Was feeling under the weather and selected this movie for light-hearted entertainment. Shawn Roberts shines as the lead and Jewel had some funny moments. Good movie, gorgeous scenery and easy story. warm up some cocoa and slip into a cheerful little film.
30 Reviews
A Winter Horror Film
william-aaron-kelly24 December 2018
Warning: Spoilers
So this movie is lowkey a horror movie. If you would just change out the silly quirky music in the background and put something a little more ominous, you would see why.
First thing first is WOW. The sexual tension you feel from the main characters is enough to make the lower lumbar in your spine to give you that feeling of twisting and clinching as if you are about to get a spinal tap. The second thing I have to say is WOW. Redford is pretty hot. With that said, he is the ONLY character in this movie you will like. Let's dive in, shall we?
It took us a while to figure out that they were possibly in Canada. We assumed that these people were in Alaska or maybe somewhere like North Dakota, but to make the story feel a little more adventurous, wild and interesting, we're going to say they were in Maine. The movie starts out of this remote, nearly abandoned town in the far Northern part of Maine called Sorenson Lake. A typically annoying type of false genuine behaviored woman named Kate decided that she need to run off to this town and teach the children her knowledge she brought up there with her from her "big little city" of Snowy Pines in Southern Maine.
Her school year is over and they are all throwing Kate a party at this elementary school. At first, there is a children's play or something and they all of the sudden just disappear. That's when this party starts getting a little edgier with the apparent spiking of the punch and this one teacher is gyrating her hips in wide circles against a chair and twerking. You don't really know what's actually going until the teacher stops gyrating and clearly exhausted, walks up to Kate out of breath to explain she is getting an award from the equally party animal principal.
Kate says thanks and disappears into a classroom with an iPad to where she starts explaining to her insanely boring and creep fiancé, Brad, about how excited she is to get on the plane tomorrow and run to Snowy Pines to get married. Brad, however, seems a little disinterested and falsely pretends to care. He states that he has to leave and we can only conclude that someone is under the table doing something bad. Never proven, but a really strong theory and you will see why I think this.
Kate then goes home to get some shut eye before she has to catch her plane. Overnight there is a raging blizzard that releases havoc on Sorenson Lake and now she is worried she won't be able to catch her plane. That's when she proceeds to throw her luggage above the heap of snow blockading her door and climbs out of her house (never shuts the door) and then realizes her car is buried. Here you would think that she knew her flight had to be canceled, but this is when it gets grand. She WALKS to this shack and it leaves you wondering what is she doing here? Turns out this is the "airport" she was going to. Well there's no pilot or plane there and she is left lost, scared and confused. But things get interesting when this strikingly gorgeous and mysterious man shows up to obviously STEAL something from this "airport" and Kate becomes very demanding of him.
He's like "hey back off" I have to go somewhere and she is being an absolute brat and forcing him to take her to Snowy Pines. You will never really understand how she knows for sure that he is also going to Snowy Pines, but it ends up all too convenient. You would also think that these two would already know each other coming from the same small town in where I like to think is Southern Maine, but I guess not? I guess they all figured out a way to absolutely ignore each other.
Redford just makes like a lobster and gets the shell out of dodge, once again leaving Kate alone. She manages to run up to a house of one of the children she taught and asks to borrow their snowmobile. However, in the magical terrain of what I'm calling Maine, she somehow manages to catch up to Redford who is lost. He knows she is following him and his mildly helping her, but sabotaging her at the same time.
This is where the sexual tension starts heating the hell up and you're looking around thinking wow, I'm so inspired to love. Redford jumps his snowmobile off this hill and Kate pulls up and says "what the heck man?" He says "WTF GO HOME." She decides she is going to jump this huge hill in this mediocre snowmobile that she either borrow, stole or bought (you never really figure that out) and crashes it. She falls off and doesn't move. She's clearly fine, but Redford freaks out and immediately gets on top of her and starts unbuttoning her clothes. Not really sure if that was needed for the CPR process and it seemed a little melodramatic and presumptuous to assume CPR was needed, but she wakes up and she's like "omg get off."
She stomps, whines and cries some more about needing to get to Snowy Pines. Redford says "FINE. ONE BAG ONLY" and we learn that this is going to be a wild trip for three days.
In this time, NO ONE of Kate's family is concerned. Kate could be dead and they haven't heard from her at all and they are just going on with day-to-day business as if this wedding wasn't postponed at the last minute due to severe weather. We meet her ghoulish, even creepier father, who is OBSESSED with Brad. Kate's mother is definitely on some kind of happy pills and is pretending to be ok, but we know she's miserable in her life. Kate's younger sister, Cindy, is trying to seduce the hell out of Brad and her father keeps giving her little slaps on the wrist about while simultaneously encouraging her to with slight nods and winks. It's my theory that Brad has cheated on Kate before with Cindy when they were on the iPad, but I don't know if these producers and screenwriters are smart enough to come up with that idea. So just a rough theory I'm working with here. There's this scene where you all will cringe, but can't look away, because it's so bizarre. Kate's dad forces Brad to take his shoes and socks off and forcibly pushes to him press hit feet super hard into some carpet and share a nearly-sexual moment with him on a chair. After that, Brad goes up to his room and falls into Cindy's seduction and accidentally breaks her nose. These people were a party for sure. Great personalities. Super lovely.
So moving on back to the Kate and Redford's journey this is where the plot thickens to a possible horror movie. Redford is driving at night and decides that they need to break and enter to this seemingly fully-furnished and stocked "abandoned" home to sleep for the night. Redford asks Kate to start a fire in the fireplace and she then continues to act confused about it, starts dumping lighter fluid all over the places, sets her sleeve on fire which magically blew the roof off for a second. Redford, rolls his eyes and finds his first excuse to get naked. This makes Kate squirm but she can't get him off her mind now. Redford puts some clothes on and goes out to drop some deuces in the outhouse. While he is doing this we see this large figure with a gun come out and go into the house. We legitimately started getting terrified at this point, because we were like what the heck was that? Who is that?
