Christmas

A Christmas Angel Match

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Winging It

There seems to be some mixed, mostly negative, (man, I thought I was a little sour sometimes) reviews for this one, but I really enjoyed it. Written by the lead actress, Meghan Ory, it had some cute lines, ideas, and “world building” as far as angel and heaven culture was concerned. I thought the sets and the costuming were terrific. 

Monica (Ory) is an experienced and award winning angel who has worked at the Department of Christmas Connection all her life. She is 587 years old and we are told that she was born an angel, so has never been human. She takes a thoughtful and serious approach to helping singles find true love during the Christmas season. She goes strictly by the Angel Handbook aka The Hark. But she’s been in a slump lately.  Young people these days are too distracted and busy on their phones to look up and make an in-person connection with one who might be their soulmate. She loses the Angel of the Year award to the new kid on the block (only 97 years old), Michael (Benjamin Ayers), who takes a “fun” approach to match making. Monica believes that a more serious well planned methods facilitate more meaningful long-lasting relationships. Michael may have put together more matches than her, but how solid are they once the Christmas magic wears off? The tidings are bad, not glad, when a mistake happens and they both are assigned the same couple to match and are forced to work together. There is a lot riding on this particular assignment. “Cloud Command” is not happy with the DCC’s performance lately and they may be forced to downsize and merge with the Valentine’s Day folks. And the office manager Gabriel does not get along with Cupid.

I like when there is a lot going on in a Hallmark romance. In addition to getting together the “tenderheart” (human) young couple, their grandparents are making a match of it, as well as, of course, Monica and Michael. Monica takes the lead at first. But the plan to have Patrick and Daisy bond over cute puppies goes awry as well as the tried and true “Brewed Awakening”, the old collision with coffee routine. They are both called on the carpet and Monica and Michael realize that they have to work as a team. Along with trying (unsuccessfully) to get Patrick and Daisy to connect throughout most of the movie, Michael makes it his mission to show Monica some human type fun and get her to loosen up. Neither Michael nor Monica are exactly likable at first “We are not arguing, You’re just wrong!” But I liked their journey. As they tick off all of the meet-cute tropes on the Hallmark checklist, (Christmas crafts, picking out a Christmas tree, snowball fight, hot chocolate, getting caught under the mistletoe, etc. etc.) the two angels slowly learn to work together and develop a friendship and mutual respect.  I still haven’t tired of the self aware humor that results when Hallmark makes fun of their own Christmas romances. And this movie was all about that-right down to the partially heard convo that results in a misunderstanding and temporary heartbreak.

There were some nice touches that added a little depth.  Along the way, we learn that  Monica has been matching Patrick’s family for generations which is one reason why this one is so important to her. At one point Michael finds Monica in church looking for divine intervention, she says. He thinks church is a good place for that. It wasn’t perfect. It started out repetitive and got a little draggy in the middle and although Daisy was adorable, I didn’t take to Patrick. Some of the acting was a little forced. Daisy’s best friend was a gay man who also gets matched up and he was too stereotypical and it had too much of a “Check that off the list” feel. As was the interracial aspect of Daisy and Patrick, I suppose. Hallmark really has a lot to balance, so I can’t be too hard on them. On the other hand, “Baby Steps” just doesn’t cut it anymore. All in all, I appreciated the fast paced dialogue and banter and the out of the box plot. I wonder what will happen next with Monica and Michael. A heavenly wedding and little baby angels?

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

A Royal Montana Christmas

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Dude!

It’s not often that I have nothing to say. The title says it all. But it’s the Saturday premiere of the first movie in Hallmark’s Countdown to Christmas. So. The overscheduled and stressed out Princess Victoria of Zelarnia escapes to a Montana dude ranch where she went as a child with her late father for a little R and R and falls for Huntley, the son of the owners. Besides having no free time in Zelarnia she is discouraged from being herself or straying outside the lines in any way, shape, or form while doing her princessly duties. After Christmas she will be taking over for her mother the queen full time. Luckily her mother is supportive and Victoria doesn’t really so much as “escape” but is allowed to go to Montana as long as she takes her head scheduler and assistant, Gabriel along with her and is back by December 19th for the official lighting of the third Advent candle. Also she has a nice sister, who is much more suited for her duties than Victoria is, to fill in. Gabriel is from New York City, and he will help Victoria navigate the strange ranch customs of America. In the one amusing line, Gabriel protests that the only ranch he is “acquainted with is ranch dressing.”

