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      Recipe for a Perfect Christmas

      2005 1h 36m Holiday Romance Comedy List
      Reviews 38% 50+ Ratings Audience Score A fledgling food critic (Carly Pope) agrees to visit a struggling restaurant if its chef (Bobby Cannavale) will date her meddling mother (Christine Baranski). Read More Read Less

      Audience Reviews

      View All (8) audience reviews
      Audience Member Actually not a bad little Christmas movie.... Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/15/23 Full Review Audience Member This is a very adorable Christmas movie with a sweet, happy ending. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/13/23 Full Review Audience Member Very sweet movie. One of the better Christmas movies Lifetime has aired :) Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/01/23 Full Review Audience Member A great cast of Bobby Cannavale (Cupid), Carly Pope (Popular), and Christine Baranski (c'mon you know who she is) is absolutely wasted here. The script has numerous problems. Pacing, realism, characters, and especially a complete mishandling of the holiday spirit. There's numerous scenes in here that had me thinking "that's not right" and the film never fixes them. One of the final scenes with J.J. makes her a really unlikable person and her "final solution" to the conflict did little to repair that damage. These three cast members I like for good reasons, but I only wish this movie was a halfway decent feel good holiday made-for-TV movie. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/16/23 Full Review Audience Member Very cute - one of the better Christmas comedy/romance movies I've seen. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/28/23 Full Review Audience Member Carly Pope plays JJ, a newly promoted Food Critic whose flamboyant, overbearing mother moves in with her. JJ, aghast at this turn of events, then blackmails restaurant owner, Alex, to entertain her mother in exchange for "maybe" reviewing his dying restaurant. Alex predictably falls for the daughter while warming to the mother. There are numerous problems with this movie, the characters are universally 2-dimensional. JJ is a self-serving, hateful character, her mother superficial and shallow. JJ's colleagues at the magazine are bitchy and opportunistic. The underlying message of an over-50 woman unable to make it on her own, without male assistance is bad, bad, BAD. The acting is uniformly dull, the script uninspired. The films only saving grace is the setting of New York City. I would so NOT recommend this film. Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 02/12/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

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      Recipe for a Perfect Christmas

      Recipe for a Perfect Christmas (2005) Recipe for a Perfect Christmas (2005) View more photos

      Movie Info

      Synopsis A fledgling food critic (Carly Pope) agrees to visit a struggling restaurant if its chef (Bobby Cannavale) will date her meddling mother (Christine Baranski).
      Director
      Sheldon Larry
      Producer
      Joel S. Rice, Michael Prupas, Michael Jaffe
      Screenwriter
      Rachel Feldman, Susan Nanus
      Production Co
      Jaffe/Braunstein Films, WildRice Productions, Muse Entertainment Enterprises
      Genre
      Holiday, Romance, Comedy
      Original Language
      English
      Release Date (Streaming)
      Nov 30, 2016
      Runtime
      1h 36m