Every year, we get a slate of movies where the female lead (almost never the male lead) goes on a grand Christmas adventure in another country. Frequently, it’s Scotland or Austria, specifically Vienna. Now Hallmark takes us to Ireland with ‘Tis The Season To Be Irish. I hope they don’t turn the Irish characters into some sort of weird leprechaun stereotype or something.
Rose (Fiona Gubelmann) has just purchased a very cheap house in Ireland with plans to renovate and resell it. When she arrives, she finds the house is actually a dilapidated cottage. Sean (Eoin Macken), who sold the cottage to Rose, is also the town historian that she has to get approval from for any repairs. Deciding the cottage requires too much work, Rose decides to make it look nicer in order to sell it to someone else. But will she fall in love with the quaint Irish town nearby?
This is yet another movie that is just OK. Rose is supposedly a very experienced house flipper, yet she does zero research on the Ireland house before demanding the seller, who she does not know, brush off a current offer in order to sell the house to her. Neither of those traits make her likeable in the beginning. Then we’re supposed to feel bad for her when we see the state of the cottage? I think not. Also, I have no idea how she fixed the cottage so quickly. There was a giant list of major repairs needed yet she got them all done before Christmas. Maybe that was her real fairy wish.
As for the rest of the movie, Sean is fairly bland for a leading man. He spent a lot of time complaining about things and, at one point, even rejected a kiss from Rose. I’m not really sure why we were supposed to be rooting for him. Rose had more chemistry with the lamb that kept following her around town. It makes me a little sad because I wanted to enjoy a nice Irish trip. But all we got was some pretty scenery and boring characters.
Rating: My fairy wish is to be anywhere else.