Jonathan Bennett

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.

Christmas on Cherry Lane

/ Rebekahrox / 8 Comments

Pass the Advil, Please.

Ohhhh my head!  This one made my brain hurt.  I love ensembles, and movies with multiple stories that tie together in some way are favorites of mine, so I was really looking forward to this one. It did not get off to an auspicious start. We are introduced to 3 different sets of people and their stories. Right off the bat, I hated either the people or what was happening with them. The first featured Erin Cahill and John Brotherton as Lizzie and John, a happy couple expecting their first baby. These two are not my favorite actors, although it may be because of the parts in which I have seen them in the past more than anything personal against their talent. Actually, I was kind of looking forward to having this one change my attitude towards them as Ms. Cahill is a Hallmark mainstay, and John Brotherton looks to become one. And they were fine in this. The two are looking forward to enjoying a quiet Christmas together nesting in their brand-new house and waiting for their baby, when Hell descends upon them in the form of her mother and father. They barge in uninvited and unwelcome announcing they are intruding staying for the holidays. And they have the gall to have invited more members of the family to overflow our couple’s modest little home. And the gall continues. The mother and father start insulting their housekeeping (they haven’t even unpacked the moving boxes yet), implying they are incompetent at everything, and needling John about his job, which is owning a struggling gas station/body shop, unlike Lizzie’s brothers who make a lot of money as professionals. The father even reminds them that he had to help them buy their house. So strike one. I was filled with rage.

In the second story, we meet Regina (a radiant Catherine Bell), who is expecting her two adult children for Christmas Eve dinner. She plans to tell them that she is engaged to be married to her boyfriend Nelson (James Denton), selling their childhood home, retiring, and moving to Florida. The kids do not take it well. At All. They worshipped their late father and love their old home. In fact, they (especially the son) act like petulant brats about it. The son informs his mother that he does not approve of her plans. Regina responds that it is none of his business, they are her and Nelson’s decisions, and he can get on board or….Not. Yay for Regina. Loved it. The son storms out in a self-pitying huff and takes off for a friend’s house. Strike two. So far, all I am getting out of this movie is rage and disgust.

In the third story, we meet Zian and Michael, a gay couple who are hosting a Christmas Eve dinner party for 12 guests, are waiting to be approved as foster parents, and whose kitchen, where Michael, a chef, is cooking the fancy dinner, is still not finished and a wreck. The contractor who is doing the remodel does not inspire confidence (“How badly do you need your oven?”) and is too busy chatting and doing anything else except working on the cabinets, appliances, and countertops. The turkey has to be in by 5pm and it is not looking good. In the midst of the chaos, the couple learns that they have been approved for their first foster child and the little girl will be arriving that very evening. Strike 3. I was angry at the contractor and full of tension over the turkey deadline and the nice couple having to redecorate the little girl’s room, buy her some presents, and prepare for a 15-person dinner party in a matter of hours. And Jonathan Bennett, who plays Michael, gets on my last nerve sometimes.

In fact, these 3 stories take place in the same house, but approximately 25 years apart, in 1973, 1999, and 2023. We learn this about 20 minutes in, in a blink and you might miss them fade-in/fade-out pictures of the house through the years. I knew something of the sort was going on, but I didn’t fully grasp all of the implications until way over halfway through the movie. For some reason, I thought we were only looking at 1973 and 50 years later, and was very confused.  I didn’t get right away that they were all in the same house, but around 25 years apart. Were they members of the same family? Yes? No? Are their ages right though? No. Is this like This is Us? Not Really, but Kinda. I knew that the 3 couples were somehow connected but trying to figure it all out took second place to my anger and disgust with Lizzie’s parents, Regina’s son, and the contractor for the gay couple.

There were some things that I kept seeing that were in all 3 stories besides the house. A helpful neighbor, Daisy, a car, which sometimes looked brand new, and sometimes looked like a beater, and a Christmas ornament. In the end, all of the stories were resolved satisfactorily (if a little too patly) and tears even came to my eyes…even though I wasn’t quite sure why! I understood most of the connections but there were still so many loose ends and links between the 3 families I didn’t comprehend that I had to go through and replay the movie a second time. Thank heavens for fast forward. I’m the type of person that has to understand and fully grasp what is going on. I can’t stand aspects of a story slipping through my fingers. After the second go-round and with the help of Twitter (Ok, Ok, “X”) and Reddit things were clarified considerably. And I also learned that I was not the only one who was tearing their hair out. Once I got all the ins and outs of the timeline and between the characters, I have to say that this was, indeed, a very clever, well-plotted, and touching story with a great message. I even cried a little at the end again, and this time I knew why. But though I loved the ambitiousness, points off for being so worrisome and confusing. That is something I don’t need in a Hallmark movie. More clarity early on would not have been hard to provide. Call me. And we never find out who Linda and Emily are. Do we?

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

When I Think of Christmas

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I Got Distracted From the Story

**spoilers**

This had some good things about it. I really like Niall Matter and I saw Shenae Grimes in a few things a while back and also liked her very much. She plays a lawyer in the big city who comes home for Christmas to help her mother downsize and move into a new condo. She comes across her old music partner (Niall Matter) and we learn that she used to be a talented musician and singer like her late father. Niall gives her the cold shoulder and there is a lot of anger behind his eyes. They have a fight and the truth comes out. She won a scholarship to Yale University and abandoned their dreams to go to Nashville together and try to make a go at music. She didn’t discuss it with him and just left with no warning. She basically ghosted him after a long relationship. But after she got to Yale, she wrote him and tried to call him numerous times and he just ignored her. The best he could do on his own was be part of a band. He couldn’t attain any degree of the success he dreamed of without her, although he did make a little name for himself. He has been blaming her all this time for his lack of success and for choosing Yale over him and leaving with no discussion. He is back in town directing the town’s big amateur Christmas concert. They air it all out and forgive each other and start to work together.

