Last year, Hallmark sent us to Rome for Christmas. This year, it’s Vienna. I guess European countries are romantic. Thankfully, this isn’t the same movie in a different location.

Jess (Sarah Drew) is a concert violinist. She is in Vienna for the holidays to perform a concert on Christmas Eve. While there, she plans on hanging out with her old college friend, Tori (Alina Fritsch). Tori works as a nanny for an American diplomat named Mark (Brennan Elliott). When Tori gets a chance to sell her handmade ornaments in one of the local markets, Jess agrees to help out with the nanny duties.

I really like Sarah Drew as an actress. I first saw her way back in 2004 on Everwood and I’m happy that she has been able to keep working, even though she frequently plays the same type of character - slightly awkward yet adorable. And this is no different. At least this time the stereotype is offset by her interaction with the children, Julian (Oskar Ricketts), Summer (Allegra Tinnefeld), and Isla (Abigail Vollnhofer). All of the Jess/children scenes are great. The actors seem to get along wonderfully.

As for the romance? Well…it’s filled with a lot of almost moments. Moments where the two adults should just talk about what is on their mind but they won’t so they just kinda let each other float away until the very last minute. Or like the scene where Mark asks Jess’s opinion on something then gets mad when she tells him what she thinks. That was annoying. It’s really just another movie with no real conflict. Instead of a will they/won’t they scenario, the biggest conflict is about whether Jess leaves Vienna (where she doesn’t actually live…she’s only visiting for this one concert) and whether Mark moves his family out of Vienna (they move a lot so I’m not sure why this is surprising). Yeeeaaah.

Christmas in Vienna is another movie that is just fine to watch…unless you hate Silent Night. They play it a lot. Otherwise, the acting is fine, the story is fine, the locations are very pretty (it was actually filmed in Vienna!). It’s better than a lot of the other Hallmark/Lifetime movies I’ve watched. I only wish there was a little more oomph to it….