After so many good or at least decent Christmas movies, I knew it wouldn’t be long until we found another piece of trash. And A Gingerbread Miracle hits the bottom of the barrel.
Maya (Merritt Patterson) is a lawyer who is currently freelancing after an unexpected extended move back home. She is hired by Luis (Jorge Montesi) to help sell his Mexican bakery, even though real estate is not her specialty. Luis’s nephew, Alex (Jon Ecker), is also a lawyer but he actually loves cooking. When he finds out that Maya is helping to sell the bakery, he worms his way into helping her.
I almost feel like this movie doesn’t understand what certain words mean. They straight up tell us that the place Luis owns is a bakery but there isn’t a lot of baking going on. They made some “magical” gingerbread cookies that supposedly grant wishes but they also make actual food. I’m really not sure the writers know what a bakery is. We didn’t see any sorts of cakes or any other cookies beyond the gingerbread. Oh, and the guy that owns a French bakery wanting to buy the Mexican bakery saying “What’s the difference?!” What the hell.
The story also felt like it was trying to wrangle a bunch of different storylines but didn’t do any of them well. There’s a bit about Maya’s sister wanting to be a photographer but I don’t think we actually see her taking any pictures. Maya just tells is that she takes pictures. And now that I think about it, I don’t think we see any of the pictures. Just the characters talking about how awesome the pictures are.
On the career front, Maya interviews for a job that it never seems she actually wants. We don’t see her preparing for the second interview. We don’t even get to see her actual interview. There’s a shot of her sitting in a conference room waiting for someone who is running late. Then, all of a sudden, she has the job and she’s talking to the HR lady about the position, which is apparently very different from what she was told. Why would anyone work at a company who said they had a work/family balance but meant it was a work/family balance for top level management? It’s straight up lying to potential employees. Not a good way to start a work relationship.
Needless to say, A Gingerbread Miracle is pretty terrible. The cookies aren’t even pretty. I appreciate the attempt to add Mexican culture to the Hallmark landscape. This really isn’t the way to do it though.