As we’re closing in on the end of Christmas movie season, I begin to wonder if these Hallmark movies are making me go insane. I have watched more Christmas movies this year than I have in any previous year. And the movies seem to keep getting blander as I go on.
Jessica (Autumn Reeser) is an heiress who goes to her deceased mother’s hometown of Glenbrooke for the holidays. She literally runs into a fireman, Kyle (Antonio Cupo), who she falls in love with.
There’s a lot that doesn’t make sense in A Glenbrooke Christmas. Jessica is supposed to be a fairly famous heiress. Her face is on the cover of magazines. Yet she thinks she can hide by only using her first and middle names while she’s in town. She’s surprised when someone looks her up on Google and finds out who she is without using her last name. I’m surprised that no one recognizes her face without even knowing her name!
When Jessica first meets Kyle, he walks in front of her car then blames her for hitting him. And he doesn’t get less ridiculous as the movie goes on. He makes a fuss about how rich people are different from everyone else and he couldn’t possibly love a rich person. Then he gets mad when Jessica doesn’t tell him who she really is. He is the definition of gaslighting.
The big “problem” in the movie is that the church bell needs some electronic thing fixed so it can ring on Christmas. It will cost $10,000. Jessica doesn’t want to pay for it so she suggests a fundraiser to the locals. Ruthie (Latonya Williams), who runs the community center, turns down the idea because everyone in the town has already donated to their charities. One - how does she know that no one in town would donate and Two - this bell is made out to be the Most Important Thing in town. Why wouldn’t the townspeople donate towards fixing it? It’s all a little frustrating.
I’m also a little annoyed that this is on the Hallmark Movies & Mysteries channel. While this does fall under the movie category, it definitely isn’t a mystery. I would like it a lot more if that channel stuck to the stories with actual mysteries to solve.
To be honest, A Glenbrooke Christmas isn’t worth your time. There are much better movies out there. Go watch one of those instead.