Ella Dashwood (Erin Krakow) and her sister Marianne (Kimberley Sustad) co-own a party-planning business. One of their new clients is a toy company and they don’t see eye-to-eye with Edward Ferris (Luke Macfarlane), the company’s C.E.O., mostly because they’re Christmas lovers and he’s too cool for school…even though it’s pretty much his bread and butter.

If you’re a fan of Jane Austen, well, frankly, I’m not sure what you’re doing here. This is a “loose” adaptation of her novel, so loose it’s ready to fall apart. Think of it more as not related at all. It’ll be easier that way. In Sense, Sensibility & Snowmen, Ella is the flightier sister, the risk taker, the brighter ball of energy. She takes on a last minute job at this toy company, which would have created utter chaos at any successful party-planning business this close to the holidays. They should have been booked solid for months, rushing from party to party, getting by on cat naps and caffeine. Yet somehow the business is failing and they don’t even know it – not only do they have all the time in the world for this new client, they volunteer extra hours as well, just for the heck of it.

Anyway, it serves the story well. How else are Ella and the Christmas-phobic Edward supposed to fall in love? By sharing the intimacy of decorating his apartment together, doing joint Christmas shopping, and tricking his clients into thinking he’s the kind of guy with whom they want to go into business. What fun! Oh, and you’ll get a kick out of this: Ella, who routinely makes fun of Edward’s work ethic but whose understanding of his job is “all graphs and flow charts” actually has some business advice for him, and the only reason it isn’t completely horrible is because SOMEHOW HIS TOY COMPANY WASN’T ALREADY TESTING THE TOYS ON ACTUAL KIDS. So within days of meeting him, and having occasionally walking through the executive floor of his office building, she’s now an expert – and she makes him act on her advice immediately, mere hours before Christmas.

Anyway, I wasn’t particularly charmed by this one. I know Edward is supposed to be a little…stiff, but Luke Macfarlane’s understanding of ‘businessman’ (and this is how you can tell actors have no idea what real work looks like) means talking in a robot voice. Which is not even as funny as you might think.

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