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I think Brittany Bristow is really cute and I enjoyed watching her in this Hallmark Christmas movie. I liked that they incorporated traditions from multiple holidays this time! A little over the top and unrealistic, but aren't they all?

'Holiday Date' did intrigue me in a way, as the advertising was colourful and put me in a good mood, the concept while far from original was a decent one and it did interest me seeing a film that didn't have Brittany Bristow in a supporting role but instead take centre stage. Have said quite a few times too about loving Christmas and finding enough of the Hallmark festive films pleasant, inoffensive watches (though there are some mediocre at best and even downright bad ones too).

For me, 'Holiday Date' is one of those pleasant, inoffensive sort of films. From personal opinion, as others hold it in higher regard, it isn't a masterpiece and is a bit uneven. As far as 2019 Hallmark festive films go it is in the better category. Having suffered through 'A Cheerful Christmas', also from 2019 and for me among the worst Hallmark Christmas films, straight before watching 'Holiday Date', it was a relief to see something above average and have a lot of good things.

Visually, 'Holiday Date' looks as if it was made with a lot of care and love. The film is beautifully photographed, never looking too stolid or claustrophobic while not resorting to gimmicks or trying to do too much that it swamps what's going on. The scenery captivates and is full of vibrancy, the decor is not subtle but has so much colour and beauty anyway. Some of the soundtrack is nostalgic and easy to listen to, with a sense of the Christmas period.

Script-wise, 'Holiday Date' has a good deal of laugh out loud moments and also genuinely sweet but not too cutesy ones too. The dialogue isn't too corny and flows naturally. A good deal of the storytelling warms the heart and charms, the second half is more involving and more entertaining than the first in my view but to me 'Holiday Date' didn't strike me as dull. Some actors that tend to be in support that transition to lead don't always fare successfully, where their personality goes and they seem ill at ease or over-compensate. Bristow was appealing and didn't make her character sugary or obnoxious. Matt Cohen is amusing and easy to like, once the goofball quality to Joel's character is toned down in the writing, and Teryl Rothery is classy support.

It's not a perfect film by all means. The early portions are not immediately easy to get into, with the story being fairly thin on the ground and needing more life and variety. Thank goodness it gets better later on. Some of the goofiness is overdone at times, especially early on.

At times too, the imposter plotting gets a little too over-complicated as a result of the film trying to cram too much in in too short a space of time. There could have been more variety, as there are a lot of typical for Hallmark elements and it is a bit stale.

Overall, decent but didn't make me go wow. 6/10

I don't know what order they showed them, but Hallmark brought us two movies combining Christmas and Hannukah this year. Mistletoe & Menorahs was a much better entry in that category. This one started out as annoying, but did get a little better in the second half.

Joel is arrogant and clumsy in the beginning. I did not like him and I felt sorry for Brooke. Brooke doesn't have just one jerk for a boyfriend, but two if you count the fake. Then Presto! Somewhere about half way through, the man changes and the socially awkward jerk becomes likeable. Even so, I didn't think it was enough for Brooke to undergo the inevitable falling in love. Even after the change, I thought the chemistry between them was less than thrilling.

Teryl Rothery always seems to do a good job in supporting roles, this time as the mom.

The first half also made an attempt at comedy, mostly through the inept Joel. I didn't find it funny, but many will.

This movie doesn't get an award for originality of premise -- we've seen two other movies where the female lead takes on an impostor as her boyfriend or fiance.

In this one, her boyfriend breaks up with her just before they are supposed to travel to her family home for the holidays. Having given him a big build-up to her Christmas-devoted family, she winds up taking an actor home with her to pose as "Ethan", her erstwhile boyfriend.

There is a twist here. The other "imposter boyfriend" movies had the "imposter" reluctant to take on the task. In this one, the "impostor" is an actor who is eager to experience a small town, family Christmas to prepare for a possible role he auditioned for, and he takes on the opportunity with relish.

Of course, complications ensue. The writers did a good job of keeping the complications interesting and amusing, and the actors did a fine job of taking the "funny parts" off the page and making them funny on the screen -- which doesn't happen from some scripts.

We got quite a few chuckles out of this one, and that makes any movie worth watching.

