All Wrapped Up.

This is the last of the 4 little movies about 4 women who own an all-year-round gift-wrapping store. My review title is apt.  I’ll try not to let the complete absence of the Magical Gift Paper Making Machine affect my rating. As if to make up for it though, Olivia’s dog Ivy gets more of the spotlight and  he is one of the most adorable Hallmark dogs ever. Ivy did not receive a much deserved screen credit for his or her role. He or she needs an agent.

While out delivering gifts that have been “All Wrapped Up” (the name of the store) a few days before The Gala, Olivia (Cindy Busby) knocks on the door of the remote vacation home of the woman who ordered them and finds herself face to face with her ex-boyfriend Ben (current occupation unknown) whom she hasn’t seen for several years. No it wasn’t one of those meddling sneaky mother set ups that Hallmark is so fond of. Ben’s mother, who has taken the rest of the family skiing leaving Ben alone in the cabin, is, as they say, “a lot”, and does not like Olivia because she blames their split on her, even though he was the one who left for New York. Anyway, being set in Minnesota in the winter, they get snowed in alone together.

This was basically a very simple and pleasant romance as the two leads slowly iron out their problems and resume their relationship. I liked it pretty well, mostly for what did not happen, rather than what did. First there were no festivals, and nothing needed to be saved. There was no flirty food fight or other silly tom foolery (Mostly because there was no food in the fridge except for a banana.) No ice skating or snowman construction or snow ball throwing. It was positively refreshing! It was just Ben and Olivia talking and stuff like finding Christmas decorations in the basement and Olivia showing Ben her bow making  accumen (bow making is Olivia’s specialty.) Ben’s mother tries to fix up Ben with Jen, the local store owner from afar, but Jen was nice. No cattiness at all. In fact, Olivia invites her back to the cabin for Christmas as her family is away. There is some simmering suspense as to what Mom’s reaction will be when she finds out that the (w)itch who broke her baby’s heart has been alone in the cabin with him the whole time.  And the confrontation did not disappoint. Mom was very rude, but is swiftly set right by Ben and all was smoothed over. Best of all, there was no last minute misunderstanding that has half of the fledgling couple stomp off into the sunset. Olivia in fact does hear part of a conversation while eavesdropping, but what she hears is Ben defending her to his mother and it seals the deal on their happy ending. That has got to be a first. Admittedly, there was a hint of “bad business” but it had to do with Jen, the nice store owner and was very much a side issue. Jen even gets a hint of a happy ending of her own. So nice.

This low key easy-going little diversion would not have worked without likable actors and characters. Ben is played by Jake Epstein who is a favorite of mine. He and Cindy made a good pair and I have always really liked Cindy Busby too. Going off topic here, but she deserves props for not hiding her age on IMDb even though she is one of the older actresses for Hallmark. She looks as great as ever and (also off-topic) her makeup is pretty and natural, as always. Seemingly, Hallmarkies either love her or hate her. But will the bridge be repaired in time for Olivia to make it to The Gala in time to win the bow-making contest? We already know the answer as we have seen Cindy’s dramatic entrance, with Ben in tow, in the three previous movies. There were some continuity problems and other head-scratchers in the movie (like why is Cindy’s dress red in the movie but gold on the poster?). But they were easy for me to shrug off. **7 stars/10**- The best of the bunch.