"Once upon a time" Hollywood and all its knockoffs started making fairy tales of the Disney princess variety. This movie might as well be animated because the story and acting are what you might expect from those movies.
As Kristin repeatedly acknowledges, what she did was wrong. In the world that a real Kristin would live in, the mistakes she made are never forgiven and there's reasons for that. In the world that Walt Disney created, there's always a happy ending for a person like Kristin. This movie is firmly entrenched in the latter, so it's best to try to work within that framework in judging the movie. Also, if that's not what you want to watch, then don't.
The story, the dialogue, the actions of the characters, and the acting are all consistent with that framework. Even so, some of the acting was still a little stiff. The dialogue was so-so.
I can't decide what I think of Kristin. In the beginning, she shows signs of being a player who would do almost anything to get ahead, but she also quickly shows some self-doubts about that approach. She repents of her deception and intends to make it right. After being exposed, she owns responsibility and is ready to accept the consequences. Diarmaid Murtagh never appealed to me and I was never that impressed with the character Patrick. Patrick and Kristin had so little time together that I never really thought they had chemistry and beyond that was at a total loss as to why either one should love the other.
There are a couple of sentimental moments having to do with Amy, the child cancer patient toward the end of the movie.
The climax and ending fit the fairy tale mold very well.
Let me say that having allowed that you can't judge this movie according to most of the Christmas rom/coms we see this time of year, I still didn't enjoy it. I didn't appreciate the humor. I used my DVR's FF button liberally. That's my own personal preference.
