cammietime This is another Hallmark Christmas movie that they hit out of the park. Nowhere to be found are convenient freak snowstorms, the real Santa pretending to be a fake Santa granting magical wishes, or the all too common notorious wooden male love interest who has zero context. All in all the can of cheese was used sparingly in this movie.This movie is carried by the female lead Kimberly Sustad. She is refreshingly not perfect and does the 'cute girl next door' thing extremely well. This is a change from most Hallmark Christmas movies where the female lead looks and acts like a TV weather lady or infomercial spokeswoman. The male love interest in this movie happily has context - a firehouse team to ask him questions that round out his character. Yes, the firemen seem a little forced but that is OK. What I liked best about this movie is that compared to all other Hallmark Christmas movies this one actually did a fantastic job of truly and accurately portraying what people are like who love each other and live together. It was like this was real world and not some Hallmark la la land. It was like you could know the two leads in your real life.The cat thing was not really necessary but it was nice to see animals that are not horses incorporated into a Hallmark Christmas movie.

Prismark10 The Nine Lives of Christmas is an Hallmark festive themed romantic movie, in this case the presence of Brandon Routh made it one of its highest rated films of the year.Routh plays a hunky fireman, the kind that models for a fundraising calendar. He is going out with an attractive but shallow model, saves lives and even ends up adopting a tabby cat. An all round super guy one might say.Kimberly Sustad is studying to be a vet and holds down a job in a pet store which means she has no time for a love life.A chance meeting in a supermarket and an interest in cats means that both keep having random encounters which of course slowly leads to love even though Routh is happy to remain single and Sustad wishes to avoid commitments until she qualifies as a vet.The film only has a loose festive connection but it has plenty of easy charm even though the plot is slightly hokey.Almost 8 years after he played Superman for his one and only appearance Routh displays more charisma in this made for television film than Henry Cavill the present holder of the red cape.

edwinbcole This movie shows the lighter side of love and attraction. The comedy shows through in picking the size of ice dream container to take home or picking the right cat food or Christmas tree. They both wonder when invited to an event what to wear whether it's to a food truck or class of school children. When they run together she gives him a little shove and they share a laugh at an article in the newspaper.Gentle humor is how they get comfortable with each other through the many uncertainties of romance. He comes from a broken home. She and her sister are orphaned in their teens or so, and she is out of practice with dating while she was helping raise her younger sister and finishing her own schooling. "She says "he dates models," as if she doesn't stand a chance.Kimberly and Brandon have a great rapport in what looks to be a rushed movie. I hope they can reprise these roles again. Thanks to all.

boblipton He's a hunky fireman -- Brandon Routh, who recently played Superman -- who's going to be the cover on the calendar, with a girlfriend who's a model. Kimberly Sustad's holding down a full-time job in a pet store and studying to be a veterinarian -- she keeps falling asleep in class, only to give the complete answers in her sleep. It's obvious to even the most casual viewer what's going to happen.However, that's rarely a problem in a romantic comedy. It's always apparent from the beginning that the two leads are going to wind up together. What can be interesting is the way they get there. Here the connection is a ginger tabby that he rescues. Thereafter circumstances keep throwing them together, as do their friends, with all the subtlety of jackhammers -- the leads never notice.The movie is chock full of extraneous characters who show up for a scene or two to motivate the action and then vanish -- presumably they are fitted in better in the book this is based on. The Christmas aspect of the movie is incidental.However the leads perform their roles with a great deal of anxious charm, and the cat they got for the ginger tabby is a charming clown. More than good enough.