And that is pretty much that. No one recognizes her at all, so there is no cloak and dagger hiding her identity or escaping from the paparazzi going on. The fact that she is a royal princess doesn’t really play into the story at all. No culture shock, no nothing. She might as well be another Hallmark American stressed out business woman on vacation. Except for the German (?) accent. Even citified prissy Gabriel is a good sport about all they have to go through. For some strange reason, Victoria and Gabriel, paying guests mind you, are given nasty chores on their first day including mucking out the stalls (“Charlie made a big ole mess last night.” snicker snicker. Charlie being a horse.) There is some mystery about why they no longer have the annual Christmas dance which Victoria remembers so fondly.  But with the help of Huntley’s gorgeous high school friend, Shelby, she enthusiastically and competently revives it to raise money for the volunteer fire department. Shelby is nice and even though she and Huntley were the homecoming Queen and King there is no romance there at all. Drama and misunderstandings averted. Huntley’s deal is that he used to be a baseball player and even made it to the pros. But he blew out his rotator cuff during his first spring training, letting down his community who cheered him on at the last Christmas Dance that they held many years ago.  Next year’s dance was canceled because his parents were too busy seeing to his recovery. Ever since, instead of helping his parents run the ranch full time he has been assistant coaching unhappily in the minor leagues there in the hinterlands of Billings Montana and struggling with some kind of complex for letting down his community. The community doesn’t care, bro. They are too busy with their own lives.

When the Christmas dance is scheduled the day after Victoria is supposed to leave she just calls up her mom and gets an extension. No problemo. Meanwhile Huntley and Victoria have fallen in love while doing ranch activities under the big sky of Montana. At one point things get serious (they almost kiss) and she tells him she is a real princess. No problemo. Even though he is now going to help run the ranch full time, and her destiny is in Zelarnia, they are going to work it out and be together “as a team”, “whatever that looks like.” Holy matrimony is not mentioned. Sure enough, she goes back to Zelarnia to light the last Advent candle, and comes back seemingly the next day (going by what I know about Advent Candles) on Christmas to live the dream in Montana with her mother and sister in tow. They fit right in and little sis happily agrees to take over Victoria’s princess duties for ever after they get back home.

This one was not an auspicious start to Hallmark’s Countdown to Christmas 2025 version. Fiona Gubelman and Warren Christie were well cast, had good chemistry and did the best they could with a really boring script. Warren looks excellent in a Cowboy hat and the kisses were solid.

Rating: 5 out of 10.

Unwrapping Christmas: Olivia’s Reunion

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All Wrapped Up.

This is the last of the 4 little movies about 4 women who own an all-year-round gift-wrapping store. My review title is apt.  I’ll try not to let the complete absence of the Magical Gift Paper Making Machine affect my rating. As if to make up for it though, Olivia’s dog Ivy gets more of the spotlight and  he is one of the most adorable Hallmark dogs ever. Ivy did not receive a much deserved screen credit for his or her role. He or she needs an agent.

While out delivering gifts that have been “All Wrapped Up” (the name of the store) a few days before The Gala, Olivia (Cindy Busby) knocks on the door of the remote vacation home of the woman who ordered them and finds herself face to face with her ex-boyfriend Ben (current occupation unknown) whom she hasn’t seen for several years. No it wasn’t one of those meddling sneaky mother set ups that Hallmark is so fond of. Ben’s mother, who has taken the rest of the family skiing leaving Ben alone in the cabin, is, as they say, “a lot”, and does not like Olivia because she blames their split on her, even though he was the one who left for New York. Anyway, being set in Minnesota in the winter, they get snowed in alone together.

This was basically a very simple and pleasant romance as the two leads slowly iron out their problems and resume their relationship. I liked it pretty well, mostly for what did not happen, rather than what did. First there were no festivals, and nothing needed to be saved. There was no flirty food fight or other silly tom foolery (Mostly because there was no food in the fridge except for a banana.) No ice skating or snowman construction or snow ball throwing. It was positively refreshing! It was just Ben and Olivia talking and stuff like finding Christmas decorations in the basement and Olivia showing Ben her bow making  accumen (bow making is Olivia’s specialty.) Ben’s mother tries to fix up Ben with Jen, the local store owner from afar, but Jen was nice. No cattiness at all. In fact, Olivia invites her back to the cabin for Christmas as her family is away. There is some simmering suspense as to what Mom’s reaction will be when she finds out that the (w)itch who broke her baby’s heart has been alone in the cabin with him the whole time.  And the confrontation did not disappoint. Mom was very rude, but is swiftly set right by Ben and all was smoothed over. Best of all, there was no last minute misunderstanding that has half of the fledgling couple stomp off into the sunset. Olivia in fact does hear part of a conversation while eavesdropping, but what she hears is Ben defending her to his mother and it seals the deal on their happy ending. That has got to be a first. Admittedly, there was a hint of “bad business” but it had to do with Jen, the nice store owner and was very much a side issue. Jen even gets a hint of a happy ending of her own. So nice.

