Greta Kaine (Katrina Law) is always in search of juicy gossip. As a gossip-tabloid reporter in Los Angeles, it's her job to expose the rich and famous. So when word gets out that the late Senator Tannenhill's sons might be proposing marriage at their family's Big Bear compound during Christmas, Greta and her chief rival Wes (Tom Lenk) are challenged by their old-school editor to get the scoop. There's incentive to be the first, too: the editorship of the magazine's new online incarnation. Greta's assistant tells her that Wes has a head start to snowy Big Bear, so she dashes to the mountain resort. When she mistakenly ends up as a guest of the family, she's in the middle of what could be her best story yet. However, she discovers that the family, including matriarch Maggie Tannenhill (Patricia Richardson) and caretaker Peters (Robert Curtis Brown) are more down-to-earth than she had assumed. Increasingly guilt-ridden about her game of subterfuge, Greta must decide how far she will go for a story.—earldanehart
Greta Kaine and Wesley Sharp, rival gossip reporters at an L.A. tabloid, are promised a promotion for the first to get to the bottom of rumors about the late US senator Tannenhill's family preparing for a mystery wedding in their winter retreat at Big Bear. While Wes goes about it normally, Greta rushes off unprepared, having abandoned family wedding preparations, and ends up in the ski resort with car trouble, wearing only the wedding dress, soiled by falling over seeking to reach the nearest building. Dripping and frozen, she's picked up by a kind gentleman, whom she soon realizes is not the caretaker of the Tannenhill estate but sensible son Ben, destined for politics, who enjoys the anonymous calm, so she poses as a nobody. The pair soon gets attracted while he presents her to the widow Maggie and his surprise-visiting brother, investment broker Jared Tannenhill, who presents as his fiancee Ben's gold-digger ex, Claire Sinclaire, who discovers Greta' identity shortly after the real caretaker, the family's surrogate father figure Peters, does. Experiencing how nice and normal the Tannenhills are, complete with charitable traditions, she hesitates to publish this extraordinary scoop--with a surprising reward.—KGF Vissers
Predictable, kinda cheesy, boy-meets/loses-girl, a stained wedding dress and [the good kind] of meddling mother... Just your classic Hallmark movie!
Tabloid reporter Greta Kaine [Katrina Law] goes into competition with fellow reporter, Wesley Sharp [Tom Lenk], to see who can bring back the story of the late Senator Tannehill's son becoming engaged to the senator's girlfriend -- her advances were rebuffed, though -- and this after the fiancé had been dumped by the older son over a year ago. Greta's car gets stuck in a snowbank and, after the obligatory fall-and-roll through the snow, she gets taken to the caretaker's cabin by the handsome man living there. She wakes up the next morning face to face with Ben Tannehill [Jordan Belfi], the senator's older son. Turns out his ruse falls apart when the REAL caretaker/butler shows up to invite the pair up to the main house for brunch. Robert Curtis Brown as Peters is quite well-suited for his role as the longtime family retainer and Bobby Campo as younger brother Jared and Susie Abromeit as the golddigging Klaire Sinclaire [who comes up with these names??] round out the cast and support the two-steps-forward-one-step-back romance forming between Greta and Ben. But the stand-out role in this show is that of Patricia Richardson as Ben and Jared's widowed mother, Maggie. Yeah, yeah... I know: Older sitcom moms get to live out their later careers relegated to playing TV mothers of middle-aged children in crisis who just don't have all the life experience they need and come riding over the hill to save the day. But Richardson took this role and pulled out all her pit bull mom stops that we got to see oh so infrequently in Home Improvement. She takes no captives... And puts the golddigger in the sewer, where she belongs! This synopsis would not be complete without glowing mentions of the excellent performances of George Wyner as Greta's boss, Lou, and the comic relief of Tania Gunadi as Greta's assistant, Julie.
There are some moments in this movie which border on, well, sparks. The chemistry between Law and Belfi is enough to light up Disney World for the holidays! Everytime they a-l-m-o-s-t make a connection, Greta's conscience -- Yes! The tabloid reporter HAS one! -- pops up and she realizes her dishonesty and doesn't want to go further without him knowing why she was there originally and what she was up to. They don't hold back, they run with what they've got and everyone's the better for it.
