Small Town Life, I Wish.

**Spoilers**

This was a charming cozy comforter of a movie. The overall feel of it was very pleasant and enjoyable and seemed authentic if a bit aspirational as far as small town life. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!! I laugh because it’s Hallmark, Y’all.

It was simple enough.  Mona is a sophisticated and successful black woman who happily lives in New York City and works as a Brand Ambassador. Companies hire her to promote their products online, which seems pretty glamorous. But her roots are in a small town where her parents are leaders of the diverse community and founders of their famous Christmas Carnival. Everything is going great for Mona in NYC except for her love life. Again, it’s Hallmark. She definitely is in the market for a serious relationship, and lo and behold, when she gets home for Christmas there are not one but two eligible men vying for her attention. One guy she gets along great with, but might have some character issues. The other one gets off on the wrong foot with her by insulting her profession, but whom her family loves. So guess which one she ends up with.

Mona’s romantic adventures take up a good part of the plot, but the other part of this movie is all about how Mona comes to appreciate her family’s and her community’s customs, traditions, and culture. Although she loves her family (and heaven knows they are all very lovable) and honors what they stand for, she prefers the culture and excitement of the big city. By the end of the movie, her attitude has changed, partially thanks to one of the men she gets to know.

The acting was outstanding in this one, especially Mona, her sister, and her mother. I loved them.  And it was very evident that, unlike with many Hallmark productions that mean well, this was written and directed by African Americans. That said, There was one big plot development that was a big stumble in my view. One of the aforementioned love interests was visiting the town to do an article on her family’s Christmas Carnival. He is treated like one of the family and proves himself to be a wonderful man over and over again and fully worthy of their good opinion. He quickly recovers from his faux pas of dissing Mona’s career and social media in general (although he had a point, but I’m old-fashioned too). But it turns out that the article is meant to be a hit piece exposing them as phonies and complicit in the commercialization of Christmas. He actually wrote the article. And while he was enjoying their hospitality by staying in their cottage and eating at their table, no less. It is the big secret and conflict at the end.  His villainy came out of nowhere and was completely unsupported by everything he had proven himself to be. Such a betrayal did not make sense. He showed himself to completely buy into the family’s goodness, sincerity, and authenticity. He made it right in the end, but that he would have even considered writing such an article after spending 5 minutes with Mona’s family beggars belief. I was also unsure about Mona’s future. If she was going to take over the year-long planning of the Christmas Carnival from her retiring parents, why did she say goodbye to local boy Fletcher (who didn’t want children?) like they were never going to see each other again until next Christmas? They live in the same small town, population 1800. So she was going to go back to New York City? That didn’t seem right. Oh well. Another of those Hallmark plot holes one just has to look past. I have a feeling that the answers to my questions are on the cutting room floor.