Hallmark has done an impressive balancing act over the last few years delivering feel good romantic movies that value family, friendship, love, AND the careers of their female characters. There's often a common theme about re-evaluating life's priorities but a woman's career isn't as quick to be abandoned for a man as it once was. Their best movies now focus on compromise and try to acknowledge the needs and realities of both of the romantic leads.
But Christmas CEO is a sad step backward. Paul Greene and Marisol Nichols are attractive and charismatic actors. Veronica Marin-Estrada was also great casting as the teen. But Greene's character is an insufferable, uncompromising, irrational dreamer with a business approach likely to drive any company he runs straight into bankruptcy. Nichol's CEO obviously ran the business so successfully after he left that she and her company were in high demand for a merger deal. But Joe Sullivan wants to make toys that cost more to make than sell. And he runs a toy hospital in his father's antique shop. I doubt that pays for his phone bill. They never saw eye to eye on how to run the company but, because he and Chris supposedly both own CJ's Toys, she needed and got his approval for a merger. But then SPOILERS: she not only dropped the merger, she somehow unilaterally dumped (?) the company ("technically no CJ's Toys.. I'm kind of a free agent"). WTF?
It's one thing to abandon the merger, but what happened to their company? Why start "Corner Stand Toys" when they already both own an existing successful company (thanks to her) called CJ's Toys and all the accumulated goodwill, manufacturing, infrastructure, distribution channels, etc. That it had? If the plot demands that these 2 mismatched people get back together, why not have a trial run with Joe going back to working for the company? He'd see the love of his life more often and they can figure out whether they can work together or not (although nothing suggested he had become more realistic about the business or, more importantly, respectful of her).
And if she sold CJs instead of merging it, that would have required a new deal, new negotiations, and a new signature from Joe. But he only signed off on the merger. None of it made any sense. I understand that timelines are routinely compressed in Christmas movies but this was ridiculous. Throw in the tired old trope of an omniscient magical Santa and ugh, that was a rare fail for Hallmark.
Fortunately, both Paul Greene and Marisol Nichols have been in far better Hallmark movies. See one of them instead.
But Christmas CEO is a sad step backward. Paul Greene and Marisol Nichols are attractive and charismatic actors. Veronica Marin-Estrada was also great casting as the teen. But Greene's character is an insufferable, uncompromising, irrational dreamer with a business approach likely to drive any company he runs straight into bankruptcy. Nichol's CEO obviously ran the business so successfully after he left that she and her company were in high demand for a merger deal. But Joe Sullivan wants to make toys that cost more to make than sell. And he runs a toy hospital in his father's antique shop. I doubt that pays for his phone bill. They never saw eye to eye on how to run the company but, because he and Chris supposedly both own CJ's Toys, she needed and got his approval for a merger. But then SPOILERS: she not only dropped the merger, she somehow unilaterally dumped (?) the company ("technically no CJ's Toys.. I'm kind of a free agent"). WTF?
It's one thing to abandon the merger, but what happened to their company? Why start "Corner Stand Toys" when they already both own an existing successful company (thanks to her) called CJ's Toys and all the accumulated goodwill, manufacturing, infrastructure, distribution channels, etc. That it had? If the plot demands that these 2 mismatched people get back together, why not have a trial run with Joe going back to working for the company? He'd see the love of his life more often and they can figure out whether they can work together or not (although nothing suggested he had become more realistic about the business or, more importantly, respectful of her).
And if she sold CJs instead of merging it, that would have required a new deal, new negotiations, and a new signature from Joe. But he only signed off on the merger. None of it made any sense. I understand that timelines are routinely compressed in Christmas movies but this was ridiculous. Throw in the tired old trope of an omniscient magical Santa and ugh, that was a rare fail for Hallmark.
Fortunately, both Paul Greene and Marisol Nichols have been in far better Hallmark movies. See one of them instead.