To be frank I was so busy trying to figure out how old the Niall Matter character was supposed to be, that I kind of lost interest in all the ins and outs of the story. Shenae’s character is definitely 28 years old. She got her scholarship as a senior in high school and it’s been 10 years. The 10-year gap between 18 and present-day is confirmed several times. Given the situation and what we learned about their relationship, it appears that Niall is about the same age. They were a music duo and were singing together since she was about 15. They were young and in love and making plans to leave town together to make a go of it in Nashville. It is mentioned later in the movie that they were in 6th grade together. But later, when it becomes obvious that his career is not going well Shenae asks him what happened. He says he got tired of just playing national venues as just part of a band and wanted to strike out on his own. At this point, Shenae confirms that this was when he was 29. As if 29 was several years ago. He says he put everything and every dollar into it, but just failed. He is still a performer, but he is not a success. He is so beaten down and discouraged that surely he struggled for at least a few years? (He even churlishly refused to join a singer on stage during the tree lighting, when given a shout-out, publicly turning his back on her) I figured he was 31 to her 28 at the youngest. It just didn’t hang together chronologically or logically. My guess is that the part was written for them both to be 28 or so years old, but it was too much of a stretch when 42-year-old Niall Matter was cast, no matter how attractive he looks. So they added some lines to age him up a bit. My head hurt trying to make it all make sense. I don’t know, it just bothered me.

They both behaved badly and they were whiny about it. For a 30 or 31 (or older) year-old man, Niall was very immature and did not seem to have much gumption or a firm grasp of the realities of the importance of being able to make a living. Shenae blamed her mother for her very successful career in New York as a lawyer. She made her feel guilty about being a responsible caring mother and guiding her teenage self to make the choice of the Yale scholarship rather than probably throwing her life away on a big gamble in music. They both just acted like babies. The mom actually ended up apologizing to her. So that was just so wrong as well. Especially when we find out more about her Mom’s struggles before and after her husband was killed.

The performers at this all-important concert were not good. The whole thing was like high school amateur night. Peter Benson’s cameo rapping A Christmas Carol was a treat, though. For all of the build-up, Niall, Shenae and her mother were not great at performing either. They all had very pleasant serviceable voices, but not professional quality by any means. I liked Mom’s new romance, but there was too much involvement in past history.

The end didn’t help. Shenae decides to follow Niall around, take up music again, and maybe practice law on the side (?). Meanwhile, Niall buys a plane ticket to New York to be near Shenae and her big career as a lawyer. The end is very vague as to what they end up doing and how. But one thing’s for sure, actor Daniel Bacon has a lock on the post of the official Mayor of Hallmarktown. This is at least his fourth turn in that role in as many years.

Rating: 5 out of 10.

Wedding of a Lifetime

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A Breath of Fresh Air

**spoilers**

Jake and Darby have known each other for 15 years and engaged for 10. Yes, I know. But there was a career-derailing skiing accident and Nana ( the wonderful Paula Shaw) had health issues. It will be no surprise that they are in a rut and have lost that special spark. In fact, they are about ready to call it a day and break up when their parents and friends enter them in the “Wedding of a Lifetime” competition on national television. Rather than hurt their loved ones’ feelings they decide to enter and lose on purpose. Unfortunately, they both are pretty competitive and hate to lose.

This was a breath of fresh air.  Even though we all knew where this was going, the plot was new and fresh, not one of the usual in the Hallmark grab bag. The acting by Jonathan Bennett was top-notch both in comic scenes and dramatic scenes.  Brooke D’Orsay is always very appealing and lends sweetness and authenticity to any production, but this one gave her more to work with than usual.  Her scenes of heartbreak were very affecting and her comedic ones were amusing. She is one of the best criers at Hallmark, the other being Allison Sweeney.

The couple acted like rational mature adults. Even though they have an argument, they don’t flounce off in a snit.  Darby gets great news via text right in the middle of it, and the argument is forgotten and Jake is happy for her and supportive. The next day, they apologize to each other. What a concept!

Thanks to working together as a team they find their way back together and decide to give their relationship another chance. They win the competition, and “The Wedding of a Lifetime”. But it’s not over yet! When Darby has to deal with a hilarious wedding dress from hell (see picture but with braids like Heidi), and Jake is given fake groomsmen, they both quit in despair and walk out at the same time. Is it the notorious “Big Misunderstanding?” It’s about 15 minutes til the end, after all. NO! They embrace in solidarity in the middle of the street. Damned if it’s not the opposite of “Big Misunderstanding!”

With the gratifying side story of their failing businesses saved by the publicity from the show, this would be an 8 out of a 10. But I’m adding a point for the cute graphics, the funny bickering TV hosts, and the excellent cast of secondary characters. Not to mention a pretty hot scene on a balance beam.

Rating: 9 out of 10.

September 20, 2022

Sweet Surrender

/ Rebekahrox / 1 Comment

What About the 4-Lane Highway?

Tom returns to his hometown in order to help his Grandma run her B&B. Grandma dies, the B&B is in trouble. Thanks to the scheming of his Ex-girlfriend, he is in danger of losing it because of a big highway coming through which makes it vulnerable to being torn down for a mall. The only thing I have to add to the previous reviews is to ask how is the 4 lane highway that is going through Grandma’s bed and breakfast (or at least along the border) going to affect the beauty and ambiance and romance of Grandma’s “legacy?” More than the usual suspension of disbelief is required to swallow this one. Still, it’s not too bad thanks to the actors. Arielle Kebbel is very appealing as the police officer/love interest. (No, he doesn’t get back with his ex, played by Haylie Duff.)

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

February 3, 2020