When a charming con artist settles down with a sweet yet gullible woman, he must spend Christmas with her dysfunctional family – and unexpectedly experiences the concept of family for the first time.

I hope the conflict is innate here. Clearly he’ll have to unmask himself. Clearly he falls for the family. Not so clearly he begins as a Scrooge-like figure and softens up.

Longer version: – why he can’t escape…
Trapped in a small town because of snow storm, a charming con artist settles down with a sweet, wholesome woman and her family for the holidays – and unexpectedly?finds his first chance to have a real family.

I think it’s too much to make the sweet wholesome woman a mark. I think it’s likely he’s trapped and she takes him in and they slowly fall for each other. Yet he’s still pretending to be someone else.

(I think as a con artist, he’s more of a loner. He’s spent his whole life cutting off any emotional ties/attachments, etc. He’s less of a predator and more a Frank Abagnale figure. Came from a broken home. Always running. Yet eventually winds up back in his home town.)

It’s sentimental – because it’s his old home town. There’s some scars here. Perhaps he finds his old house? Perhaps revisits the place where he first became a con artist or where he was made into one?

Stakes: he could lose a family he grows to love and who grows to love him.
Conflict: he’s essentially lying to everyone.

What do you think?

I’ll probably need a few hours to shave off some words I think. There’s potentially something here.

(This is when you tell me it’s already a Hallmark film ha.)

Okay…

Perhaps this one?

Trapped in his old hometown during a snowstorm, a charming con artist must spend Christmas with a dysfunctional family – and unexpectedly finds the family he never had.

(27 words?)