I absolutely love Hallmark movies. Everything I say is out of this undying, appreciative, in awe type of love. Yes, I make fun of them, but my husband and I make fun of each other all of the time, and we are annoyingly in love.
Meet Cara (Taylor Cole), an overworked relationship writer at Mallory magazine, and aspiring mystery novelist. She
- lives in Seattle
- loves snowboarding
- knows The Best 20 Dating Ice Breakers
- isn’t allowed to write her own headlines?
Now, meet New Cara. Because she has so many horrible dating experiences, she wants to be more cautious in her relationships. She’s not going to be so impulsive with her new beau, Jesse. Maybe dip her toe in the water instead of just jumping right in.
- I’m sorry, but the old Cara can’t come to the phone right now. Why? Oh, ’cause she’s too busy making a Taylor Swift reference.
Meet Megan (Rukiya Bernard), Cara’s friend and assistant to the editor in chief of Mallory magazine, Diane White. She loves snowboarding, and has her eye on a rad CYAN board for her weekend trip with her cousin to Clara Lake Lodge.
She is also delightful.
Just look at her!
Cara and Megan are getting ✨glam✨ for New Year’s Eve, but can’t decide on a party. Do they dare go to Jesse’s rooftop party? Cara wants to keep up the New Cara lifestyle she’s had for 25 seconds, and not freak out Jesse by celebrating a holiday together, so they decide to go elsewhere.
Until–
Megan finds a letter to Cara from Berkley’s Creative Writing Grad Program. And, guess what? She gets in! All she wants to do is share this news with Jesse, so bye, New Cara. It was nice knowing ya! They rush out of the door because they are getting a late start to the night.
And, WOW!!!! They are so late! Was the rooftop party 8,000 stories up, and they walked the whole way???? Because the second they step into the party, the crowd is counting down to 2018.
5! an almost Bruno Mars song blares
4! a guy dances with a sparkler
3! hey…isn’t that dangerous? we’re inside.
2! what if he drops it? should I be worried?
1? but wait…
There’s no time to be worried about Sparkler Guy, because Cara spots Jesse kissing some blonde. Megan is right: that’s so not cute.
The next morning, Cara decides to give up dating for her New Year’s resolution (funny, I must have accidentally done that for 3 of my college years). At first Diane isn’t for it, but she is struck by a headline: The Dating Cleanse. This will be a 3-parter–an article for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. And if it’s good, on Monday she’ll be an editor.
Meanwhile, Megan gets a call from her cousin. She has the flu! Diane overhears this unfortunate news, and urges Cara to go on the weekend trip with Megan. It’ll be a good backdrop for her article.
Snowboarding, fondue, girls trip, here they come! And I’m telling you, they are really excited about the fondue bar.
Cara fon-does want to go to grad school, but fon-doesn’t want to give up her cushy writing job. What will she fon-do?
lolololololololololol, sry.
When they arrive at Clara Lake Lodge, their chalet isn’t ready. Instead of moping, they decide to hit the slopes. Something I love about these characters is that they are so flexible and cool. Will I ever be flexible and cool?
At the pro shop, through a dreamy and starry haze, Cara spots a CYAN 920. A red carpet rolls as her feet, the angels sing, glitter confetti falls, another person’s hand also lands on the snowboard—
Meet Ben (Jack Turner), the owner of the other hand. All we learn about him is that he knows snowboards, and that he’s pretty nice because he lets Cara take the CYAN 920.
Finally, their chalet is ready, and uhhhhhhh, it looks like it could hold 2,000 people. So, they shouldn’t have been surprised that while they are inspecting a spectacular gift basket, a shirtless Ben cascades down the stairs.
Turns out, they both rented half of a chalet, and there are no other places available for them to stay! WHOOPS.
Meet Sean (Dewshane Williams), a doctor, and Ben’s friend who is not mad about their unexpected housemates. All, but Cara, head onto the deck to start a fire, and decide to make a no work-talk, no working blood pact.
Cara has been hard at work on her Dating Cleanse articles and her mystery novel manuscript! Go Cara! They decide that “you can be anyone you wanna be on vacation,” so Cara decides to be a detective and to treat this whole suspicious Ben–if that’s even his real name–like a mystery.
Cara’s Ben Observations
- Gets 2 CYAN 920s delivered to the lodge at night
- Acts quite suspcious about who he is
- Is trying to stay out of the public eye
- HATES wine charms (????)