The owner of this house is an insane trapper who is pointing the gun at Kate and Redford. He's asking Redford to put a price on Kate's skin as if he were going to skin her alive and sell the pelt. Then finally Redford begs him to get her away and out of the house. Trapper agrees and then this is when things get kind of wacky. HE STARTS BEGGING REDFORD TO STAY AND HAVE SEX WITH HIM. He was about to force himself upon Redford until Kate stops it. Then Redford knocks him out and they run. That's when the trapper comes out crying and rolling on the ground talking about how lonely he was. We as the audience started feeling super sad for the trapper, because he is lonely. That's when our pal Derek had to remind us that the trapper was about to sexually abuse Redford and we like uh wait duh. Bye Trapper.
Kate forces them to cross a frozen river where the ice breaks and nearly kills Redford. He has a seizure from hypothermia, but Kate makes a tiny fire that saves him. More canoodling and nudity happen here from Redford, but then Kate kept ruining it. She forced Redford to stop so she can pee. She makes him help her unzip the jumpsuit, because she REFUSES to take off the mittens she's wearing. A bear comes up. They have to play dead, the bear starts irrationally roaring, runs up to the snowmobile and eats their food and runs off pushing the snowmobile on it's side. INSTEAD OF TURNING THE SNOWMOBILE RIGHT SIDE UP THEY DECIDE IT'S BROKEN AND MUST CONTINUE ON FOOT. They decide they are going to break into another house. Kate gets caught by this giant naked man. He starts reasonably chasing them out while Kate steals food and alcohol. Redford manages to steal a tractor and the slowly zoom off. The tractor runs out of gas about 20 feet ahead and they continue on foot.
They stumble on to this sex motel in the middle of nowhere that somehow is not-vacant except for one room. This whole time by the way, Kate has been pestering Redford about this woman named "Jodi" he is visiting and she keeps sneaking through his stuff when he's not looking. Kate is finally about to give herself up to him, because they are now in love with each other and Redford is clearly way hotter and way cooler than her creepy fiancé back at home. However, Kate completely ruins this when she starts creeping through his things again and starts YELLING and BERATING Redford over having a life.
From here they magically get back to Snowy Pines and Kate questioning her decisions and her mom is telling her to not marry Brad. Redford turns out to have a stepdaughter he cares about from a previous marriage and Jodi is his mom he was visiting. Kate says no at the wedding and runs outside where Redford is waiting. They kiss and drive off. Brad hooks up with Cindy. The dad winks.
This movie would be a 10 if all of the characters weren't horrible.
First thing first is WOW. The sexual tension you feel from the main characters is enough to make the lower lumbar in your spine to give you that feeling of twisting and clinching as if you are about to get a spinal tap. The second thing I have to say is WOW. Redford is pretty hot. With that said, he is the ONLY character in this movie you will like. Let's dive in, shall we?
It took us a while to figure out that they were possibly in Canada. We assumed that these people were in Alaska or maybe somewhere like North Dakota, but to make the story feel a little more adventurous, wild and interesting, we're going to say they were in Maine. The movie starts out of this remote, nearly abandoned town in the far Northern part of Maine called Sorenson Lake. A typically annoying type of false genuine behaviored woman named Kate decided that she need to run off to this town and teach the children her knowledge she brought up there with her from her "big little city" of Snowy Pines in Southern Maine.
Her school year is over and they are all throwing Kate a party at this elementary school. At first, there is a children's play or something and they all of the sudden just disappear. That's when this party starts getting a little edgier with the apparent spiking of the punch and this one teacher is gyrating her hips in wide circles against a chair and twerking. You don't really know what's actually going until the teacher stops gyrating and clearly exhausted, walks up to Kate out of breath to explain she is getting an award from the equally party animal principal.
Kate says thanks and disappears into a classroom with an iPad to where she starts explaining to her insanely boring and creep fiancé, Brad, about how excited she is to get on the plane tomorrow and run to Snowy Pines to get married. Brad, however, seems a little disinterested and falsely pretends to care. He states that he has to leave and we can only conclude that someone is under the table doing something bad. Never proven, but a really strong theory and you will see why I think this.
Kate then goes home to get some shut eye before she has to catch her plane. Overnight there is a raging blizzard that releases havoc on Sorenson Lake and now she is worried she won't be able to catch her plane. That's when she proceeds to throw her luggage above the heap of snow blockading her door and climbs out of her house (never shuts the door) and then realizes her car is buried. Here you would think that she knew her flight had to be canceled, but this is when it gets grand. She WALKS to this shack and it leaves you wondering what is she doing here? Turns out this is the "airport" she was going to. Well there's no pilot or plane there and she is left lost, scared and confused. But things get interesting when this strikingly gorgeous and mysterious man shows up to obviously STEAL something from this "airport" and Kate becomes very demanding of him.
He's like "hey back off" I have to go somewhere and she is being an absolute brat and forcing him to take her to Snowy Pines. You will never really understand how she knows for sure that he is also going to Snowy Pines, but it ends up all too convenient. You would also think that these two would already know each other coming from the same small town in where I like to think is Southern Maine, but I guess not? I guess they all figured out a way to absolutely ignore each other.
Redford just makes like a lobster and gets the shell out of dodge, once again leaving Kate alone. She manages to run up to a house of one of the children she taught and asks to borrow their snowmobile. However, in the magical terrain of what I'm calling Maine, she somehow manages to catch up to Redford who is lost. He knows she is following him and his mildly helping her, but sabotaging her at the same time.
This is where the sexual tension starts heating the hell up and you're looking around thinking wow, I'm so inspired to love. Redford jumps his snowmobile off this hill and Kate pulls up and says "what the heck man?" He says "WTF GO HOME." She decides she is going to jump this huge hill in this mediocre snowmobile that she either borrow, stole or bought (you never really figure that out) and crashes it. She falls off and doesn't move. She's clearly fine, but Redford freaks out and immediately gets on top of her and starts unbuttoning her clothes. Not really sure if that was needed for the CPR process and it seemed a little melodramatic and presumptuous to assume CPR was needed, but she wakes up and she's like "omg get off."
