IMDb RATING
6.2/10
3.6K
YOUR RATING
When a Princess escapes her entourage to explore New York City over Christmas, she meets a young man who shows the beautiful stranger his side of the city.When a Princess escapes her entourage to explore New York City over Christmas, she meets a young man who shows the beautiful stranger his side of the city.When a Princess escapes her entourage to explore New York City over Christmas, she meets a young man who shows the beautiful stranger his side of the city.
Alessandro Miro
- Shifty Man
- (as Al Miro)
Drew Ray Tanner
- Concierge
- (as Drew Tanner)
- Director
- James Head(attached)
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaGreg Evigan (George) is the father of Briana Evigan (Katie) in real life.
- GoofsThe movie starts with a stock NYC December footage. Then you see Theresa and young Katie inside Sheraton Vancouver Airport Hotel. They soon go out, and you can see a lot of beautiful green bushes, plants and deciduous trees with a bit of faux snow on the sidewalk. The movie jumps 20 years, and again the same scene at Sheraton Hotel and yet again outside of hotel just 5 days before Christmas, again a lot of green bushes, plants and deciduous trees. Furthermore, movie used a lot of December NYC stock footage, and almost every time after it there was a scene in city or in the front of Jack and Emma's house with a lot of green bushes, plants and deciduous trees. Of course, green trees in the mid of December in NYC is impossible, so movie was probably shot in September. And there is more - the final scene takes place in Romania on Christmas Day, and yet again in the town center there were a lot of green bushes, plants and deciduous trees just sprayed with faux snow.
- ConnectionsReferences It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
- SoundtracksDeck the Halls
(uncredited)
Featured review
A royal holiday
This rating and some of the review is probably going to sound like it has been written by somebody who hates Christmas and criticises anything Hallmark and festive. Far from the truth on all counts. Have seen some surprisingly good Hallmark films, festive and overall, and have liked some of the Christmas films seen recently from this year because they succeeded in charming the viewer and warming the heart regardless of the cliches and formulaic storytelling.
'Once Upon a Holiday' is not one of the best of my recent Christmas film viewings seen as such a fan of Christmas and needing some serious distracting from health woes. Neither is it one of the worst. Somewhere in the solid middle if anything. It is certainly watchable and much better than the basic plotline looks like on the page, with some things noticeably done quite well. 'Once Upon a Holiday' is also not a great film either, with some obvious flaws that are as noticeable as the good things. So not a must see but far from a must avoid as well.
Will start with 'Once Upon a Holiday's' good things. It is nicely photographed and has a quite magical atmosphere in its best parts. Always love nostalgic festive soundtracks, and 'Once Upon a Holiday' is no exception to that. There is nothing mean-spirited about it, it is generally very charming and it does warm the heart enough.
Did like the nice subtle humour present in the film, there is an easy-going chemistry and Paul Campbell is a very likeable male lead. Greg Evigan is the standout in a more than serviceable supporting cast.
For all those good things, 'Once Upon a Holiday' does have debits too. Briana Evigan really doesn't fit her role, the voice and attitude sounded and felt all wrong and like the role needed somebody more at ease and looked and sounded younger. The dialogue has its moments but really could have done with more energy and too much is very forced and cheesy. The location never looked authentic and at times had a cheap look.
Predictability is inevitable in festive Hallmark films, but the predictability here was excessive with at times contrived situations and stereotypical characters and the pace was like the dialogue, more energy was needed. The ending was cute but quite pat.
Summing up, watchable but not great. 5/10
'Once Upon a Holiday' is not one of the best of my recent Christmas film viewings seen as such a fan of Christmas and needing some serious distracting from health woes. Neither is it one of the worst. Somewhere in the solid middle if anything. It is certainly watchable and much better than the basic plotline looks like on the page, with some things noticeably done quite well. 'Once Upon a Holiday' is also not a great film either, with some obvious flaws that are as noticeable as the good things. So not a must see but far from a must avoid as well.
Will start with 'Once Upon a Holiday's' good things. It is nicely photographed and has a quite magical atmosphere in its best parts. Always love nostalgic festive soundtracks, and 'Once Upon a Holiday' is no exception to that. There is nothing mean-spirited about it, it is generally very charming and it does warm the heart enough.
Did like the nice subtle humour present in the film, there is an easy-going chemistry and Paul Campbell is a very likeable male lead. Greg Evigan is the standout in a more than serviceable supporting cast.
For all those good things, 'Once Upon a Holiday' does have debits too. Briana Evigan really doesn't fit her role, the voice and attitude sounded and felt all wrong and like the role needed somebody more at ease and looked and sounded younger. The dialogue has its moments but really could have done with more energy and too much is very forced and cheesy. The location never looked authentic and at times had a cheap look.
Predictability is inevitable in festive Hallmark films, but the predictability here was excessive with at times contrived situations and stereotypical characters and the pace was like the dialogue, more energy was needed. The ending was cute but quite pat.
Summing up, watchable but not great. 5/10
helpful•41
- TheLittleSongbird
- Dec 24, 2019
Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Official site
- Language
- Also known as
- Once Upon a Christmas
- Filming locations
- Bran Castle, Bran, Brasov, Romania(final kiss)
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
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