It’s Complicated.

This one is not for the old-fashioned Hallmark purist. If you want lots of simple Christmas cheer, happy tears, and a feel-good romance to wrap around you like a warm blanket, this one isn’t for you. Neither is it if you want the characters you root for and root against clearly defined.  Like a previous one, it is fast and furious. There is also a lot going on. Romance is not the focus, and to stir the pot even more, it is not clear that the love interest (played by the ever-popular fan-favorite, Tyler Hynes) is completely on the up and up with benign motivations. And we are not sure which of the women who both have crushes on him is going to “get” him, or if either one will, or indeed if both will (!). Now that last option is really not on the table, cuz it’s Hallmark, dear. But for a chunk of time, It shore looks like he is trying to romance both of them! To be honest, I think the romance would have worked with either of the two leads. I think the scriptwriter may have just done an eeny meeny miny mo.

Essentially, the story is about 2 best friends (adroitly played by Janel Parrish and new comer Pascal Lamothe- Kipnes) who need to disentangle themselves from each other’s lives because they have become co-dependent. Now I’m not exactly 100% sure I have a handle on what co-dependent looks like, but they both sacrificed their own needs to be the friend and supporter each has needed over the years. And they have no clue. They love each other. They have been best friends (even each others’ only friend, really) since high school. They went on to college where they were roommates, and founded a tech company together which has made them rich and famous. And they both have unhealthy relationships with their mothers. One pair is resentful and passive-aggressively hostile, and one is too attached and boundaries are needed. These problems can only be uncovered and fixed at Christmas time in their old hometown surrounded by the very people who contributed to their mess (including the high school cool kids who ignored these two outsiders throughout their teenage years). Can you go home again? Do you want to re-live the past and make different decisions? It’s really complicated, because in our heroines’ case, if they hadn’t been so dependent on each other and so unhappy in high school, they wouldn’t be the wealthy successes they are today.

As layers are uncovered and secrets are revealed, I went back and forth in my opinions about many of the characters. For just one example, The hero, Chris, is vocal about being a vegan complete with a virtue-signaling story about why he became one. As one of his old buddies pipes up, “And what Vegan isn’t vocal?” Yet one, eventually both, of our heroines catch him eating fish, one time right off her plate in a restaurant. Now this sounds kind of funny and harmless. But his lie is discovered right when we are trying to make up our minds about him and what his deal is.

And through it all, we have creative graphics ( real photos of the characters in high school as they are introduced), funny jokes and banter, and amusing physical comedy. Some of the situational comedy works and sometimes it gets too silly. But above it all is the chemistry between our two female leads without which nothing about this one would have worked. If you like Hallmarks you actually have to look at and listen to, not play on your phone during, you just might like this one.