The next morning, Cara and Megan get up early to shred the mountain like Johnny Tsunami. As soon as they start, a call from Diane shakes the mountain, and because of it Megan is left under an avalanche of work. She wants Megan to screen applicants for a job she had posted earlier. So there she is. Stuck on the mountain, taking phone call after phone call. Cara is left to board alone, until–
She gets on the same ski lift as Ben. They flirt-argue about their chosen wine charms’ personality traits. Cara is prickly and guarded like the pineapple. Ben is mysterious and disguised like the sunglasses. I am excessively cautious for adding the 4 leftover charms on my glass. Hey! I’m not drinking anyone’s backwash but my own.
Cara gets back to the chalet to Ben reading on the couch. Had he finished Agatha Christie? Nope, but he finished reading her manuscript that he found lying around. She is upset for an incredibly short amount of time, mainly because he liked it. I would still be screaming. I am screaming just thinking about it. If only I were as cool as Cara.
Meanwhile, Megan has been on calls for 3 hours, without a glove on her phone hand!!!! I hope she’s been switching! Sean slams into her so hard that I’m surprised that her arm–that is most definitely an icicle at this point–didn’t snap off. Poor girl is sent to the infirmary.
At the lodge, Ben and Cara eat a romantic meal of brats and ❤ flirt ❤
- Ben works at a snowboard company
- Old Cara is still trying to be cautious New Cara
- They both want something more from their careers
Down in the infirmary, Dr. Sean is on the case of Megan’s injuries. Since both of her arms are falling off, he’s ordered a strict “no device” prescription for 2-3 days. He even calls Diane to tell her the news. I would’ve loved to have seen that conversation go down. “She still has talk-to-text, doesn’t she?”
Aw, just look at these cuties!
Cara’s writing is still going well, but she has yet to write her 3rd article. Looks like her Ben mystery is a little bit more interesting than her dating detox, because her ears perked up earlier when she saw Ben talking to a woman.
Here is where we should probably talk about Camp Snow. Ben’s snowboarding company donated snowboards to be auctioned off to help underprivileged kids who want to go to Camp Snow, but can’t afford it on their own. Jennifer, the woman running the event, keeps pressuring Ben to speak, but he’s like noooooooooooope. No attention. None. Let me be!
FINALLY! It’s Cara and Megan’s Fondue Date! They
- eat cheese
- talk about cheese
- sit in a hot tub of cheese
- talk about Ben and Sean
Cara insists she won’t break her dating detox for Ben, but Megan isn’t having it and has the most adorable, yeah okay sure chew I’ve ever seen.
Now, for the tale of the two dates!
Oh, sorry guys, I mean
Now, for the tale of two not-dates!
After Jennifer promises he won’t be in the spotlight, Ben decides to go to the charity event. He even chases down Cara in a snowmobile to ask her to be his guest.
Cara and Ben
- dress up
- dance
- unsuccessfully avoid pictures
- have an almost kiss!
UGH THEY ARE SO CUTE
Megan and Sean
- go to trivia night at the lodge
- giggle nonstop
- make lovey-dovey eyes at each other
UGH THEY MIGHT BE EVEN CUTER
(no caption needed because loooooook!)
But, not all goes well for Cara and Ben.
Cue Diane. While spending her night in the office working, a notification pops up on her computer. It’s none other than a picture of Cara and Ben Livingston. Now, since she has to Google who Ben Livingston is, I think this means that she has a Google alert for Cara…….??????? Weird, right????????? ………..???????????????? I’m creeped out??????????
Well, she is so stoked when she finds out who this Ben Livingston is that she maniacally twiddles her fingers and messages Cara.
Simultaneously, Ben’s publicist calls him. See, it makes sense that his publicist has a Google alert for him. Because, that’s his job.
Diane tells Cara that Ben
- is the CEO of CYAN Wintersports
- has recently been a tabloid darling
- dumped his Olympic hopeful girlfriend right before the games
Ben is just as shocked to find out that Cara is a relationship journalist, and doesn’t want to end up in one of her articles. He gets so mad that he leaves their date without telling her he’s upset or asking her to explain herself. C’mon Ben!
Of course, creepster Diane wants Cara to write her 3rd and final dating cleanse article about Ben. But, Cara can’t agree to that.
Ben decides to leave Clara Lake in a dramatic huff, but is stopped by a power outage. A storm has hit, and the roads are closed. Looks like they’re stuck with each other, alone at the chalet.
After Cara lights the fire with a battery, they sit in front of the fireplace and calmly and rationally discuss their situation.