She stomps, whines and cries some more about needing to get to Snowy Pines. Redford says "FINE. ONE BAG ONLY" and we learn that this is going to be a wild trip for three days.
In this time, NO ONE of Kate's family is concerned. Kate could be dead and they haven't heard from her at all and they are just going on with day-to-day business as if this wedding wasn't postponed at the last minute due to severe weather. We meet her ghoulish, even creepier father, who is OBSESSED with Brad. Kate's mother is definitely on some kind of happy pills and is pretending to be ok, but we know she's miserable in her life. Kate's younger sister, Cindy, is trying to seduce the hell out of Brad and her father keeps giving her little slaps on the wrist about while simultaneously encouraging her to with slight nods and winks. It's my theory that Brad has cheated on Kate before with Cindy when they were on the iPad, but I don't know if these producers and screenwriters are smart enough to come up with that idea. So just a rough theory I'm working with here. There's this scene where you all will cringe, but can't look away, because it's so bizarre. Kate's dad forces Brad to take his shoes and socks off and forcibly pushes to him press hit feet super hard into some carpet and share a nearly-sexual moment with him on a chair. After that, Brad goes up to his room and falls into Cindy's seduction and accidentally breaks her nose. These people were a party for sure. Great personalities. Super lovely.
So moving on back to the Kate and Redford's journey this is where the plot thickens to a possible horror movie. Redford is driving at night and decides that they need to break and enter to this seemingly fully-furnished and stocked "abandoned" home to sleep for the night. Redford asks Kate to start a fire in the fireplace and she then continues to act confused about it, starts dumping lighter fluid all over the places, sets her sleeve on fire which magically blew the roof off for a second. Redford, rolls his eyes and finds his first excuse to get naked. This makes Kate squirm but she can't get him off her mind now. Redford puts some clothes on and goes out to drop some deuces in the outhouse. While he is doing this we see this large figure with a gun come out and go into the house. We legitimately started getting terrified at this point, because we were like what the heck was that? Who is that?
The owner of this house is an insane trapper who is pointing the gun at Kate and Redford. He's asking Redford to put a price on Kate's skin as if he were going to skin her alive and sell the pelt. Then finally Redford begs him to get her away and out of the house. Trapper agrees and then this is when things get kind of wacky. HE STARTS BEGGING REDFORD TO STAY AND HAVE SEX WITH HIM. He was about to force himself upon Redford until Kate stops it. Then Redford knocks him out and they run. That's when the trapper comes out crying and rolling on the ground talking about how lonely he was. We as the audience started feeling super sad for the trapper, because he is lonely. That's when our pal Derek had to remind us that the trapper was about to sexually abuse Redford and we like uh wait duh. Bye Trapper.
Kate forces them to cross a frozen river where the ice breaks and nearly kills Redford. He has a seizure from hypothermia, but Kate makes a tiny fire that saves him. More canoodling and nudity happen here from Redford, but then Kate kept ruining it. She forced Redford to stop so she can pee. She makes him help her unzip the jumpsuit, because she REFUSES to take off the mittens she's wearing. A bear comes up. They have to play dead, the bear starts irrationally roaring, runs up to the snowmobile and eats their food and runs off pushing the snowmobile on it's side. INSTEAD OF TURNING THE SNOWMOBILE RIGHT SIDE UP THEY DECIDE IT'S BROKEN AND MUST CONTINUE ON FOOT. They decide they are going to break into another house. Kate gets caught by this giant naked man. He starts reasonably chasing them out while Kate steals food and alcohol. Redford manages to steal a tractor and the slowly zoom off. The tractor runs out of gas about 20 feet ahead and they continue on foot.
They stumble on to this sex motel in the middle of nowhere that somehow is not-vacant except for one room. This whole time by the way, Kate has been pestering Redford about this woman named "Jodi" he is visiting and she keeps sneaking through his stuff when he's not looking. Kate is finally about to give herself up to him, because they are now in love with each other and Redford is clearly way hotter and way cooler than her creepy fiancé back at home. However, Kate completely ruins this when she starts creeping through his things again and starts YELLING and BERATING Redford over having a life.
From here they magically get back to Snowy Pines and Kate questioning her decisions and her mom is telling her to not marry Brad. Redford turns out to have a stepdaughter he cares about from a previous marriage and Jodi is his mom he was visiting. Kate says no at the wedding and runs outside where Redford is waiting. They kiss and drive off. Brad hooks up with Cindy. The dad winks.
This movie would be a 10 if all of the characters weren't horrible.
Although cute in the end... took a while to get there
jdkassing5 December 2018
I definitely thought that this ending was sweet. But the beginning and middle were slow. And that's what makes a movie. It's worth a first watch, if you're like me and love romantic Christmas movies. But I definitely won't be watching again :-/. As much as I dislike giving a review as such, I want to be honest! Maybe you will find it more romantic than I did!
Dreadful
PeterMovie613 December 2019
Pretty common RomCom
nancyldraper6 January 2019
It is what it is - unrealistic, overplayed (clearly a director's choice of tone) and a waste of talent. Jewel Staite and Shaun Johnston can handle meatier roles. But Shawn Roberts is definitely gorgeous. The Canadian landscape is also pretty remarkable. This is typical RomCom fare these days. I give this film a 6 (fait) out of 10. {RomCom}
A dictionary adjective for rom-com IS cheesy, but I enjoyed it.
theparent9 February 2020
Warning: Spoilers
Mikey P from Letterboxd.com wrote, "for once it's not about a woman magazine editor living in NYC who has to come back to her country hometown only to get with the local cowboy who has nothing in common with her except abs." LOL
Kate quit teaching in her small Canadian town to move back to the big city for her wedding. A blizzard strikes, the airport and roads are closed, so Redford reluctantly becomes Kate's wilderness guide to the city though the COLD woods. Kate was an annoying know-it-all, a doormat for groping coworkers, and a demanding princess when the weather didn't bow to her will. Predictable, slapstick humor, silly, shallow, completely unrealistic moments. The gay fur trapper was funny.
