade), whose first job as boss is to deal with a trademark infringement lawsuit against a rival company. It is why Elyse heads to Higgins Attorneys and Sons, where firm founder Carter Higgins (Chris Gillett) and his sons Emmett (Damon Runyan) and Andrew (Danny Smith) take the glory for other people's work, especially that of nice guy attorney Rob Carelli (Christopher Russell - Catch a Christmas Star). When Elyse decides to invite the entire staff at Higgins to a masked Halloween costume party the Higgins men force Rob to stay at the office working whilst they attend with Emmett making a play for Elyse. But Rob's 12-year old niece, Ruby (Helen Colliander), convinces him to go to the party dressed as a prince leading to a magical dance with Elyse and a search for her Prince Charming when he has to rush away.

Handsome, cute and comical are the three ingredients of "Midnight Masquerade" a Hallmark romantic comedy which takes the Cinderella story and not only transfers it to a firm of attorneys but switches the sexes so we have a put upon man. Tackling the obvious use of the Cinderella story first it is a nice idea although of course the minute you realise that "Midnight Masquerade" is a variation on Cinderella it becomes even more predictable than your typical Hallmark movie, although it is a nice touch that Rob's sister and her daughter are basically his fairy godmother.

But as I said the three ingredients in "Midnight Masquerade" are handsome, cute and comical. The handsome comes in the form of Christopher Russell who plays Rob as the nicest guy in the world, so nice he borders on being a bumbling fool. And the cute comes in the form of Autumn Reeser as Elyse whose cuteness is played upon by having her cast alongside a lot of tall actors. And then there is the comical which comes in the shape of Damon Runyan and Danny Smith the evil sons of the firm's founder with both using nice guy Rob to do their work whilst setting their eyes on Elyse. It is again a bit too full on with the humour ending up cheesy but for a younger audience it might be more fun than cheesy. But in truth you get from "Midnight Masquerade" what you expect from a Hallmark movie which is light hearted romantic fun.

What this all boils down to is that "Midnight Masquerade" is a fun little Hallmark movie which updates Cinderella in a fun way. Although due to its obvious nature it does rely on the humour and likeability of its stars more than ever.


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