A Carol For Two | 2024 Christmas Movies

Hallmark is sending us back to New York with A Carol For Two starring Jordan Litz and Ginna Claire Mason. Both of them have been involved in Wicked The Musical on Broadway. Litz is currently playing Fiyero and Mason previously played Glinda. They don’t have a lot of film credits - this is Litz’s first movie while Mason has starred in two earlier Hallmark Christmas movies (2022’s A Holiday Spectacular and 2023 A Heidelberg Holiday). I do know there is singing in this one so, with two Broadway stars, it should be good!

Violette (Mason) has moved to New York City to be in a Broadway play. Unfortunately, when she shows up for the audition, she finds that the play has been cancelled due to lack of funding. She turns to her aunt’s best friend, Hazel (Charlotte d’Amboise), who gives her a job as a singing waitress. Hazel gives the task of training Violette to Alex (Litz). She also tells them that they need to sing a duet at the restaurant’s Christmas show.

On top of this singing waitress who can’t get a job on Broadway plot, there’s a sub-plot about Violette dating Alex’s cousin, Brad (Gino Anania). But Brad is a terrible person so he gets Alex to tell him what to do and say. It’s basically Cyrano de Bergerac but less interesting. Brad sucks as a person and Alex should just tell him to get lost. He does nothing for the plot and it would have been a better movie without him.

Thankfully, Litz and Mason are pretty good here. There is a lot of singing, which they are both wonderful singers. To be honest, any of my problems with A Carol For Two lies with the writing. Violette doesn’t tell her father that the Broadway job fell through. She straight up lies to him through most of the movie. But there was no reason for her to lie to him. He supported her in everything she did. There was no pressure for her to be a big Broadway star. He let her follow her dreams. She said she didn’t tell him the truth because she didn’t want to let him down. I could understand that for a little while but once she started singing successfully at the restaurant, she could have come clean. Having a job in New York City where you are doing the thing you love, even if it’s part time or a side hustle, is success.

If you can pretend Brad doesn’t exist, which is very difficult to do since his storyline takes over for awhile, this movie is pretty watchable. Maybe just mute him every time he comes on screen.

Rating: More musical Christmas movies please!

Meet Me Under The Mistletoe | 2023 Christmas Movies

We’re heading back over to Great American Family for Meet Me Under The Mistletoe, a movie about realtors. While there has been quite a few real estate-related Christmas movies, they are usually pretty terrible. Let’s hope for the best.

Eva (Sarah Fisher) is an up-and-coming realtor who has been succeeding at selling condos quickly. When Frank (Paul Essiembre) and Kelly Greer (Jan Skene) decide to sell their house by Christmas, they choose both Eva and her rival, Jeff (Simon Arblaster), to list the house together.

Usually, in these movies, the lead characters’ career paths define who they are. In this case, Eva wrote a novel and only went into real estate because it didn’t sell. And Jeff is an amazing artist who only uses his talent as gifts for his clients. These two side plots aren’t part of the main story but they are important character traits. I actually wish the real estate part of the story didn’t exist and this was about a writer and an artist connecting. It would have been more interesting.

With that said, the actual realtor part of the movie is bland. It takes up a good part of the beginning of the movie but once they get the house staged, it mostly disappears. Eva and Jeff spend time going to the Christmas festival and falling in love. Which is fine but, again, we could have just gotten rid of the real estate aspect and the movie would have been better.

Rating: Can I get a ticket to ScienceCon? (So I don’t have to be here)

A Brush With Christmas | 2022 Christmas Movies

With A Brush With Christmas, we finish the Great American Family movies for the season. I wish that the channels would end their seasons with a really good movie. It doesn’t have to be their best but it would be nice if it was at least good.

Charlotte (Jillian Murray) is the head chef at her family’s restaurant. However, she really wants to be an artist. Disheartened by the lack of time she has for her art, Charlotte throws away an unfinished painting. Wyatt (Joseph Cannata), a visiting artist, finds the painting and submits it to the Christmas art festival. Charlotte is not happy when she sees her painting in the exhibit.

This was yet another boring movie. There were so many problems that weren’t actually problems. While Charlotte said she wanted to paint, she also said she was perfectly happy cooking. Granted, she had a lot of trouble cooking risotto but at no point did she actually seem unhappy. And Wyatt? I’m still not sure what his problem was. Why would someone take an unfinished painting and submit it to a festival? He didn’t claim the painting as his - he entered it as painted anonymously but submitted by him. That just seems weird and creepy to me.

Skip this one too. I’m not sure that I will keep Great American Family on the list in 2023. I’m going to go into more detail in my Christmas movie wrap up but let’s just say that, for the most part, these are not good movies.

Tis The Season To Be Merry | 2021 Christmas Movies

I think my least favorite Christmas movie titles are ones using the main character’s name. Once in awhile there is a witty title with a character’s name in it, ‘Tis The Season To Be Merry is not one of them.