Kate quit teaching in her small Canadian town to move back to the big city for her wedding. A blizzard strikes, the airport and roads are closed, so Redford reluctantly becomes Kate's wilderness guide to the city though the COLD woods. Kate was an annoying know-it-all, a doormat for groping coworkers, and a demanding princess when the weather didn't bow to her will. Predictable, slapstick humor, silly, shallow, completely unrealistic moments. The gay fur trapper was funny.
For a schoolteacher, this character was just plain dumb.
cjwsbw6 December 2018
Warning: Spoilers
This is a RomCom Christmas movie, so everything about it predicatable. What makes one movie more interesting than the next is how actors portray their characters.
Schoolteacher Kate (Jewel Staite) has a problem. She is to be married in a couple days, but has been snowed in, and her flight has been grounded. Enter the handsome, moody guy with a snowmobile...and his own agenda. He COULD get her to the church in three days, but doesn't wanna. After that, blah, blah, blah, then probably a happy ending. I say probably because I turned it off after 26 minutes. Why? Because Kate was beyond lacking common sense: she was just plain dumb.
It's an actor's job to portray a character in certain ways. If Kate has been an airhead, everything idiotic would have been understandable, but she was an elementary schoolteacher, meaning she was a college graduate who possessed at least a little common sense. No college graduate would have done the moronic things she did, e.g. walk to the small airport after a record snowfall, expecting the single engine planes to be flying; unpack her suitcase looking for her phone, dropping all her clothes on the ground, leaving them there; using the pull cord that starts the 50 year-old snowmobile engine, then drop it on the ground with a shrug as if to say "I don't know what that's for"; steer the 50 year-old snowmobile in a flying leap off an embankment instead of easing down the slope gently, thereby rendering it uselesss; try to light fire logs directly using a single match, even after she was told where the kindling was; finds a bottle of lighter fluid, then squirts it not only on the logs, but all around the hearth area as well; staring at the fire that's burning on her coat sleeve, requiring Mr. handsome-but-moody to throw her in the snow.
I can be entertained by airhead-lacks-common sense, but I cannot painfully watch college-educated-yet-completely-dumb. It's as if Jewel Staite was just trying too hard to make it work.
A Lukewarm Romance
danrs00000825 December 2021
Warning: Spoilers
The only reason I watched this movie was to see Jewel Straits. I liked her in Firefly. Here however I think the producers left her character looking rather dumb and helpless. It was interesting to see Jewel driving the small snow mobile, but I hated seeing her do things like crashing said machine and almost burning down a cabin. I'm also not convinced that a few days and nights with this guy in the frozen outdoors is enough reason to marry someone, but what do I know? Mabey Jewel's character was engaged to a dud to begin with, or mabey she's just not particular about with whom she spends her life. Anyway, I've got to find a better movie starring Jewel Straite.
Not bad, not good. Heroine was terrible
objection-4745627 July 2018
(Some spoilers but nothing major)
When you sit down for a movie like this, you know what to expect. Saccharine sweetness that makes you want to roll your eyes but sometimes these movies surprise you so, like me, you remain ever hopeful.
Unfortunately the biggest problem in this movie is Kate. Annoying Kate who thinks she knows everything. Invites herself to go on this journey with Redford and then is absolutely NOT helpful at all. Nearly sets the barn on fire, attracts a bear to their belongings because of course she doesn't listen to him.
She can do it all, but does she help carry anything along the way? Nope.
Does she listen to him about the ice? Not even a little bit.
This movie would have been tolerable if Kate had been a better person.
This movie would have been tolerable if Kate had been a better person.
Canada Locations Look Great- Plot Falls Short
DKosty1239 December 2018
Warning: Spoilers
The story here is pretty much standard in that a woman on her way to her wedding gets into a crisis with another man. The man gets her out of the crisis and as she gets closer and closer to him and her wedding, she has second thoughts. The trouble is that the script seems very unnatural.
I mean, the crisis makes the main characters both look stupid, even though they are supposed to be intelligent. The sequences where they fall in the thin ice water and build a fire to save their lives do not seem practical. The shock of the ice water would have killed most people. Then, the fact that they are carrying a cell phone with them the entire time and do not call for help when they are lost? Hard to explain that one.
Of course then there is the strange attempt by the younger sister of trying to seduce her fiance while her sister is out of touch in a crisis adventure. The fiance character seems shallow and unreal. To me, the Canadian scenery is easily the best thing about the film. I would appreciate the actors more if they had been given a better script to work with. Like the crisis, the script runs out of gas.
I mean, the crisis makes the main characters both look stupid, even though they are supposed to be intelligent. The sequences where they fall in the thin ice water and build a fire to save their lives do not seem practical. The shock of the ice water would have killed most people. Then, the fact that they are carrying a cell phone with them the entire time and do not call for help when they are lost? Hard to explain that one.
Of course then there is the strange attempt by the younger sister of trying to seduce her fiance while her sister is out of touch in a crisis adventure. The fiance character seems shallow and unreal. To me, the Canadian scenery is easily the best thing about the film. I would appreciate the actors more if they had been given a better script to work with. Like the crisis, the script runs out of gas.
Absolutely adorable
ottertail12329 November 2018
I grew up in Northern Minnesota so I was very appreciative of all the truly real scenes (snowdrifts up to the top of your front door). I loved this movie. Both characters are charming & real. They're kind & loveable & this film made my heart smile!
I hate almost every character in this movie
Saw-it-on-Tubi19 January 2021
There are a lot of fun, cheesy rom-coms out there, so don't waste your time with this one.
The movie seems to specialize in unlikable characters. The leads were neither charming nor endearing. On top of that, new characters would show up and also be terrible to watch, like the fur trapper or the assistant principal.
I couldn't wait for the leads to get together, but only because I wanted the woman's fiancé back home to be able to get away from her and her crazy family. I don't think that was the filmmaker's vision.
The movie seems to specialize in unlikable characters. The leads were neither charming nor endearing. On top of that, new characters would show up and also be terrible to watch, like the fur trapper or the assistant principal.
I couldn't wait for the leads to get together, but only because I wanted the woman's fiancé back home to be able to get away from her and her crazy family. I don't think that was the filmmaker's vision.
