Emilie Ullerup is always good value in this sort of film, and brings a lot here, as a wedding in an ice castle leads to potential romance.

This is a bit of a thin Hallmark film though, almost like they booked the location and then tried to cobble a story around it.

Other than whether the Best Man is single or not there's really not a lot of a story, with even Jenny getting published taking second place to this.

There are some nice moments, but it would've been nice if there'd been a subplot/more character development along the way.

It's a so-so Hallmark film overall.

Jenny's sister Meg surprises the family by announcing her wedding in four weeks. It's a destination wedding at the ice hotel. Meg wants to set Jenny up with best man Craig. He's a widower single dad to young Sara. The trio really gets along but unknown to Jenny or Meg, he has brought along "Plus One" Lana. Lana has been close to the family since the mother's death and she expects to take the next step in their relationship.

It's a simple Hallmark romance movie. The production and actors are second tier. It does take place at an ice hotel and that's fascinating by itself. I would really consider bringing in more Christmas lights to add sparkles to the interiors. The setting may be the most interesting aspect of the movie. The story is relatively simple. The acting is passable. The chemistry is passable. Lana's exit needs to have more screen time to set the guy up. This is very Hallmark and not that good.

If you have seen your fair share of Hallmark Christmas films, it would be safe to say that you are very likely to know what to expect on the most part (there were some change of paces but not all came off). Especially regarding the pretty samey stories due to mostly following a formula, and one shouldn't expect any more. Have seen my fair share myself and have always watched them with mixed expectations. That are either met and even exceeded, or the film completely misses the mark and does little with any potential.

That was the case with 2019's 'Winter Castle', one of the below average efforts (if not quite one of the very worst) of a wildly uneven and often unimpressive year for Hallmark. Hallmark certainly did a lot worse overall, but 'Winter Castle' just doesn't have anything special to it other than it being well made. Not even the generally watchable Emilie Ullerup is enough to save it. While not a terrible film, 'Winter Castle' is a very lacklustre one with most of Hallmark's most common flaws obvious throughout.

'Winter Castle' does have its good things. It is easily one of the best looking Hallmark Christmas films there is bar none. The hotel looks absolutely incredible and one of those places where a stay would be strongly considered, and the camera clearly loves it for it to be photographed in such a picture postcard way. The music captures the Christmas feel very well and is not near as over-scored or intrusive as too many of a lot of Hallmark films.

Despite Ullerup being the most familiar name to me, the best performance actually in my view came from Meghan Heffern, as the only cast member to have any charm to her or be remotely rootable.

Sadly, the negatives in 'Winter Castle' do outweigh the positives, and the negatives are quite big. Ullerup does try, but if the writers were trying to make Jenny impossible to root for they not only succeeded at that they went too far on it. It did mean that Ullerup's usual charm and warmth practically disappear. Kevin McGarry doesn't look comfortable in a role that is little more than one of Hallmark's most overused stereotypes, and like Jenny the film takes Craig's negative traits (immaturity, shallowness) to extremes. The two don't have much chemistry together and the rest of the supporting cast don't register, including a mother that could easily pass for an older sister.

Found it very difficult to connect to the characters, apart from Lana to some degree, they are sketchily developed and the film goes too far on showing their flaws and not showing enough of the good things about them. Lets not get started on the endless frustrating and downright senseless decision making and how vague any reasoning for anything that happens is. The final 30 minutes were difficult to sit through, being very cheesy and ridiculous as well as managing to make every character impossible to like let alone love. The balcony scene was cringe-worthy in the writing.

On the writing front, 'Winter Castle' is an utter failure. The script is often excessive on the cheese and is over-sentimental in others, a lot of it sounds incredibly awkward in especially the last act. The story has its moments, but generally there is far too little of it and what there is is very standard, formulaic Hallmark and feels rather stale and contrived. Not to mention hugely far-fetched at times.

In conclusion, rather mediocre at most and left me ice cold. 4/10