It must be the mix of German and American actors that makes this film lovely. The acting is so natural (the children too) that it is a joy to watch.

The dialogues run smoothly and naturally -obviously it still is a Christmas film, so when the two leads are introduced to us, we know exactly how it's going to end.

But with all the extremely polished Christmas films around, where the production design seems to be the main character and every snowflake is personally checked and put in its place, this film is a breath of fresh air.

It's nice to hear a foreign language spoken too. The misunderstandings and miscommunications between Heidi and her German friends are very funny.

Once again, Hallmark dresses a rather unsubstantial romantic story, this time at Christmas, with the background of an appealing, historical destination. Heidi, an American artist of German heritage has the opportunity to exhibits her hand-made Christmas ornaments at the fabled Heidelberg Christmas Market, while discovering her family's roots. Hosted at the Oppermanns' guest house, she is welcomed to share their Holiday traditions and bonds with their son, Lukas, also an artist with a kin soul. With some twists and turns, that shall not be revealed, the story follows to a predictable outcome. How does it work?

LOCATION: the movie offers appreciable glimpses of the historical vestiges and the culture of this city, that I regret never been able to visit. This is a definite plus.

PLOT: some original elements are inserted in an otherwise fairly bland story.

PERFORMANCES: frankly, I am not overly impressed neither by the acting abilities of Ginna Claire Mason and Frederic Brossier or their chemistry in this production.

ATMOSPHERE: despite some charming sequences, Hallmark shows the usual superficiality in handling other cultures. Somehow, the feeling of a real German experience is missing in most of the scenes. A major omission, which could have been easy to provide, with a little attention and minimal cost, is real German Christmas music. Germany has an enormous wealth of beautiful traditional music, dating back to the Middle Age, that could have created a magical background for the action, Instead, other than a token rendition or "O Tannenbaum" and a short run of 'Es ist ein Ros einsprungen" melody, the soundtrack is quite generic and uninspired. In my book, this is a badly missed opportunity.

Overall, the film is "Christmas-y" and family-oriented, with some endearing moments and worth a look, though it could have been so much more.

In 1962, the talented Suzanne Pleshette starred in the very successful "Rome Adventure" and, since that time, many films have been made about a young American woman who goes to Europe in search of fame, romance, riches, adventure - or any combination thereof. In recent years, Hallmark has jumped on the bandwagon, offering stories about young women who take off for England, Italy, France, etc. During the Christmas season. Some are good and some are not. This time it's Germany and it's not good.

What made "Rome Adventure" work was that Pleshette and her co-stars, including Troy Donahue, Angie Dickinson, and Constance Ford, were all gifted and intelligent actors who could carry off the sometimes predictable script and make it interesting for the viewer.

But here, the actors can't and, quite often, the movie comes off as corny and trite. The two leads definitely do not have the chemistry that Pleshette and Donahue had on screen.

Yes, the German scenery is quite beautiful and the director captured it nicely, but the actors keep getting in the way with their often stilted and contrived overacting.

Even "Gidget Goes To Rome" was more interesting with characters who had some flair and wit.