Not my idea of a Christmas Rom/Com
Jackbv1234 January 2019
Through more than half of this movie, I hated everyone, but Kate most of all. It surprises me how annoying Kate is given that she was so beloved at her school. Kate is what I would call mean to Redford, but he certainly did nothing to endear himself to her. On the other hand, it's not surprising that she might be a mean person given her father who has his picture in the dictionary next to narcissist. It's disappointing to me because I normally like Jewel Staite.
I guess stupidity, rudeness, assault and social ineptness are funny for some, but for me too much of them is annoying. The scene with the trapper also is not funny and doesn't belong in a Rom/Com.
Eventually there are a few laughs although the stupidity is still a bit much.
There is an interesting development near the end. I sure didn't see it coming, but I don't care for what followed or at least not how it happened.
I guess stupidity, rudeness, assault and social ineptness are funny for some, but for me too much of them is annoying. The scene with the trapper also is not funny and doesn't belong in a Rom/Com.
Eventually there are a few laughs although the stupidity is still a bit much.
There is an interesting development near the end. I sure didn't see it coming, but I don't care for what followed or at least not how it happened.
The scenery was pretty
kholton-267224 September 2021
So bad, it's kinda good
gmaileatsyourlunch16 January 2021
Warning: Spoilers
This review is full of spoilers. In fact I give the whole movie away to explain how bad it is and why maybe it's even good. Look away now if you must experience this icy train wreck yourself. Otherwise...
Remember Jewel Staite, the plucky engine mechanic from Firefly? Well, 2015 was not her comeback year. In A Frosty Affair she plays Kate Carter, a grammar school teacher who's leaving her small, remote town for good to get married, but a massive snow storm shuts down the town's tiny airport and the roads won't be cleared in time for her to get to the altar. Drastic measures must be taken and she buys the most pathetic-looking Charlie Brown Christmas tree snowmobile and partners up with Redford, a classic brooding, outdoorsman type who says two words between scowls. The two begin an unlikely partnership and embark on a Planes, Trains and Automobiles trek through the wilderness to get to the nearest town of any significance. Near death and hijinks ensue.
Holy moly is this film laden with ineptness and short cuts. Like at the start of the film, a huge snow drift has piled up in front of Kate's house. She throws her luggage through the small gap and then shimmies out behind it and body surfs to the driveway. Apparently, as she's leaving town she's just going to leave the door wide open to the elements. Anyway, then she walks in knee-deep snow for a mile to the airport, dragging her luggage behind her, only to learn to the surprise of no one, it's shut down. Begging the question, why didn't she just call first?
And that's the tip of the iceberg. The film machine guns these ridiculous contrivances and goofy setups to move the plot along and attempt a laugh on the way, and yet they're the kind of leaps more appropriate for children's cartoons. But that's only the case when they aren't extremely messed up. I'm not kidding. In the first five minutes her boss is trying to hook up with her before she leaves town while she's still, as he puts it, "free". Her sister is trying to hook up with her fiancé. Kate and Redford find a seemingly deserted cabin and stay the night, only to be woken up by the crazy old coot in the woods, who wonders how much Kate would go for as a prostitute before kicking her out and then moving in to sexually assault Redford, Deliverance-style. And believe me, there's more.
Eventually the pair lose their snowmobile to a grizzly bear and continue on foot, and it takes on a wilderness survival angle with low IQ results. All of this is made even more bizarre and confusing since it's set to a lighthearted derpy derp derp soundtrack. Scenes of mortal danger are handled varyingly with a carefree "oopsie" breeziness, to actual seriousness. We never really know how this film wants to be taken and it changes its mind often.
While Kate and Redford are warming up to the idea of leaving their respective significant others and shacking up Wild America style, there's a whole side-setting involving Kate's fiance and her family. Her father, played by Shaun Johnston, looks like a cross between R. Lee Ermey and Huey Lewis, and when it comes to being the beleaguered father-of-the-bride, boy he plays the hell out of this role, whining and moaning at every opportunity.
In one attempt at a fatherly moment trying to reassure his future son-in-law who is sick with worry over his absent bride to be, he delivers one of the film's choice quotes: "Now some men prefer Scotch. Others prefer golf. Even others prefer the, well, the company of prostitutes." Then he goes on to teach him a relaxation technique of curling his toes in plush carpet. Wholesome meets holy sh**! once again.
Meanwhile, creepy sister gives it a whirl with the fiance, as she starts giving him a shoulder massage that starts heading in a southerly direction, she says, "Brad, you're almost family. What could be more right than comforting each other?" Uh, just what kind of family is this?
The unintended genius of this film is it's juxtaposition of scenes that just barely scrape the lower bounds of reasonableness and sanity, and give you slight hope, only to table-flip things into creepy absurdity without warning, or even awareness. It's all bound by the suggestion of a family-friendly Hallmark-style movie. It's a kind of wholesome depravity. There's honestly not one sane character, let alone a likable one. It feels like the screenplay was written by extra-terrestrials trying to approximate human emotion after watching nothing but Quentin Tarantino and David Lynch films. Was it all intended? Am I the rube here? Who knows, but let's keep moving.
Anyway, Kate and Redman the mountain man finally make it to a motel - aptly named "The Last Resort" - but of course there's only one room left and it's the bow chicka wow wow hooker hookup special with strobing lights, igloo theme and a disco ball.
While in the shower trying to clean the stink of this movie off her, Kate starts to think about hooking up with mountain stud. She exits the shower clad in only a towel to muster his little lumberjack and small awkwardness ensues. They swap places and its Redford's turn to clean the career-low shame from his wretched conscience. Kate, being as morally askew as this entire film, goes through Redford's stuff and finds a picture of his wife and kid. She gets an attack of the feels and realizes what we knew ten minutes into this turd: she's an annoying horrible person. She gets dressed and prepares to leave. Redford comes out and now it's his towel-clad turn, dynamite areolas and steroid abdominals lighting up the screen, but Kate is bound for the door. Realizing he's not getting any, and that she went through his stuff, he tells her he lives out in the woods all alone because of crazy women like her.
