If you like Christmas, hockey, and romantic comedies and have some time you want to sit back and watch a movie and not think too much, this is a happy little movie that is largely predictable, kinda sugary sweet, and Hallmark Channel boilerplate.
Jesse Bradford is Danny Carmody, Jr, a bar owner in Duluth, MN. He owns Carmody's Irish Pub in Duluth, Minnesota. One night, an artist named Jess Wolfe comes into Danny's pub and a typical script conversation ensues. She leaves him with no phone number, only a name on a coaster - and Danny figures out who she is. He makes the connections and they opt for a first date which is probably standard in Duluth - a trip to see the local UMD (Univ of Minn-Duluth) Bulldogs hockey team. They wind up on the overhead Jumbotron Kiss Cam with less than a minute left in the game, they kiss...and the Bulldogs win moments later. This happens again and again - and the local crowd wants them at every game as the team gets on a heat streak. Bringing conflict to the simple narrative is the fact Jess is trying to make it in Duluth as an artist, isn't from there - and has lost the Duluthian whom she loved previous to meeting Danny. Naturally, they stop dating, the movie takes a turn, and the end is rather predictable if lovable. Nothing overly complicated.
I do recommend this movie for an enjoyable view IF you are not from Duluth. I visit the city about once per year (it's a favorite place of mine), and many of the things in the movie will drive you crazy if you get hung up on accuracy. To mention a few examples, the UMD Bulldogs are the Alabama or Georgia of college hockey while the underlying narrative turns them into scrappy underdogs who haven't won anything in 30 years; they walk out of the hockey game and are shown walking past Fitger's Hotel and Brewery, which is a GOOD WALK (not that you can't do it) from the hockey arena; in another scene, they are supposed to be on top of Carmody's and it's clearly on top of Fitger's (you can see the letter); I don't know of anyone actually from Duluth who would eat the snow; Jess (in the real world) lives right across the street from the pub but takes a taxi (another rarity) to the pub from her apartment. Again - you don't know this if you're not from Duluth but it has apparently upset some folks who want to take it a tad too literally rather than accepting that every movie does this to some degree.
There's a lot of scenery of Duluth in this movie, most notably the town symbol, the Aerial Lift Bridge, which appears 3 or 4 times. Just a note, though: the scenery isn't "really" what it looks like in winter, and them walking outside without scarves and mittens etc is laughable at that time of year (note: the movie was clearly filmed in the warmer months).
The movie isn't going to win any Oscars, although both leads to a fantastic job, but it isn't "Howard the Duck", either. Enjoyable.