Turns out that Ben didn’t want to leave, but his publicist forced him to. Yes, he is the CEO of CYAN Wintersports, but since the brand went public last year, he has been controlled by the board. And, yes, he was dating an Olympic hopeful, but she broke up with him. When she got hurt right before the games, the tabloids decided it was much more entertaining and dramatic to blame everything on him. Tabloids are such trash.
Cara assures Ben that even though she is a relationship writer, she wouldn’t use him for a story. And speaking of story! She has 15 minutes to write and send her 3rd and final dating cleanse article to Diane. She goes to the other room and writes it on Ben’s laptop.
Hey…what are Megan and Sean up to?
Oh, just being cute! Because of the weather, they got stuck in the lodge, but luckily got the chairs right in front of the fireplace. I’m currently trying to imagine the Peanuts style tumbleweed fight they had to get those seats. Turns out that these two
- live 3 blocks away from each other
- are both digging each other
- are going to go on a date when they get back to Seattle
Wanna know what else they are up to?
BLOCKING KISSES!
Cara and Ben are about to kiss (again!) but Megan and Sean bust into the chalet saying that the roads are now open and they had better make a run for it! Ben accidentally picks up Cara’s phone, and sees a headline suggestion text from Diane! Oh no!
This time he doesn’t stay long enough to hear the explanation. C’mon, Ben! You just said you shouldn’t just leave in sticky situations!
Ugh.
The next day, on their way home, Megan powers up her phone and has 22 notifications. After going crossed eyed at all of Diane’s messages, she calls her and tells her to go to H-E-double hockey sticks! But, not really. She asks for an interview, and I kid you not, Diane says:
“I’ve never thought of you that way.”
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL. She just got assistant-zoned. But for 5 seconds! Because she gets an interview!
Let’s get to the end, because my fingers are about to fall off from all of this typing (help).
- Ben quits his job!
- Cara quits her job!
- Megan gets the job!
- Sean keeps his same job!
Ben found out that the 3rd article Cara sent to Diane wasn’t about him at all. It was her 2 weeks notice, because she’s going to grad school. Ben admits that he was wrong to leave abruptly, and asks her to meet at a bookstore they both love.
And guess what?
The pineapple and the sunglasses kiss! In a room filled with books and chandeliers! The End!
I rate One Winter Weekend a basket full of Jimmy John’s sandwiches and Starbucks gift cards which is a 4.75/5 on my scale of Gift Baskets.
The Scale
- A busted straw basket with Easter grass and left behind jellybeans
- One filled with a bunch of cleaning supplies
- A basket of infomercial products–MyPillow, WonderBible, Gotham Steel pans, etc.
- One with Cheryl’s Cookies and See’s Candy (mmmmmmmmm!)
- A basket of everything you’ve even seen and thought “Aww, that’s so cute! I wish someone would buy me that!”
Okay, so. One Winter Weekend is adorable. For evidence of how adorable I think it is, just look at this rare, overly peppy tweet of mine:
I honestly just loved it. And, I am shocked that I loved this movie because the promo made it seem very dramatic and serious, which it so wasn’t. It was light and fun and cute and sweet and charming and…you get the point. Both couples had a ridiculous amount of chemistry, the dialogue was entertaining, and I was just giddy watching it. It was a nice change of pace that neither of the female leads were anxious, scared, uptight, ice queens, etc. It was a truly relaxing movie watching experience.
It would’ve gotten a 5/5 if Megan and Sean would’ve gotten more of an ending. They needed a kiss too! And a 2 hour epilogue???????? 😉
But, let me get really cheesy for a minute. Maybe it’s because I’m drinking a Coca-Cola right now and am feeling a little hyper. Maybe it’s because writing these recaps has given me back my love of writing. But, this movie really made me want to write something that would give someone a 2 hour bit of joy on a Saturday night, like this movie gave me. Thank you!
Thanks for reading! Please subscribe, follow me on social media, and let me know what you thought of One Winter Weekend! 😀
The Hallremark 
I’m glad you liked this movie! Personally, I didn’t like it, as I had problems with the story and the acting from the leads. However, I thought that Rukiya Bernard and Dewshane Williams’ performances were the best part about this film! Their on-screen chemistry, Megan and Sean’s story, and Rukiya and Dewshane’s acting abilities as individuals and as a pair were better than Jack and Taylor’s. Rukiya and Dewshane saved this movie from being completely unwatchable. I hope that Rukiya Bernard and Dewshane Williams are cast as the leads in a Hallmark movie in the future!
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