This low key easy-going little diversion would not have worked without likable actors and characters. Ben is played by Jake Epstein who is a favorite of mine. He and Cindy made a good pair and I have always really liked Cindy Busby too. Going off topic here, but she deserves props for not hiding her age on IMDb even though she is one of the older actresses for Hallmark. She looks as great as ever and (also off-topic) her makeup is pretty and natural, as always. Seemingly, Hallmarkies either love her or hate her. But will the bridge be repaired in time for Olivia to make it to The Gala in time to win the bow-making contest? We already know the answer as we have seen Cindy’s dramatic entrance, with Ben in tow, in the three previous movies. There were some continuity problems and other head-scratchers in the movie (like why is Cindy’s dress red in the movie but gold on the poster?). But they were easy for me to shrug off. **7 stars/10**- The best of the bunch.

Rating: 7 out of 10.

Unwrapping Christmas: Lily’s Destiny

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Signs

In the third installment of the Gift wrapping lalapalooza, we don’t hear much about the all so important Christmas Gala this time. That’s because there is so much else going on! Lily (Ashley Newbrough), the marketing and publicity director, is very busy going on actual dates, hosting a cocktail party to promote Gala ticket sales, mentoring an intern from a business school, and dealing with participating (or not participating) in “The Festival of Trees.” Busy Busy Busy.

While Tina was very super-organized and tightly wound and Mia was a romantic dreamer, Lily’s #1 personality trait is her belief in fate, signs from the universe, and horoscopes. Also she is dealing with Dead Parent Syndrome as far as Christmas tree decorating. This has caused her to not decorate a Christmas Tree for the Festival of Trees which is a neighborhood activity that everyone in the twin cities goes to. Strangely, it is not held in the neighborhood but in what appears to be a local school gymnasium. It is also strange that Lily’s sadness over her father’s death a year ago only affects her ability to decorate two trees. I can go with her not wanting to use her box of her father’s memory-laden decorations for her main home tree, but what does that have to do with the tree for the festival? The rest of her house is all decked out in Christmas bling including at least one other tree. Her lonely barren tree in the Gym has incurred the wrath of her next door neighbor whose zeal for the F of Ts rivals that of the HOA in the Haul out the Holly movies, and is just as scary. BTW, Festival of Trees trees are all very unimpressive and institutional looking. Do better, Hallmark.

Lily has two men vying for her hand, and they were the highlight of this movie. All of the “signs” (Literally. Batchelor #1, Owen, a star realtor and super salesman, has his handsome mug peering down on The Twin Cities from numerous billboards which are seemingly following Lily around whispering to her to date him.) Franco Lo Presti stole the show as Owen, who, as well as being the most eligible bachelor in the city, turns out to be a smug, self-satisfied know-it-all. The actor was perfectly cast as he is too good-looking to live with a head of hair that deserves its own screen credit.  Although he was a hoot as the wrong guy,  Lo Presti managed to give the character some vulnerability and conveyed the sense that maybe he was just trying too hard to impress the gorgeous and successful Lily. After he hilariously oversteps at her Christmas Cocktail Hour she breaks up with him pretty quickly for a Hallmark Heroine. Usually, it takes a while for the HH to get hit with the clue-stick. The other guy, Sean, is played by Torrance Coombs who turns out to be “The One.” He was also really good as the humble nice guy, who was also very attractive and charming. Lily and he hit it off immediately but are separated by each thinking that the other are in serious relationships. Another prime example of Hallmark’s characters not using their words.

Everything is ironed out in the end with the tree decorating and the romantic misunderstanding but there is a jaw-dropping twist at the end regarding the Gala’s Gift Wrapping Contest. No spoilers here! Hopefully, next week, in the conclusion of the series, we will have a reappearance of the magical Gift Wrapping Machine which turns polaroid snapshots into real wrapping paper. It has been absent since its debut in the first movie. I am really looking forward to getting another look at that thing. It was awesome.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10.

