30-year-old Sam (Dustin Milligan) arrives in his hometown to spend Christmas for the first time in five years, and he's nervous about seeing his old friend Kat (Danica McKellar). As Sam walks into the Christmas festivities and exchanges greetings with everyone, we flashback to when Sam and Kat were kids, and then flash forward through several of the Christmases that they spent together over the years. What we see is that, even as they become best friends, an attraction grows between them than neither one acts on. They date and live with other people, break up, and move on—or fail to move on—the whole time fighting the romantic feelings they have for each other. After what seems to be a major rupture in their relationship, Sam stays away for years, and now he's back—with a proposal of marriage for Kat. But is she still game?Though this aired on Lifetime, it was made by The Asylum, a company that typically produces low-budget, direct-to-video horror films, and it's a little edgier than the average cable TV-movie. Is this a good thing? I'm not sure. I give it points for trying to do something a little different for a Christmas movie, and the visuals are lovely, but the writing is on the weak side. I never really understood why these two didn't get together before they do (oops, sorry, spoiler). The concept of focusing only on Christmas gatherings at the house of a neighbor (well played by Lea Thompson) is novel, but because of this, we get limited fleshing-out of the characters. Milligan and McKellar work up some nice chemistry but they both feel a little lackluster in the acting department. Scott Patterson offers nice support as Kat's single dad, but aside from Thompson, that's about it for a supporting cast. It’s hard not to like this, but it winds up leaving you wanting a little more. [Amazon Prime]
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