As fate would have it, Nina's family leave in the Cleveland suburbs, and she goes to wait out the storm delay with them, instead of leaving for her avoid-family-Christmas vacation to Turks and Caicos. Whilst definitely not an original plot device (two people pretend they are in a relationship to resist family pressure and/or ex partners), Corey Sevier and Julianna Guill are very good as Brady and Nina, two pilots who are grounded in Cleveland in the lead-up to Christmas, thanks to Winter Storm Meghan. I even thought a sequel (never done in these romance movies, it seems) would be interesting. I enjoyed getting to know Nina and Brady. So many Christmas romance movies are goofy (lead males named Nick drive me nuts and the town having a Santa character who magically intervenes), and kudos to this movie for avoiding some of that typical sap. And the fake boyfriend ruse has been probably overused in romance movies, but it's still a popular premise (even in books), and I thought it was handled well. You can always find some leaps of faith, so to speak, in these Christmas romance movies, such as the airport being closed for several days. Even Nina realizes that she is pre-judging him without even knowing him. She meets Brady, a fellow pilot recently joining her airline, who admits that rumors have unfairly painted him as a player, and he hates it. Nina is a commercial airline pilot who has had to struggle to be accepted in her industry (she's not a bookstore or bakeshop owner, thank goodness). I think perhaps Lifetime is trying to do more realistic Christmas movies than Hallmark. The lead characters had great chemistry, and I thought Julianne Guill played her part perfectly. The setting was a refreshing one as was the basic premise, and the film even attempts not too badly a twist near the end that didn't feel shoe-horned in or implausible. Even if the locations aren't authentic they still look lovely and they are lovingly captured by the photography. ![]() Corey Sevier and Julianna Guill are both very appealing as characters not difficult to root for, both seem like they know what's they're doing, they never look stiff and they don't over-compensate. The two leads have a sweet chemistry that sparkles and helps give 'Grounded for Christmas' its heart. The dialogue flows well and avoids being too sentimental or cheesy, things that some Christmas films can be (am a fan of Christmas and of festive films just to say before anybody gets the wrong idea reading that). Once the film got going the pace was efficient enough and it doesn't feel padded or repetitive. ![]() The story though is also very charming and heart-warming. Christmas film that has a lot of similar elements to each other. Not many surprises in the story either, which tends to plan out more or less what one expects watching a Lifetime/Hallmark etc. Maybe it could have taken a little less time to get going, it's a slight drag in the early stages. Not all the supporting characters are particularly well acted, the ex-boyfriend (a one-dimensional character and excessively jerk-ish) was badly overplayed especially in my view. Sure, 'Grounded for Christmas' isn't perfect. Really liked that it wasn't as predictable as other Lifetime Christmas offerings and had a couple of attempts of being different. 'Grounded for Christmas' serves its purpose of being a film that is a relaxing way of spending a quiet December afternoon, one that didn't ever offend me and one to not demand too much from. There are also a lot worse and there are a lot of good things here. ![]() Is it a classic? No, and there are better Christmas films out there. 'Grounded for Christmas' was for me in the surprisingly good category when it came to their Christmas films. Three is somewhere in between of average and pretty good. Two is the mediocre at best category, which is often quite a bit better than the worst of Hallmark. One is the surprisingly good category, which is on the same level and sometimes better than Hallmark's more prolific festive offerings. Their Christmas output falls into three main categories. None of Lifetime's Christmas films are perfect, though one should never expect them to be.
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