Unwrapping Christmas: Mia’s Prince

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Furoshiki

This is the second one in the gift wrapping series and the business is still burbling along quite nicely. Of course it is, we are still rehashing the week before Christmas from the first movie with the 4 women preparing for the Christmas Gala.  I still don’t have any faith in the long term viability of their gift wrapping shop when it’s not gift-giving season. We will never get to see how the women fare during the barren retail desert of January and February. But thankfully in this one we don’t get even a hint of any of Tina’s stupid woes securing The Alford House as the venue. This is all about Mia who is in charge of the decorating and the catering among other things. I liked this one a lot better than the first one for several reasons. For one, I actually liked Mia and Kathryn Davis did a nice job with the character. She had challenges with getting the decorations right (the idiot vender sent her “Marlins” instead of “Garlands”) and the caterer will cancel at the last minute to provide a crisis and some suspense. But her problems were not self-inflicted and did not suck all of the air out of the movie. They stayed in the background with Mia yelling over the phone and sighing occasionally, but by and large she just handled it with no muss or fuss. The main story was how gentle, romantic, and too sweet for her own good, Mia, learns to stand up for herself and not let people take advantage of her good nature.

Mia is a dreamer and a hopeless romantic who loves to read. Her favorite book is an early 19th century novel called Christmas at Derbyshire. Think Jane Austen but more romantic and cliché. She has been saving for over a year working her little gift-wrapping fingers to the bone to buy a first edition from her local book shop. So right from the start, I liked and empathized with Mia. In the midst of competently preparing for the gala, two things happen. Her sister, who has always overshadowed and dominated her, shows up unexpectedly and steamrolls her into letting her crash at her apartment for several days as she just lost her Chef job. Along with her cat to which which Mia is allergic. This forces Mia to spend the night at the shop on the couch. She is awakened by a handsome guy knocking on the window because of a gift-wrapping emergency. He thinks the store is open because Mia fell asleep reading (awh) with the lights on. It is the prince of … : Mia’s Prince! Or a reasonable facsimile.

Beau Cavanaugh (Nathan Witte) is from a wealthy and socially prominent family. He is very nice with kind soft eyes and is immediately smitten with sweetie-pie Mia. It’s mutual, once Mia realizes the next morning that she didn’t just dream him up and he is a real guy. His mother Claire, however, is a stone-cold (w)itch. And therein lies the drama. Besides Mia not being good enough society-wise for her son, it turns out that she has engineered a forced engagement between Beau and Penelope, the daughter of a prominent white family who has her own secret romance going with another guy. (Very 19th Century!) Beau and Penelope are good friends, but, as Beau explains to Mia, he is really not engaged. Except he is, because Backboneless Beau is too much of a wuss to stand up to his terrifying mother, even when she books the wedding venue and sets the date for the wedding without consulting him or Penelope! Mia, bless her, puts her foot down, tells him off, very eloquently I might add (twice!), and breaks up with him. And guess what? When Beau finally stands up to Claire about Mia, Mom basically tells him, “what took you so long to stop being a wimp?” Lanette Ware, who plays the mother, steals every scene she is in.

As for the Gala, despite Mia’s challenges with the decorations and the caterer, we already know it goes off without a hitch because of the movie last week. The main focus is how Mia irons out her problems with her overbearing sister, and what happens when she finds out that the beloved first edition she has been faithfully saving for gets sold out from under her. I won’t spoil it for you (Hahaha) but it was neatly wrapped up with a pretty bow on top. And a kiss under the Mistletoe. Taking 1/2 a star off for Beau being such a weakling.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10.

Unwrapping Christmas: Tina’s Miracle

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Can We Please Just Wrap This Up?

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In looking at the previews for this one, I was very much afraid that this was going to be an example of one of my Hallmark pet peeves, which I call Bad Business. The movie is based on four young (ish) women who run a “year-round” “gift wrapping” business. This didn’t seem to me to be a viable venture. But as it turns out, the business is not in trouble, at least so far (there are 3 more weeks to go-it’s a series.) In fact, it is quite successful. Could this be the miracle in Tina’s Miracle? The women are aware of concepts such as “publicity”, “marketing”, they use “technology”, and have “merchandise”. They also have developed some alternative income streams such as helping customers choose appropriate gifts (hopefully they usually charge for this), and as we learn later, they design and manufacture custom gift paper. This last one by means of a magic copy machine/transmogrifier which was so cool, I can’t snark at it. It is on such solid footing as a business that they are hosting the annual Christmas Gala at the largest charity gala of the year. So this movie was not good, but not because of “Bad Business.”

