I don't really like the story of Miss Christmas, but I keep coming back to it every year because of the acting. Brooke D'Orsay and Marc Blucas manage to inject drama into the cheesy Hallmark plot and turn it into one of the great ones. If you blew this one off last year because the one-sentence synopsis sounded silly, take my advice and watch it this year when you see it on the Hallmark schedule.

Brooke D'Orsay plays a beautiful peppy career woman in charge of finding the perfect (and gigantic) Christmas tree every year for the annual Chicago lighting ceremony. Because of her festive television appearances, she's acquired the nickname "Miss Christmas". A little boy writes her a letter enclosing a photograph of a perfect (and gigantic) Christmas tree on his family farm, and she travels to the small town to talk his family into donating it. Most people are thrilled to donate their tree and see it on television, but the boy's father, Marc Blucas, adamantly refuses. He explains that the tree is a family heirloom, and while I'm completely on his side, Brooke stays in town a few days to continue the argument. I know the conflict in this story seems a little petty, but trust me and stick with it.

Brooke has an infectious charm that goes beyond the normal Hallmark "Christmas cavity". Even though it's her job to convince them to donate the tree, she's still very sympathetic to their feelings and treats them as real people, rather than sounding boards bouncing off her script. As the movie progresses, you can actually see her breaking down Marc's guard. He's very believable as a divorcée who doesn't want to get hurt again. Falling in love with a businesswoman in town for only a few days is risky, but he just can't help himself. When he describes his feelings, that his new fondness for the holidays is her natural glow rather than just Christmas cheer, he actually gets tears in his eyes. It's a cheesy Hallmark scene on paper, but they make it romantic and moving on the screen. If this type of Hallmark appeals to you, rent Miss Christmas. If this sounds like too much realism, stick with the silly ones like The Sweetest Christmas instead.

The title is on the corny side but was appetising and cute enough. There is absolutely nothing novel or innovative about the story, but there was the potential if done decently it could have some charm without being too sweet. Hallmark Christmas films are a very mixed bag and one should never expect too much from them, but they have shown more than once amidst all their average and less efforts that they are capable of above average and even surprisingly good festive films.

'Miss Christmas' left me a bit mixed in terms of what my opinion on it was overall. It is a long way from being a terrible film in my view and served its purpose as a just scraping borderline average, inoffensive film. Other Hallmark Christmas films are far worse written, acted and looking and ones that bored, annoyed and insulted the intelligence more. Sadly, 'Miss Christmas' didn't strike me as particularly good either, with a lot of the usual flaws apparent. It does have good things.

And those good things are going to be mentioned first. Visually, 'Miss Christmas' looks quite good with it being shot and lit well and while standard the settings were appealing at least. The music has some affectionate nostalgia that does give off a festive vibe.

Brooke D'Orsay is appealing in the female lead role and Marc Blucas is a charming leading man who looks comfortable and looked engaged with the material. They do have a nice natural, genuine chemistry together, it's standard but there is spark and charm with them. Some of the film is heart-warming and sweet, with good intentions evident and doesn't feel too heavy.

However, 'Miss Christmas' is easy to criticise regardless of how one approaches the film and tries to take it for what it is. None of the supporting actors stand out and provide very little variation on nearly every character cliche in the book. Or at least that's how it felt like. The story doesn't have enough to it. Actually don't mind awfully that it was very formulaic.

What bothered me was that there was very unimaginatively executed, was really not much of one at all, had some fairly contrived situations and the film gets so sweet (too much so) in places it was almost sickly. Everything with the tree started off well but got ridiculous later. The script is similarly thin and quite routine, tending to have an awkward flow and was excessively cheesy and schmaltzy. By the end, which while sweet can indeed be seen from miles off, of the film it was one big pile of sloppy mush. Pacing can be a problem, with the story being too little a lot of the film crawls along and feels over-stretched. The direction is only functional at best and can be on the leaden side of things.

Overall, watchable but merely average. 5/10

Miss Christmas is one of the more pleasant festive films from Hallmark.

Holly is a Christmas tree finder for Chicago's annual Radcliffe Tree lighting.

When a mishap occurs to the tree that was originally selected, Holly sets out to find a last minute replacement when she gets a letter from a little boy with a photo of the perfect Christmas tree.

Holly goes off to the small town, the little boy's dad is reluctant to part with the tree. In fact dad is not feeling very festive but he is divorced and sort of hot looking.

Holly needs to persuade dad and his family why the tree should go to Chicago.

Corporates in Chicago pressurise her to do a deal quickly and even tell her that her job is on the line.

Well it is not a Hallmark Christmas film without a subtext that small town homeliness is good, corporate city living is bad.