Merry (Rachael Leigh Cook) writes books giving romantic advice. In her recent book, she lies and says she is engaged. When her publisher, Sonia (Karen Malina White), gushes about how authentic Merry’s relationship is, Merry freaks out and runs away to her co-worker/friend Darlene’s (Amy Groening) family’s house in Vermont. Little did Merry know that Darlene’s brother, Adam (Travis Van Winkle), has returned from a 2-year trip to Guatemala. Can Merry figure out how to fix both her love life and her professional life?

There were pieces of Tis The Season that I thought were really cute. At the big Christmas tree auction, when Adam had Merry co-host with him and he would keep handing her cards when she had no idea to say. If there is one thing Cook is good at, it’s playing an awkward women who trips over her words. I’m glad Hallmark played into that strength.

In addition to the main Adam/Merry couple, there are two other couples introduced. I would have liked to have seen a little more of their interactions. We do see Sonia’s budding relationship with Joe (Paul Essimbre) but we really only see them when Merry happens to see them around town. It would have been nice to jump over to them to see how they were doing. There’s also a late romance between Joe’s son, James (Adam Hurtig), and Darlene. Even though they were childhood friends, we don’t see a lot of interaction between them until James confesses his feelings about Darlene to Merry. I would have liked to have seen more of James pining after Darlene instead of it appearing that James has a thing for Merry.

Tis The Season isn’t a terrible movie. It’s not boring, which is a step up from most movies, but it wasn’t particularly interesting either. If you watch it, watch it for the acting not for the story. Maybe one day Cook will get put into one of the really good Christmas movies. Until then, this will scratch the itch to see her on screen.

Project Christmas Wish | 2020 Christmas Movies

Christmastime means granting Christmas wishes, right? At least that is what Hallmark thinks.

Every year, Lucy (Amanda Schull) collects and grants Christmas wishes from her community. This year, Max (Averie Peters) wishes to have a Christmas like she did before her mother passed away. As Lucy tries to fulfill this wish, Max changes her wish to helping her father, Lucas (Travis Van Winkle), find love again.

The main plotline of Project Christmas Wish is granting Christmas wishes. Unlike The Angel Tree, we don’t actually see Lucy granting any wishes. She talks about it. She talks about it a LOT. But we don’t actually see any wish granting going on. It is a little disappointing.

Another annoying part is Lucas’ parenting style. In the beginning of the movie, he is the worst helicopter parent. He chides his parents for bringing donuts without asking him first. Whenever he goes into public with Max, he always tells her to stay within his sight. While I understand being careful, in the world of Hallmark movies, this is overbearing.

As is the norm for this season, I can’t recommend watching Project Christmas Wish. It is the worst kind of boring. The kind where nothing actually happens. If you want to watch a movie where they grant Christmas wishes, The Angel Tree does it much better. And they are both on the Hallmark Movies & Mysteries channel.

Let's Meet Again On Christmas Eve | 2020 Christmas Movies

One of this year’s biggest Christmas movie tropes have been “former couple loses touch and gets back together.” To name a few from this year’s crop: A Godwink Christmas: Second Chance, First Love, The Christmas House, and Meet Me At Christmas. Then we get it again with Let’s Meet Again On Christmas Eve.

Corinne (Kyla Pratt) and Rob (Brooks Darnell) were college sweethearts. When Rob got an offer to go to Paris for two years to work on his photography skills, Corinne makes a deal with him. They will break up for the two years then meet again at the campus Christmas tree on Christmas Eve to see if they still have the spark of love. Seven years later, Corinne gets a job planning a Christmas wedding for a wealthy couple - Nancy (Nancy Sorel) and Sam (Paul Essiembre). Rob happens to be their wedding photographer. What will happen when the former couple has to spend two weeks on a project together?

One of the things that annoys me about these ‘lost love’ storylines is - why didn’t they just call/email/text each other? When Rob didn’t show up, why didn’t Corinne email him to see why he didn’t come? When Rob saw the picture of Corinne with her boss, Victor (Erik Athavale), why didn’t he ask her if she was seeing someone instead of assuming Victor was her boyfriend? All of this could have been cleared up with an email or a phone call or even a DM,

I’m also annoyed with Nancy’s daughter, Tracy (Sarah Luby). She looks like she’s 25 but she talks like she’s 15. Not only is she using outdated slang, she’s also talking with his weird….it’s not really an accent but spacing of words. They could have cut her character out completely with no consequence.

Oh, and they have the Christmas movie trope of planning an entire wedding at the last minute. This time they have a whole two weeks. No one does that. Venues and bakers and florists and dressmakers all need ample time to plan their part of the ceremony. Two weeks isn’t nearly enough time. At least not for something that is supposed to be extravagant.

Beyond that, the movie is fine. Pratt and Darnell have good chemistry together. They were quite believable both as a couple and as a bitter former couple. If you decide to watch Let’s Meet Again On Christmas Eve, do it for Pratt and Darnell, not for the plot.