Christmas in Boston

Gina (Marla Sokoloff) and Seth (Patrick J. Adams) have been pen pals since a school assignment 13 years ago. They agree not to talk on the phone and both sent pictures of their best friends as themselves. Seth is now a toy company junior executive and Gina writes for the newspaper obituary. Then she's given a Christmas assignment to write about a toy conference. She reluctantly accepts fearing that she must mean Seth in person. She convinces her best friend Ellen (Lindy Booth) to see Seth as her. Unbeknownst to her, Seth has done the same thing with his womanizing best friend Matt (Jonathan Cherry). Meanwhile Gina is writing a story about Seth trying to hide his boss dating the owner of another toy company as well as his company's impending IPO. Only both Gina and Seth are pretending to be their best friends; Ellen and Matt.

This is a nice easy sitcom switcharoo TV movie for Christmas. The story is a little silly but it has a charm. This works because Marla Sokoloff and Patrick Adams are adorably cute together. She is a cutie pie who excels at being flustered. He is charming enough that he doesn't become a jerk after finding out the secret. The production is low budget but effective.

This plot was so great for a Christmas romance. The hanging lie is a pretty common plot line for a romance, but this one kept evolving. By the end of the movie, the situation was so twisted it was great. I wondered what happened to the Christmas tree, but then when it showed up, it still left the question of where had it been if Seth was staying in a hotel. Marla S was good and sweet and everything you want in a family romance for Christmas. Meanwhile Lindy Booth was great in a sexy way. I thought the guy who played the real Matt was a little too crude for being Seth's friend and also being able to appeal to Gina or even Ellen if she was such a good friend of Gina. Still, I can't believe how enjoyable this was for a TV movie.

I found this film, looking through a list of Christmas films for me to watch. I am so happy that I found this and went on to watch it! It wasn't as 'Christmassy' as I had been looking for, but it certainly was a brilliant film! I recommend you watch it, especially if you are a sucker for a bit of romance. This film made me feel warm inside, and it did start to put me in the Christmas mood!

The storyline is different than normal romance, which makes it fresh. To make it better, it has the love of Christmas in there too! If you are wanting a complete Christmas film (Santa, Christmas day etc)then you should probably not watch this film. However, if you want a film based around Christmas with the centre storyline being romantic then this film is perfect for you!

The only criticism I would have of this film would be that I think there should have been more to the ending (I won't say more, as I don't want to ruin the film).

It's films like this that don't get the attention they deserve. I really hope people go and watch this film, it really will be worth your time!

Christmas in Boston is, in a word, cute. It's the story of Gina, Seth, Matt, and Ellen. Gina and Seth have been pen pals for ten years. He lives in Denver and she lives in Boston. Gina's friend, and next door neighbor, Ellen, is a perky, rambunctious, redhead. Seth is an executive of a major toy company, Toy Matters, in Denver, Colorado, and Gina's a newspaper reporter in Boston. She's assigned to cover a big toy conference being held in Boston. Gina tells Ellen that the pictures she's been sending Seth are of her. Meanwhile, Seth and Matt arrive in Boston, and settle in at their hotel. Seth tells Matt that the pictures he's been sending Gina, are, you guessed it, of him. So Ellen poses as Gina, Gina poses as Ellen, Matt poses as Seth, and Seth poses as Matt. Are you with me so far? I hope so. Gina meets Seth at the toy conference. The presidents of Toy Matters and a rival toy company, are having an affair. She has a nice story to break but doesn't because she's falling for Seth, who's pretending to be Matt. Ellen, who's pretending to be Gina, is falling for Matt, who's pretending to be Seth. Remind you of anything? Shakespeare's A Comedy of Errors, perhaps? What happens next? That's for me to know and you to find out.

"Christmas in Boston" is exactly the sort of movie you would expect to see during the holiday season: it features an unrequited love story, two adorably dorky star-crossed lovers and their wilder but well-meaning pals, a case of mistaken identity and, of course, the Christmas spirit.

Gina and Seth have been communicating through e-mails, letters and IMs for 13 years, promising never to phone one another and never wanting to meet. They're both too nervous about what the other will think of them to want to meet face-to-face. But when Seth's work brings him to Boston and Gina's journalist career puts her in the path to meet Seth for the first time, they both go to great lengths to avoid one another. Of course, the avoidance isn't too difficult, seeing as, for years, Gina has been sending Seth pictures of her best friend Ellen, while Seth has been giving her pictures of his buddy Matt. With a little convincing, Matt and Ellen pretend to be their friends and meet thinking the other is the real deal. Sparks fly, of course, after Ellen and Matt hit it off, which send both Gina and Matt into a fit of despair. They can't imagine someone else with the man/woman of their dreams, but neither of them bother to stop Ellen and Matt's relationship from progressing. When Seth finds meets the real Gina and discovers that the girl Matt is actually a stand-in, he is more then willing to let Matt have Ellen and try and form a relationship with Gina, though he is still unable to let her know that he's really Seth.

While the plot is predictable and the ending obvious from the very beginning, "Christmas in Boston" is still enjoyable to watch. The writing is mediocre and witty at times, better then most made for television movies and the actors, most of them stuck in the purgatory of not undiscovered but not a household name, are charming and believable and play their characters to a T.

Though "Christmas in Boston" will probably disappear into the recesses of the minds of those who saw it last year, it is a movie worth seeing and hopefully ABC Family will reair it during the Christmas season or even release it on DVD in order to make a profit. I was fortunate to tape the movie and still find myself watching it in the middle of June because the adorable (though clichéd) love story and humorous one-liners are appealing no matter what the season.

I thoroughly recommend "Christmas in Boston", though it might be a little difficult to see the movie in the middle of the summer. Hopefully, during the upcoming Christmas season "Christmas in Boston" will find a place in ABC Family's Christmas schedule, allowing viewers to add a little holiday spirit to their day.