Kate catches a cab home (why didn't she do this right when they got into town?). There's no tearful reunion or "thank god you're alive" moment with her family. She's been missing for days and almost died in the woods from a bear, flying off a snowmobile, a crazy sexual assault hobo, crashing through a frozen lake, exposure, starvation and drunk driving a snow plow, but she shows up and now she's just there, and everyone is acting like she just came back from a really long line at the grocery store.
Let me consult my giant book of formula plots... ah yes, of course. It's revealed unassuming mountain man Redford wasn't going back to see his wife but his MOM. He's a good mama's boy and he risked his damn life trekking across the frozen tundra to see her on her birthday, which he does every year. Cue the sappiness and acoustic guitar.
While in town he visits his daughter and gets closure with his ex-wife who he hooked up with while her husband was away but came back and... jeez louise this is complicated, so screw it. The bottom line is he's actually not an antisocial, emotionally impregnable mountain man, but a really great guy and single. The proverbial Prince Charming. That sets the stage for Kate and him to hook up.
Only not really cause Kate's kind of a total piece of human garbage. And Redman, knowing there's a groom waiting in the wings, pretty much is, too. Predictably, Kate leaves her fiance at the altar to get with Redman. Double bonus, this schmuck's name is Brad. "I'm so sorry, BRAD. You're such an amazing guy, BRAD. I can't do this, BRAD." Kate walks out of the church and Kate's sister immediately moves in to comfort Brad at the altar, and there's a wink wink nudge nudge moment where Brad wryly smiles at his "replacement" sister. Yet another example of the sociopathic wholesomeness of this film. Dad sees this and he smiles, too. This is this film's psychopathic take of "all's well that end's well". Again, what the hell is up with this family?
Just in case it's not clear Kate is as likeable as cancer, she walks ten steps out of the church and Redman pulls up on his snowmobile. They start making out RIGHT THERE, as a goopy Taylor Swift-like song begins to play. Like not even the sly nod and "lets get the heck out of here and find the nearest hotel". Nope, just in case heartbroken Brad looks out the window to see the love of his life walking away, he'll get a front row seat of the guy who'll be ballin' his ex-fiancee in about fifteen minutes, sucking on her face right outside the church. Maybe he doesn't care since he's got backup sister sex all lined up. Maybe dad will even work the camera.
Kate and Redman hop on his snowmobile, and just then her whole family and former fiancee burst out of the church to see them ride off into the distance.
The end. It's horrible.
I don't have a problem with morally vacant films, but the casualness, ease, unawareness and even wholesomeness of the sociopathic turns in Frost Affair are somehow stealthy and caught me off guard. While I was eye-rolling it's goofy ineptness, BOOM her sister is trying to sleep with her fiancee. It hits you like that.
Anyway, if you're into this trash it's definitely worth a watch. The technicals - cinematography, editing, sound - are all competent and it never bogs down. It feels like a sincere effort and the product of undiagnosed mental illness and unresolved family issues. In other words, all the key ingredients of a great bad film. Check it out.
Remember Jewel Staite, the plucky engine mechanic from Firefly? Well, 2015 was not her comeback year. In A Frosty Affair she plays Kate Carter, a grammar school teacher who's leaving her small, remote town for good to get married, but a massive snow storm shuts down the town's tiny airport and the roads won't be cleared in time for her to get to the altar. Drastic measures must be taken and she buys the most pathetic-looking Charlie Brown Christmas tree snowmobile and partners up with Redford, a classic brooding, outdoorsman type who says two words between scowls. The two begin an unlikely partnership and embark on a Planes, Trains and Automobiles trek through the wilderness to get to the nearest town of any significance. Near death and hijinks ensue.
Holy moly is this film laden with ineptness and short cuts. Like at the start of the film, a huge snow drift has piled up in front of Kate's house. She throws her luggage through the small gap and then shimmies out behind it and body surfs to the driveway. Apparently, as she's leaving town she's just going to leave the door wide open to the elements. Anyway, then she walks in knee-deep snow for a mile to the airport, dragging her luggage behind her, only to learn to the surprise of no one, it's shut down. Begging the question, why didn't she just call first?
And that's the tip of the iceberg. The film machine guns these ridiculous contrivances and goofy setups to move the plot along and attempt a laugh on the way, and yet they're the kind of leaps more appropriate for children's cartoons. But that's only the case when they aren't extremely messed up. I'm not kidding. In the first five minutes her boss is trying to hook up with her before she leaves town while she's still, as he puts it, "free". Her sister is trying to hook up with her fiancé. Kate and Redford find a seemingly deserted cabin and stay the night, only to be woken up by the crazy old coot in the woods, who wonders how much Kate would go for as a prostitute before kicking her out and then moving in to sexually assault Redford, Deliverance-style. And believe me, there's more.
Eventually the pair lose their snowmobile to a grizzly bear and continue on foot, and it takes on a wilderness survival angle with low IQ results. All of this is made even more bizarre and confusing since it's set to a lighthearted derpy derp derp soundtrack. Scenes of mortal danger are handled varyingly with a carefree "oopsie" breeziness, to actual seriousness. We never really know how this film wants to be taken and it changes its mind often.
While Kate and Redford are warming up to the idea of leaving their respective significant others and shacking up Wild America style, there's a whole side-setting involving Kate's fiance and her family. Her father, played by Shaun Johnston, looks like a cross between R. Lee Ermey and Huey Lewis, and when it comes to being the beleaguered father-of-the-bride, boy he plays the hell out of this role, whining and moaning at every opportunity.
In one attempt at a fatherly moment trying to reassure his future son-in-law who is sick with worry over his absent bride to be, he delivers one of the film's choice quotes: "Now some men prefer Scotch. Others prefer golf. Even others prefer the, well, the company of prostitutes." Then he goes on to teach him a relaxation technique of curling his toes in plush carpet. Wholesome meets holy sh**! once again.
Meanwhile, creepy sister gives it a whirl with the fiance, as she starts giving him a shoulder massage that starts heading in a southerly direction, she says, "Brad, you're almost family. What could be more right than comforting each other?" Uh, just what kind of family is this?