The crux of the plot is that they have lost their venue, Alford House, due to the property being sold and the new owner not wanting to have any more events scheduled because of insurance and lawyers. The venue is a historical mansion and is dear to the heart of Tina, the head gift wrapper and the organizer of the gala, and her father, who is the caretaker of the beautiful old home. In one of the first scenes of the movie Tina becomes friendly with a young teen in a gift store and meets her handsome and nice father, Michael Alonzo, the love interest, who seems quite taken with her as well. He is a rich and successful investment firm owner. Coincidently, his company has been the owner of the Alford House for over 80 years, and has taken great care of it. He is the one who has sold the house to the guy who is not letting it be the venue for the gala!

The reason this movie did not work for me was because of the same old tactics Hallmark writers use to stretch out the plot to fill the 88 or so minutes of movie time and create drama: Self-Sabotage, Jumping to Conclusions, Lack of Urgency in accomplishing a goal, and Absurd Happenings that only happen because it’s expedient to the plot. To create romantic and dramatic tension, Tina blames the handsome loving father, Michael, the former owner of the property, who really is only an innocent bystander. They never approach the de facto owner and decision maker (they have not closed yet, but all of the contracts between the two corporate heads have been agreed and signed off on.) She labels Michael a heartless “snake” and greedy corporate “tyrant” based on inaccurate gossip that only tells half the story and hearing a few snatches of his end of a phone conversation. (Jumping to Conclusions.) She has a chance to talk to him when he brings his daughter to her gift wrapping shop but is rude and cold to him instead of using a charm offensive to try to win him over to her side and use his influence. She has a second chance because he asks for her help in buying a gift. They agree to meet the next day, but once again, she is rude and walks off (Self Sabotage and Lack of Urgency, also, Very Dumb). With the urgent deadline quickly approaching (all of the supporting venders are threatening to pull out) and blowing her chance to talk to him twice, she actually gets a third chance because he is so nice and accommodating. She meets him at Alford House with her father and despite her continuing prickly behavior he and her father bond over wainscotting. Michael calmly explains the facts of the matter to her that have been self-evident the whole time, and she finally gets hit with a burst of rationality. He agrees to do what he can to help her. It turns out that Michael thought the house was going to be preserved but the new owner lied to him about his plans and it is going to be torn down. Even though his character has been salvaged and she has won the powerful businessman’s agreement to help, she has to be talked into having a friendly dinner with him and his daughter. Tina, Michael, and his daughter Haley are well on the way to becoming a happy family when Michael finds out that Tina was involved in a conspiracy to dig up some dirt on him. Oh my.

Not to spoil the plot or anything, but they make up after Tina apologizes. In trying to save the house, they had decided to try to get the house on a historical register, and in the process, find out that Michael’s company never had the right to sell the house in the first place! The house is not only saved, but will be turned into a school for kids with learning disabilities. Michael’s daughter has dyslexia.  There was some other crazy stuff  like Michael trying to buy back the house from the bad owner even though it hadn’t even been closed on yet, and the professional gift wrappers being allowed to compete in a gift wrapping competition against a bunch of amateurs. And the sole judge being the husband of one of the contestants! (Absurd Happenings). Also, it turns out the house  was built 150 years ago by one of Michaels ancestors (which Michael didn’t even know and was another big coincidence (otherwise known as “Fate” in Hallmark World). It was deeded to the community but somehow Michael’s Family’s company bought it anyway 30 or 40 years later. Back from the community? From their own family? We never know. Where were the lawyers when they needed them? But now the community owns it (somehow), and I guess Michael is going to buy it back from them. Again.  

Fresh from his adventures on Machu Picchu last week, I really like Alec Santos who played Michael Alonzo. He is very attractive and I like his acting. Unfortunately, I’ve never warmed to Natalie Hall, who plays Tina. She starred in 3 Hallmarks in 2022 and hasn’t been seen since. I liked her in the last one, which was a Christmas movie, so I was kind of looking forward to seeing her again and hoping that she would build on the good impression she made on me at that time. Nope, not yet.

Rating: 5 out of 10.

Christmas in Rome

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Roman Holiday

Lacey Chabert and Sam Page make a good pair. I really liked the rapport they had together. They really matched. This 2019 production is set in Rome and although it had a lot of the usual travelogue elements, there was a lot more plot to this one and it definitely had its moments.

