Hanukkah On The Rocks is this year’s Hallmark Hanukkah movie. I am so glad that it wasn’t Leah’s Perfect Gift. That would have been sad.
Tory (Stacey Farber) is a lawyer who gets laid off shortly before the first day of Hanukkah. While debating where to go with her life, she finds herself temporarily bartending at Rocky’s, a local dive bar. With the help of bar regular, Sam (Marc Summers), and his son, Jay (Daren Kagasoff), Tory figures out what is really important to her.
Most of the time, I find the annual Hanukkah movie to be better than some of the Christmas movies. And this year is no different. I loved that Hanukkah isn’t just a background holiday that happens to be celebrated as the plot progresses. No, there are actual celebrations with lighting the candle each night, kids playing dreidel, and Tory creating specialty themed cocktails. And since the bar was celebrating every night, they welcomed all of their patrons to celebrate, not just the Jewish ones. It was so refreshing after the awfulness of Leah’s Perfect Gift.
The only negative I have for the movie is the secondary conflict between Tory, Jay, and Sam. I don’t want to spoil that part of the plot but I really don’t understand why Jay got upset about it. Especially at Tory. It was another of those “Why didn’t you tell me this?” - “Because they asked me not to!” types of conflicts and I hate those. Don’t blame the person who was asked not to tell. Blame the person that did the asking. Thankfully, it’s not the main conflict and it’s solved pretty quickly. So it doesn’t really ruin the beauty of the rest of the movie.
Rating: Can we get non-alcoholic versions of those drinks?