The unintended genius of this film is it's juxtaposition of scenes that just barely scrape the lower bounds of reasonableness and sanity, and give you slight hope, only to table-flip things into creepy absurdity without warning, or even awareness. It's all bound by the suggestion of a family-friendly Hallmark-style movie. It's a kind of wholesome depravity. There's honestly not one sane character, let alone a likable one. It feels like the screenplay was written by extra-terrestrials trying to approximate human emotion after watching nothing but Quentin Tarantino and David Lynch films. Was it all intended? Am I the rube here? Who knows, but let's keep moving.
Anyway, Kate and Redman the mountain man finally make it to a motel - aptly named "The Last Resort" - but of course there's only one room left and it's the bow chicka wow wow hooker hookup special with strobing lights, igloo theme and a disco ball.
While in the shower trying to clean the stink of this movie off her, Kate starts to think about hooking up with mountain stud. She exits the shower clad in only a towel to muster his little lumberjack and small awkwardness ensues. They swap places and its Redford's turn to clean the career-low shame from his wretched conscience. Kate, being as morally askew as this entire film, goes through Redford's stuff and finds a picture of his wife and kid. She gets an attack of the feels and realizes what we knew ten minutes into this turd: she's an annoying horrible person. She gets dressed and prepares to leave. Redford comes out and now it's his towel-clad turn, dynamite areolas and steroid abdominals lighting up the screen, but Kate is bound for the door. Realizing he's not getting any, and that she went through his stuff, he tells her he lives out in the woods all alone because of crazy women like her.
Kate catches a cab home (why didn't she do this right when they got into town?). There's no tearful reunion or "thank god you're alive" moment with her family. She's been missing for days and almost died in the woods from a bear, flying off a snowmobile, a crazy sexual assault hobo, crashing through a frozen lake, exposure, starvation and drunk driving a snow plow, but she shows up and now she's just there, and everyone is acting like she just came back from a really long line at the grocery store.
Let me consult my giant book of formula plots... ah yes, of course. It's revealed unassuming mountain man Redford wasn't going back to see his wife but his MOM. He's a good mama's boy and he risked his damn life trekking across the frozen tundra to see her on her birthday, which he does every year. Cue the sappiness and acoustic guitar.
While in town he visits his daughter and gets closure with his ex-wife who he hooked up with while her husband was away but came back and... jeez louise this is complicated, so screw it. The bottom line is he's actually not an antisocial, emotionally impregnable mountain man, but a really great guy and single. The proverbial Prince Charming. That sets the stage for Kate and him to hook up.
Only not really cause Kate's kind of a total piece of human garbage. And Redman, knowing there's a groom waiting in the wings, pretty much is, too. Predictably, Kate leaves her fiance at the altar to get with Redman. Double bonus, this schmuck's name is Brad. "I'm so sorry, BRAD. You're such an amazing guy, BRAD. I can't do this, BRAD." Kate walks out of the church and Kate's sister immediately moves in to comfort Brad at the altar, and there's a wink wink nudge nudge moment where Brad wryly smiles at his "replacement" sister. Yet another example of the sociopathic wholesomeness of this film. Dad sees this and he smiles, too. This is this film's psychopathic take of "all's well that end's well". Again, what the hell is up with this family?
Just in case it's not clear Kate is as likeable as cancer, she walks ten steps out of the church and Redman pulls up on his snowmobile. They start making out RIGHT THERE, as a goopy Taylor Swift-like song begins to play. Like not even the sly nod and "lets get the heck out of here and find the nearest hotel". Nope, just in case heartbroken Brad looks out the window to see the love of his life walking away, he'll get a front row seat of the guy who'll be ballin' his ex-fiancee in about fifteen minutes, sucking on her face right outside the church. Maybe he doesn't care since he's got backup sister sex all lined up. Maybe dad will even work the camera.
Kate and Redman hop on his snowmobile, and just then her whole family and former fiancee burst out of the church to see them ride off into the distance.
The end. It's horrible.
I don't have a problem with morally vacant films, but the casualness, ease, unawareness and even wholesomeness of the sociopathic turns in Frost Affair are somehow stealthy and caught me off guard. While I was eye-rolling it's goofy ineptness, BOOM her sister is trying to sleep with her fiancee. It hits you like that.
Anyway, if you're into this trash it's definitely worth a watch. The technicals - cinematography, editing, sound - are all competent and it never bogs down. It feels like a sincere effort and the product of undiagnosed mental illness and unresolved family issues. In other words, all the key ingredients of a great bad film. Check it out.
Well Done!
adamwill503329 December 2018
I usually stay way from movies that have the word affair in it but i ended up watching it. It's a good storyline with a nice ending.. The location was just beautiful also and the acting was great. Good job, i'll give this a 9 if your into the rom-com genre this is for you!
Snowmobiles and automobiles
Prismark1022 March 2016
40 Below and Falling is a rom-com television movie which starts in a remote community in the north where Kate Carter, a popular teacher is leaving to get married.
However the next morning there is a snow storm and Kate is stranded. After somehow getting to the plane that would take her to civilisation, she finds out that there are no flights and the roads are blocked.
Determined to get to her wedding Kate convinces a rugged, surly stranger, Redford to get her out of there with his snowmobile. However these two people are like salt and pepper but as they travel along they get into scrapes with grizzly bears, mountain men and have to cope with the severe weather.
Kate realises that there is more to Redford despite his rough exterior and he has a lyrical charm about him. As we cut to the scenes of the groom to be waiting for Kate to arrive we have an inkling that he is not the right man for her and so does eventually Kate.
The film is really a snowy road trip between two mismatched strangers who eventually fall for each other. Shawn Roberts (Redford) kinds of reminded me of Henry Cavill and of course we find out that he has hidden talents and issues in his own personal life to deal with.
The film itself has some slap stick and broad humour here and there, especially as Kate's beau attracts the interest of another female.
However the film itself is a little bit silly and shallow, I never really warmed to it.
However the next morning there is a snow storm and Kate is stranded. After somehow getting to the plane that would take her to civilisation, she finds out that there are no flights and the roads are blocked.