Lacey plays Angela who is an expatriate American living and working in Rome as a tour guide. She loves Rome, knows every little nook and cranny, and delights in taking her tourists off the beaten path to show them the real heart and soul of her favorite city. Unfortunately, her forays away from the safe well traveled tourist sites have sometimes gotten her and her little ducklings into trouble. Her latest out of the way adventure to a 400-year-old bakery results in one of her clients getting attacked by gluten. It is the last straw for Angela’s boss and he fires her. On her way home she meets a visiting business executive, Oliver, played by Sam Page, who is lost. She gets him to his business meeting successfully despite taking the scenic route, to his impatience. Oliver wants the retiring Luigi, played by Franco Nero, as handsome and charismatic as ever, to sell his high end family ceramics company to his firm. Oliver is all business, all the time. He is all about the bottom line, ignoring the niceties, and cutting right to the chase, which might be okay in some countries, but not in Italy, as Angela tries to tell him. As it happens, Luigi is very rich and doesn’t care how much money he gets for his Christmas ornament and other ceramics manufacturing company as long as its heart, soul, and artistic culture is preserved and nourished. There is lot of talk about “heart” and “soul” in this one. When Angela steps in and saves his bacon with Luigi who was very put off by Oliver’s initial approach, she adds life coach to her tour guide duties. She escorts the culture-shocked American around “the real” Rome showing him its heart and soul while lecturing him to death. There is nothing that Angela does not know about anything Roman. This was a very educational Hallmark. Oliver is won over and encourages her to start her own kind of tour guide company, specializing in tours that are much more than just the top ten tourist must-sees and selfie sites in the Eternal City. Meanwhile, Oliver is fending off his boss’s constant nagging about-When he is going to close the deal? What’s taking so long? Why do you look so relaxed and happy? And what does kneading bread with Lacey Chabert have to do with Luigi’s manufacturing plant? God, she was annoying. And the more she talked, the more I was afraid that Oliver actually would convince Luigi to sell his wonderful company to them as they were the exact opposite of everything that Luigi wanted from its future owner.

There were some really good moments in this one besides the scenery.

Angela refusing her former boss’s pleas to come back to work for him was one high point. Despite the inconvenience, seems Angela was very popular with his clients and frequently mentioned by name in his Trip Advisor reviews. His alarm when she tells him she is starting her own company and is on her way to line up some investors (arranged by Oliver) was very satisfying. A real “Hee-Hee-Hee” moment. I really liked that Oliver really bought into and supported Angela’s business aspirations.

Her pitch to her future investors was well done and the outcome was well managed, with just enough suspense to contribute to the overall effect.

I even liked that big conflict at the end which was well-founded and not silly or cooked up. At a celebratory dinner, Angela and Oliver agree to give their relationship a go despite living in different countries. Oliver tells her he will stay in Rome through New Year’s which signals that he has found balance between work and his personal life. Also, he has refused to take his boss’s calls! Angela is so encouraged that when she rings again, Angela encourages him to talk to her. He does, but he comes back to the table with news that he has been promoted to vice president (good news) but he must leave for New York immediately after all (bad).  In an instant, Angela sees the sad reality of their future in front of her versus the dream of making a go of it with the back-sliding Oliver. She calls the whole thing off and is direct, strong, and articulate. It was a great scene, and I was cheering her on all the way. Sam Page perfectly conveyed Oliver’s confusion and heartbreak.

There was a lot to resolve to achieve a satisfactory ending: The romance, Angela’s business venture, Oliver’s work/life balance, and, importantly for me, the future of Luigi’s beautiful little company in the hands of Oliver’s cutthroat employer. All were hanging by a thread. At one point Angela is even contemplating moving back to Seattle, of all places! Sure enough, Hallmark checked them all off and did so right in front of St. Peter’s Basilica during a Christmas concert. Well played.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

Chateau Christmas

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“In the willingess to fail, the extraordinary will often appear.”

**Spoilers**

I caught this 2020 Countdown to Christmas movie last night. I had only seen part of it back when it first came out, but it caught my interest because I always like Luke McFarlane and I was happy to see Merritt Patterson again. She has been absent from Hallmark for the last four years. Although she was not the most talented Hallmark actress, she is very pretty and has a sweet and gentle vibe that I kind of like. And Luke has the same type of kind and sunny quality when he is not being an excellent comedic actor.

