Next up, we have Hallmark Channel’s Operation Nutcracker. On one hand, this sounds like a military movie to me. On the other hand, Hallmark usually puts those movies over on the Mysteries channel. Well, let’s find out what’s it’s all about.

Lottie (Ashley Newbrough) is an event planner who gets sent to Boston to interview for an elite Christmas Nutcracker-themed fundraising event. On the way, she literally runs into Tristan (Christopher Russell) and they come close to switching luggage. With the luggage crisis averted, they both head to Boston, where Lottie finds out that Tristan is the son of the woman running the fundraiser. He has brought an antique Nutcracker that they will auction at the event. Unfortunately, his luggage got mixed up with another passenger’s at the airport. Together, Lottie and Tristan try to find the luggage and the missing Nutcracker before the event begins.

While Operation Nutcracker was mostly a cute movie, it was a little annoying at how pessimistic Lottie was. OK, she claimed she was being a realist and Tristan was a little bit of an idealist but she could have been better about it. I would have loved to have seen her change over the course of the movie. There were a lot of ‘near misses’ with the other passenger that could have been used to bring Lottie around to the magic of the season. Instead, Lottie and Tristan don’t have any idea of how close they really are to their prize until the very end. Not very magical.

The same goes for Lottie and her dad. They have definitely grown apart and the movie wants them to reconnect but leaves no room for that to happen. Sure, they are both very busy but if Lottie really wanted to reconnect, she could have gone to his diner for lunch or dinner or whatever to maybe hang out with him during a break. Neither of them made any effort to include the other in their lives. In my opinion, that made their happy ending feel very hollow. Will they actually make time for each other or will they go back to their old ways?

To sum it up, it was a cute movie with some meh characters. I wouldn’t call them selfish but I wouldn’t call them particular caring either. Just meh.

Rating: They really could have gotten away with the fake if they tried harder.