Determined to get to her wedding Kate convinces a rugged, surly stranger, Redford to get her out of there with his snowmobile. However these two people are like salt and pepper but as they travel along they get into scrapes with grizzly bears, mountain men and have to cope with the severe weather.
Kate realises that there is more to Redford despite his rough exterior and he has a lyrical charm about him. As we cut to the scenes of the groom to be waiting for Kate to arrive we have an inkling that he is not the right man for her and so does eventually Kate.
The film is really a snowy road trip between two mismatched strangers who eventually fall for each other. Shawn Roberts (Redford) kinds of reminded me of Henry Cavill and of course we find out that he has hidden talents and issues in his own personal life to deal with.
The film itself has some slap stick and broad humour here and there, especially as Kate's beau attracts the interest of another female.
However the film itself is a little bit silly and shallow, I never really warmed to it.
nothing new
Kirpianuscus8 January 2017
the story is so well known than could be boring for many viewers. but it is not correct to ignore a small detail : it has a precise target. a sort of public, a sort of state. so, it is only the nice story of a meet between a woman and a man, different each by other, about a wedding plan and about the predictable end. crumbs from classic duel like Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn , the spectacular bear and the man of wood are inspired ingredients for a not low rating.the lead actors do a honorable job and the story reminds so many other classics than nothing could seems be real bad. and this is the real virtue of a nice comedy who has not the ambition to impress but only to be reasonable entertainment.
Stupid Movie
mycatavenger19 August 2019
Warning: Spoilers
Yep, as others have noted movie is STUPID. The school teacher -sorry but as dumb as this movie is not going to bother to look up her name (or the name of the actress) is annoying. Guy should have left her to free to death or get eaten by the bear etc.
Ignorant, unbelievable and total failure! Less than 1 star!
cking-756213 July 2019
I gave it a try thinking Hallmark channel meets Harliquin romance, but forget it! It went from just being a bad, cheesy romance to something that I couldn't even stomach finishing! After a blizzard noone expects to frigging fly out of some podunk town and that was after she gets out of a front door that's buried, from said blizzard, but the rest of that side of the house is fine! I still find it hard to believe that it could get worse, but oh boy did it!
Worst frigging BS I've ever tried to watch!
Worst Christmas movie EVER
trvwatson26 September 2018
OK, it's a Christmas movie surprisingly about Romance, love, snow and a wedding, i get it, it's the formula, that's not what i didn't like about it.
But 10 minutes into this movie the Main actress playing Kate was already making me nauseous, i thought her character was far from sweet and likable, more condescending and saccharine.
Her treatment of the guy at the beginning trying to be nice to her was so shocking, he wore glasses and was over 40, so i guess that instantly makes him a creep, and should be treated as such. WHY?
she dissed him because she thought he was coming onto her, he was just trying to be nice.
i dislike movies where the bad guys are always old or fat or ugly, and are treated as such by the leads.
Her silly facial expression trying to show emotion and depth was the final straw, and i switched off after 15 minutes, she was annoying me that much.
Surprisingly 👍 nice
okkurshiva1 March 2022
This movie is as real as it can get. Authentic surroundings, good acting by everyone, the whole movie feels connected except for the last scene where the director rushed to make the lead characters unite unnecessarily. However, considering all the good things in the movie, it's a minor fault.
Heartwarming.
Heartwarming.
Wanted to like it but
kariann-marti6 August 2018
I really wanted to like this. I mean, it's obviously just a sappy romance movie, but it could've been better-executed. She was too shallow to believe he could possibly fall for her, and he was an underdeveloped character. There were too many rescues throughout the movie, and yet the movie needs rescuing.
Everyone is so unwatchable!
msarajoy16 July 2020
Omg I can say with absolute honesty that I have never watched a show where everybody in the show is so unattractive and unwatchable.
Kate is annoying and not attractive in any way. Redford looks like a gorilla man. Kate's fiance is so ugly, I feel sorry for him. So is her father. Kate's colleagues are lascivious and so overweight, it's not healthy. And most of the show is on ice. I think the show should have been just left there and not brought to our screens. Ugh.
And p.s. If you are going to have a wedding and want to cover Jesus, why are you having the wedding in a Church?? There are no town halls you could use instead? That is just a very rude and disrespectful and unnecessary line in the show.
Kate is annoying and not attractive in any way. Redford looks like a gorilla man. Kate's fiance is so ugly, I feel sorry for him. So is her father. Kate's colleagues are lascivious and so overweight, it's not healthy. And most of the show is on ice. I think the show should have been just left there and not brought to our screens. Ugh.
And p.s. If you are going to have a wedding and want to cover Jesus, why are you having the wedding in a Church?? There are no town halls you could use instead? That is just a very rude and disrespectful and unnecessary line in the show.
OMG so bad
mcleanlinda3 February 2023
Forget the terrible plot, the truth of surviving in the cold north wilderness is so WRONG in this film. ARGH don't watch this for romance (except the male shirtless scenes) or adventure (you won't survive without extra gas tanks, bigger fires and food). This movie STINKS!!! Watch it drunk!
Forget the terrible plot, the truth of surviving in the cold north wilderness is so WRONG in this film. ARGH don't watch this for romance (except the male shirtless scenes) or adventure (you won't survive without extra gas tanks, bigger fires and food). This movie STINKS!!! Watch it drunk!
Forget the terrible plot, the truth of surviving in the cold north wilderness is so WRONG in this film. ARGH don't watch this for romance (except the male shirtless scenes) or adventure (you won't survive without extra gas tanks, bigger fires and food). This movie STINKS!!! Watch it drunk!
Forget the terrible plot, the truth of surviving in the cold north wilderness is so WRONG in this film. ARGH don't watch this for romance (except the male shirtless scenes) or adventure (you won't survive without extra gas tanks, bigger fires and food). This movie STINKS!!! Watch it drunk!
Forget the terrible plot, the truth of surviving in the cold north wilderness is so WRONG in this film. ARGH don't watch this for romance (except the male shirtless scenes) or adventure (you won't survive without extra gas tanks, bigger fires and food). This movie STINKS!!! Watch it drunk!
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