Margot Hammond (great name!) is a world renowned pianist who is getting a little burned out from the travel, the constant pressure to not disappoint, and fear of not living up to her reputation. She got a rare bad review from a highly respected critic who credited her technical expertise but called her out on her lack of musicality and passion in her playing. It really stung because she knows it is the truth. When an upcoming concert is canceled due to the venue’s roof falling in and almost killing her, she decides to join her family for their traditional Christmas vacation at the Chateau Neuhaus, a ski lodge in Colorado. She is looking forward to licking her wounds in the bosom of her nice, supportive, and charming family.

While tinkling the ivories in the hotel lobby she is approached by her ex-boyfriend and musical partner, Jackson (lovely Luke Mcfarlane). They are surprised but happy to meet up again after so many years even though they parted badly.  8 years ago they were in a quartet together and were in love. But when Margot was offered the opportunity of a lifetime in New York, she did not hesitate to follow her dream of being a concert pianist, unfortunately leaving the group in the lurch. Jackson, who was the cellist, stayed in Colorado and became a music professor who is currently up for the department chair. The PR guy for the lodge, Adam, charmingly played by Jesse Hutch, is another old college buddy and he is in a pickle. The Chateau hosts a highly anticipated and sold out Christmas concert but all of the performers have had to drop out for one reason or another.  Jackson has agreed to replace the director and find replacement musical acts. When the headliner also drops out, he prevails on Margot to take her place. Refreshingly, although Margot feels a teeny tiny bit guilty about the way they broke up, and Jackson was very hurt, there is no bitterness or childish sulking between the two, as is usual in these things. Another example. Margot waffles a bit, but agrees and they take up where they left off, but as friends. They both are wary of acting on their still active romantic feelings for each other because their lives are so different and neither wants to get hurt.

Together they whip the concert into shape (Adam is hopeless), focusing on securing a famous quartet who have been broken up for 20 years and have been incommunicado with each other. Their break up mirrors Margo and Jackson’s in that two of the quartet were in love but Sarah wanted to settle down and start a family and Sam wanted to focus on his career and touring. He confides that he has regretted it ever since. The re-uniting of the surviving members of the Lafayette Quartet and the re igniting of the romance between the now divorced Sarah and curmudgeonly Sam was sweet and engaging.

Now if all romances were as trouble free as this one, it would get pretty boring. But it was nice for a change to have the leads behave like mature adults and professionals. Even when Margot learns the critic that caused her so much grief would be reviewing the concert and that Jackson didn’t tell her right away, it was the set up for the notorious big misunderstanding and temporary breakup with 15 minutes to go. But they communicate, she listens, and she understands his side of the story. My jaw dropped.

Thanks to the advice of the older couple who are given a second chance at love, Jackson and Margot resolve that they too can marry and have a family without compromising her stellar career. Margot overcomes her fears, rediscovers her passion for her music, and gets a stellar review from the critic, who turns out to be really smart and nice. The concert goes off without a hitch and even better than originally planned. Jackson gets the chairmanship of the music department, and of course Jackson and Margot live happily, kindly, and harmoniously ever after.

This was a old school Hallmark but without many of the usual tropes and cliches. The romance is definitely a focus, but not the main focus. More time is taken by the challenges of putting on the last minute concert, Margot finding her musical mojo again, and the secondary romance of the older couple.

Rating: 7 out of 10.

Happy Howlidays

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It Barks.

So this is the last movie of 2024’s Countdown to Christmas. I didn’t review as many as I wanted to. This will be my 20th one but last year, I reviewed 27 and the year before that 45! How did I do that?  And one of the 20 was from 2011 that I ran across, not one of this year’s. I wish I could blame my lack of inspiration on the movies. As usual there were some real winners, and some losers, but I didn’t review many real losers. Until today. No, to my surprise, it really wasn’t that horribly bad. It features the return of Jessica Lowndes to Hallmark after her defection to GAF. She is even more beautiful than before, thanks largely to considerably toned down makeup for this movie. However, her lack of authenticity in her acting  hasn’t changed a bit, nor her vocal fry, intonation, or lack of enunciation.  However, she is competent over half the time and she has her moments. I keep waiting for a breakthrough but I have a soft spot for her and hope she stays with Hallmark. Her leading man is the winner of Hallmark’s competition show, Finding Mr. Christmas. And as I never saw that series and am not likely to, this is where I found him. It was his first acting job, and it shows. But I’ve seen worse. Somewhere. If he keeps acting, I’m sure he will improve. He is very hunky, as proven by having to take his shirt off and discombobulating poor Jessica. Would have seen that scene coming from the international space station.

