Let's be realistic.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

I didn't like the lead actors and that essentially ruins a movie for me. I normally like Jordan Bridges, but not in this movie. I also thought the humor was stupid and even a bit inappropriate at times, especially considering this movie is a Hallmark movie. The scenes where the guy is shirtless are a bit awkward to watch.

Jim Fall has created a winner with Holiday Engagement. From the casting to the story to the chemistry of the leads and the cast, this is a great holiday movie. The cast does a great job and both Bonnie Sommerville and Jordan Bridges have a connection that is warm and comfortable. Jim Fall's nuanced use of music and creativity in some of the scenes and story line are really exceptional and the dialogue is interesting. Wish we could see more of his films. This movie quickly became a holiday favorite for us. Naturally, these movies aren't designed for in-depth analysis of plots so those reviewers who have commented on those aspects appear to have unrealistic expectations. Watch Holiday Engagement for what it is. A sweet, charming, interesting little movie that will live up to its goal: to make you feel good.

I watch many of the seasonal Hallmark movies. Since they are all pretty predictable, good acting is what I need to make me happy. The actor/actresses in this light movie were excellent. Good casting. I am now a fan of Bonnie Somerville, an really good actress. Actually her acting is so real she doesn't seem to be acting. I would try to watch her in other futures movies. So glad Shelley Long played her role. She looked so much better than in Modern Family. The movie needed some script tweaking but I left feeling good, so I will forgive that. Hey, it is a typical Hallmark movie (with very good actors). When I say typical Hallmark movie I mean: very similar plots; different setting; different actors. :-)

If you are avoiding this movie because you dislike the Duff sisters, fear not. Even though Haley Duff gets top billing, she doesn't get more than about 10 minutes of screen time, for much of which she's in the background, and maybe five lines of dialogue.This movie is only slightly more improbable than a lot of seasonal romantic comedies. The trope of bringing an imposter as your date to a a family event is not really grounded in reality anyway, so if you're willing to suspend disbelief that far, it's a nice enough diversion for a couple of hours around Thanksgiving.The cast is reasonably solid, if under-exercised, with some halfway decent comedy chops available (but not accessed) in Shelley Long and Sam McMurray. The two leads are cute and sad by turns, mostly at appropriate moments, and sing well together for one nice scene. Other supporting characters... well, they look their parts and speak their lines but don't expect to find gold in their emotional range.The script and performances didn't quite gel, leaving plenty of avenues for both comedy and heart under-utilized. Real dramatic situations were barely nodded at in passing while the most potentially humorous moments were signalled more by the characters' laughter than by any similar urge in the audience. If you combined 'The Family Stone' (where only Sarah Jessica Parker is lacking the necessary depth of character) with 'My Best Friend's Wedding' (where everything is deliberately shallow and the moments of heart stand out better for it), and made a college film class movie, this is about what you'd get.