I know that Hallmark and Lifetime have annual movie series. But I don’t think I’ve ever seen a series have two movies in the same year. Sister Swap has two movies this month. A Hometown Holiday came first and Christmas In The City aired a week later. I wonder if they will be any good.
Jennifer (Kimberly Williams-Paisley) runs a successful restaurant in Salt Lake City. Her sister, Meg (Ashley Williams), stayed in their hometown of Hazelwood to help their parents run their bakery. This year will be the first Christmas with the family since their Uncle Dave (Kevin Nealon) passed away. Meg has gone to Salt Lake City while Jennifer and her son, Simon (Jacob Buster), go home to Hazelwood. When they get to Hazelwood, Jennifer and Simon find out that the family is planning on selling Uncle Dave’s movie theater. Will they be able to save the historic theater or will it be sold to a new theater chain that will update everything?
A Hometown Holiday was a sweet movie. Once again, the romance took a back seat to restoring the movie theater. Sure, Jennifer was falling in love with Eric (Mark Deklin) but we didn’t get a lot of those long stares at each other. Instead, they quietly held hands at family gatherings and sat under a quilt together in the cold theater. The romance wasn’t shoved down our throats, which made it feel like it was happening organically. They fell in love because they were spending a lot of time together.
I also like that the movie didn’t forget about Simon. Instead of shunting him off to hang out with a new set of friends, they used him to bring Eric’s daughter, Madzie (Lila Clark), into the family. It was Simon that would ask Madzie what was wrong when she looked sad and it was Simon that comforted her when she was missing her mother. Bringing the kids together like that made this blending of families feel more natural as well. Sure, in real life, I’m sure the teenager would be a snarky pain in the butt and the child would be angry that her dad was “replacing” her mom but this is Hallmark. Kids don’t act like that around here.
Amazingly, I think this may be my favorite Hallmark movie of the season so far. Granted, I haven’t watched the second movie yet. Since we can see the set up for the second movie in this one, I have high hopes for it. Both of the Williams sisters are good actresses. They shouldn’t have any problems carrying the movie. I think the only way they could screw this up is if the second movie is entirely about Meg getting into a new romantic relationship. I don’t think that is the case but I will be very upset if it is.
Based on this movie alone, yes, I think you should watch it. I mean, if the second movie is bad, at least the first was good. We can pretend that one doesn’t exist if we have to.