Jessica plays Mia, who works for the Seattle Travel Bureau which promotes tourism for the city. She is followed home one day by a cute dog she rescues from a killer fence. The next day, she tries to drop him off at a pet rescue center, but is turned away by our hero as the center is full. They hate each other, she, for good reason. He is a real jerk of spectacular proportions. In fact, my judgement of Mr. Christmas’s acting may have been influenced by how much I hated his character. So if that’s the case, I’m sorry, guy. “Max” is officious, mean, and has such a high bar for aspiring pet owners to adopt one of his dogs that he coldly rejects a nice suburban mother’s application, yet won’t take Mia’s dog, despite her telling him she would not be a good dog parent.  She is forced to foster him because she is not heinous or cruel, and Max lets her, even though she is clueless about raising a dog, and he calls her apartment a death trap. So maybe health and safety not his first priority? Not surprisingly, his pet rescue center is struggling to pay the bills. I hated this guy with the heat of a thousand suns.  However, he does apologize later and does some groveling. So I let him live, even though he was always doing something lame. Anyway, her dog, Russell, and Max’s dog, Jules, fall in love which forces the two to spend time together especially since Mia’s videos of the doggy duo  have gone viral and “Jussell’s” love affair has kept thousands of Seattleites glued to their screens. In fact, one wonders why one of his thousands of fans hasn’t stepped up to adopt Russell. Max’s excuse for his behavior, (that is, keeping many dogs from good, if not perfect, homes) is that his and Jules’ hearts were both broken when his girlfriend left for Los Angeles and took her dog with her who was Jules’ doggy girlfriend before Russell. Sorry, I’m not buying it.

Mia, on the other hand, I liked.  She won me over right away when she wakes up with potato chips all over her sheets, and she grabs a few to eat for breakfast. When she wakes up to Russell’s eating her feather pillows and overturning all of her plants, (after stepping barefoot in his pee) she tells him, “There is room for only one hot mess here, and that’s me!” Jessica was funny in these scenes. So we are getting not so subtle hints that Mia has some secret tragedy or at least some serious life disruption that she is running from. **Spoiler Alert** I was quite taken aback when it turned out that she was a former surgeon who got reprimanded by her hospital for operating on a woman who was in a coma and dying without the proper paperwork filled out. This kind of soured her on being a doctor. Though it might have also been because she says she is not good at Math. (Cover your ears, Danica Mckellar!) Towards the end, her doctor parents, whom she has been trying to avoid, try to tell her she can’t save everyone but she shouldn’t stop trying. They were totally right of course, and that’s when I started to not like her so much. What a waste. And her career decision at the end, after Max’s Pet Rescue is saved by a fundraising festival and a large check from Mia’s parents, did not make me change my mind. She decides to throw all of her medical and surgical training for humans away and start all over again to become a vet. Hope she doesn’t lose any furbabies, because here we go again with the quitting trying to save pets as well as people, and throwing a career away.

So despite some bright spots in the script, the big picture was a “Nope” from me. It’s a “5 1/2” because of the cute dog actors, and a funny cameo by Jonathan Bennett. And Max’s cute and smart sister Penny, played by Cassandra Sawtell who was an oasis of charm and talent.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10.

Snowed In for Christmas

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The Hand That Rocks the Cradle?

Thanks to the actor who played Uncle Ethan, this one was watchable. Kaley, the two little girls au pair and their almost a stranger Uncle take care of her charges while the parents are stuck in New York due to a snowstorm. Kaley fancies herself a perfect little mother to the two girls which make her irritating and a little pitiable since they already have a nice mother. She actually considers turning down a big opportunity in her career field because she thinks of the family as hers and doesn’t want to leave them, which is a little disturbing. Not really sure what Ethan sees in her except she is attractive. I liked the actor and the character was pretty cool as well.

They all live in a very normal looking house in a normal city neighborhood for a couple that can afford an au pair. Or need one. The couple must have two high powered high paying careers, surely? I mean they flew to New York only to attend a Christmas Party and were flying back the next morning. Of all of the low wage earners on these TV romances that live in mansions or fancy big city apartments, this couple cannot afford a high end home, or a great location on the water somewhere? It was very weird.

Rating: 7 out of 10.

December 17, 2021