Hallmark
Rating: 🎄🎄🎄
Description: Marie (Ullerup) is a hotel tech executive living in Chicago who returns home to Copenhagen to spend the holidays with her family and puts herself to work at their inn. When Ryan Miller (Sevier) checks in a case of mistaken identity leads Marie to believe he’s a travel writer. She sets out to make sure his stay is perfect, which includes the Christmas tour Ryan’s expecting…but the Andersen Inn hasn’t offered it since her father passed so she scrambles to cobble together an itinerary meant to impress. When Marie’s mom tells her she plans to sell the inn after the New Year Marie becomes doubly determined to make Ryan’s visit a success – a positive story could boost business and convince her to keep the inn. Marie escorts Ryan on a carefully curated tour of Copenhagen and pulls out all the stops to create hygge at the inn, though both efforts end in some festive fiascos. Despite the mishaps the two forge a connection that may be more than just inn-keeper and tourist. When Ryan Miller the journalist arrives they realize their mistake, sending Marie into overdrive to ensure he experiences the perfect Danish Christmas. In the process, Marie learns that warmth, connection – and, possibly, romance – happen naturally and can’t be created. Starring Emilie Ullerup and Corey Sevier.
Overall Review: Hallmark took us all the way to Copenhagen for A Danish Christmas, and the trip was lovely. I just wish something a little more interesting had happened while we were there. Let’s start with what worked, because there’s actually quite a bit. The movie was filmed in Copenhagen and I’m always a big fan of European Christmas movies shot on location. The setting was easily one of the movie’s greatest strengths, and I thoroughly enjoyed spending time in it.
The leads also had good chemistry. Nothing that set my television on fire, but they were believable together, and I enjoyed watching their relationship develop. Sometimes that’s enough. Unfortunately, the plot seemed to have taken a vacation.
There wasn’t much unexpected tension, very little that surprised me, and almost nothing that made me particularly anxious to see what happened next. The story didn’t so much unfold as proceed from one scene to another. Everyone showed up, said their lines, enjoyed Copenhagen, and eventually arrived at the ending we all knew was coming. I don’t need a Christmas movie to reinvent the genre. I know how these things work. But I do need a little something to keep me invested beyond pretty scenery and two reasonably compatible people.
And that’s what makes this rating difficult. There’s nothing especially wrong with A Danish Christmas. It’s charming, it’s beautifully decorated, and the leads are enjoyable. But there’s also not much that elevates it into four-tree territory. Copenhagen did most of the heavy lifting here, and frankly, it deserved a better script for its trouble.
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