A Bride for Christmas(2012)/Just The Way You Are(2015) -updated

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Note:  I am updating this blog entry because I mixed up the name of the male lead with another because of the many movies I watched starring Andrew Walker and some others.

After Jessie Patterson (Arielle Kebbel) calls off her third engagement - at the altar! - she swears off serious relationships until she finds “the one.” That is, until charming but chronically single Aiden MacTiernan (Andrew Walker) comes along. Unbeknownst to Jessie, Aiden has bet his friends that he can convince a woman to marry him by Christmas - which is only four weeks away - and Jessie is the target of his bet. As Aiden attempts to court Jessie by first hiring her to decorate his apartment, Jessie looks to her sister, roommate and interior design company partner, Vivian (Kimberley Sustad) as her closest confidant. To complicate matters, Jessie is doggedly pursued by her most recent ex-fiancé, Mike (Sage Brocklebank), who still wants to marry her. When Aiden finds himself falling for Jessie too, will he call off the bet and truly pursue her?-The Hallmark Channel

Initial release: 1 December 2012
Director: Gary Yates
Writer: Barbara Kymlicka
Executive Producer: Timothy O. Johnson

This movie is based on THE BET 
Wattpad/Book description: When Drake Swift lost in a bet, his best friend wanted him to court a girl in a month and ask her to be his girlfriend. After she said, "Yes", he will tell her that he doesn't love her and all that happened between them was a game. But what if Sophia Taylor, the girl his best friend chose, is clever than they think she is? What will happen if she knows something about their pretty little secret?-source
Movie description from Wikipedia: In love, the stakes are high. When you live for no one... or when you have almost no one... will you still bet your all?
The story follows a popular guy named Drake Sison (Enrique Gil), who makes a bet with his best friend Andrei (Yves Flores), to make the nerdy transfer student, Sophia Taylor (Liza Soberano), fall in love with him in 30 days. Once she falls for him, he must confess that it was all a bet.

Why am I posting about these two movies together?  
Both stories are about four friends making a bet, and in both stories the guy chooses to lose the bet as long as he wins the girl, unfortunately, a bringer of chaos steps in the picture to burst everyone's bubbles.  In the first story the destroyer of dreams is a schemer who claims his in love with the girl.  He knows the whole story, but he edits it to his advantage.  In the second story, a die hard obsessive girl rains on their parade when the two declare their love for each other.

I've watched many stories about bets, but these are two of the best, at least in my book.

The second story is deeper than the first, but both are very much endearing.  


A BRIDE FOR CHRISTMAS
The Bet: To make commitment phobic Aiden(ANDREW WALKER) have someone to agree with him that they should get married on Christmas day.  Aiden agrees as long as he gets to choose the girl.  If he wins he gets the corner office.  If he loses he gets a small cubicle.

If you read my blog entries regularly you would know that I like Andrew Walker movies. There's just something about him that makes me believe he is very much in love with his partner in the film.  He makes it look so real.

Here, his love interest is played by ARIELLE KEBBEL.   Arielle, who plays Jessie, is a very beautiful woman.  Jessie broke off three engagements before meeting Aiden(Andrew's role), and almost got married to the third one, but she emulated Maggie Carpenter(The Runaway Bride played by Julia Roberts).  The characters here remind me of a story I wrote in the 1990s(A FIGHT WITHIN), but this story and my own are have a night and day disparity. 

Aiden is an ass at first, but later on, when he realises that there's more to Jessie than just being a beautiful face, he slowly falls in love with her. 

By the way there's a dog named Jake here.  He actually looks like our last dog named Mutiny(born during a Coup d'état), so I shed a tear or two, but my heart also leapt for joy.

Cast from Wikipedia:
  • Arielle Kebbel as Jessie Patterston , the protagonist ; an interior designer who broke an engagement three times.
  • Andrew Walker as Aiden MacTierson , the man who makes a bet with regard to Jessie.
  • Kimberley Sustad as Vivian Patterston , Jessie's lesbian sister and colleague.
  • Sage Brocklebank as Mike , Jessie's third fiancée; plumber by profession.
  • Peter Benson as Matt Harper , Jessie's second fiancé; film reviewer by profession.
  • Kyle Cassie as Owen , Jessie's first fiancé; television weather proofer by profession.
  • Karen Kruper as Susan Patterston , Jessie's mother.
  • Eric Keenleyside as Hank Patterston , Jessie's father.

JUST THE WAY YOU ARE a.k.a. THE BET

As I mentioned before, the story is much deeper than it seems.  When I saw the trailer I thought it was a Filipino version of SHE'S ALL THAT, but Antoinette Taus already starred in a sort of Filipino adaptation of that movie opposite Dingdong Dantes.  I shook my head and told myself I won't get caught dead watching this unoriginal movie.

Now, I am very sorry that I thought it was unoriginal.  True, there are many stories like this one, but the issues here are very real.  LizQuen acted so well that they made us feel every emotion the characters were feeling.  It was like they let us glimpse into the souls of the characters they were portraying.


I love the lyrics of this song (it's part of the movie)
Directed by Theodore Boborol 
Written by
Maan Dimaculangan-Fampulme
Ceres Helga Barrios
Based on The Bet by Kimberly Joy Villanueva (ilurvbooks)

From Wikipedia

Main cast

Supporting cast

Special participation


Note: Both endings are somehow predictable, but thankfully, there's more to both stories than meets the eye

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