I was happy to see Brittany Bristow in a leading role. I have admired her acting skills in her supporting acting characters. I hoped the best for her in this new movie but it was a Hallmark story that was a tired plot and I was disappointed for her but I still liked her anyway. I would like to see a continuation film of her meeting his parents and more fun family traditions. It was fun seeing Jewish traditions. I guess it's better that I thought. Anyway, I enjoyed the movie it was just ok as far as Hallmark movies go.

Brooks, who is about to go home for the holidays with a boyfriend, gets dumped by not so charming, like-to-break-out-into-unfamiliar-houses-when-no-one-answers, Ethan. While in a party with some friends, she meets Joel, an actor, who may get a role of a man from a small town. So, you know...let the show begin.

I read that the lead lady, Brittany, was in several HM before, but as the lead's friend or bff. It's great that she got her own movie. There are several actors who deserve one of their own. It's cool to see different faces. This also applies to the lead male, Matt. Their chemistry was quite believable. They had a good dynamic going on. We also had quite a good secondary cast.

The plot was nothing we don't know, but I did like that they included Hanukkah. I think it's a first? The rest, typical Hallmark, fake dating, boyfriend that we all hate, people assuming things they shouldn't and their counterparts NOT DENYING it or correcting, and I hate that so much, and it happened twice.

The ending... Joel got me worried for a second in that final scene, I was two seconds away from screaming at the screen. Also, this movie was quite funny, more than others out there. (That earned this one more star!)

It's a nice Christmas movie, lovely actors, but again the predictable, almost copied story. With minor changes, it happens basically the same as in The Christmas Contract.

I know that most of Hallmark movies are the epitome of 'fairy tales', but really? We have a grown woman coming home, and scared to death that she has to arrive without a boyfriend on her arm ? Then, there are the parents, Mum in particular who is a 'boyfriend' obsessive and talks of nothing else on the phone or around the house. The woman is a nutcase, and irritating that the daughter doesn't tell her so. Not a good advert for American Mums !!!!

And as for the engagement, well, instead of being walked all over by the family with excitement, why not explain - these two weren't 12 year olds, but adults !

Bruce Boxleitner must be desperate to appear in a film like this.

Then there are the house lights EVERYWHERE, must cost a fortune in batteries !!! And how many Christmas Trees does one house need ? They too were everywhere, and then a big production was made of "decorating the family tree together" oh for God's sake. The worse cheesiest film ever made.

Hallmark scores high with Holiday Date. The entire cast makes the movie a joy to watch. Lots of fun, laughter and a greater understanding that the season has lots to celebrate.

Make sure you put this movie on your to watch list. Leaves you smiling.

6.6 stars.

This was a cheesy, silly and borderline eccentric attempt at comedy. I can only hope this was originally supposed to be more serious, but it didn't work so the screen writer decided to go way silly instead. Either way, the comedy does tickle my funny bone, strangely enough. Some of the punch lines and funny moments were orchestrated just right in spite of the overly juvenile slant. I think kids would really love this and us adults get a little kick out of it too.

It's the story of an actor who has to act like an architect, but my impression is he's an actor who tries not to over-act, and fails miserably. It's weird, but oddly comedic. If you laugh at all by 30 minutes, you must finish this movie. I didn't start laughing until 45 minutes, but it worked somehow...

The lead female spontaneously begins to adore him, but I don't understand how or why. My opinion is that he is way bizarre and "a bit of an odd duck" to quote her father. And her father can't put a finger on it, just like I can't. How is she attracted to him at those moments? I guess in some way he's endearing? Is he that good looking? And does he love her back? We don't even know.

There are MAJOR holes in the story, the script, the plot. It's a gargantuan absurdity that this family would in any way grow to love this guy after we see his shenanigans and based on their initial reactions. There is no way in the known universe that this story would end up any way but total disaster.

Stick around to find out. The last 30 minutes is more normal and come back down to earth somewhat. I enjoyed the whole package enough to finish it.

To be clear, I watch every Hallmark movie, every Saturday, in every season: Winterfest, Forever Love, Spring Fever, June Weddings, Fall Harvest, and, of course, Countdown to Christmas. The predictability of the plots, including the singe kiss at the end of the movie, is comforting to me. I have also enjoyed Brittany Bristow as a supporting actress in several of these movies and looked forward to seeing her as the female romantic lead. She did not disappoint, but the storyline did. This is probably because I think the premise of being so unwilling/unable to be honest with your parents that you find it preferable to hitch your wagon to a stranger is just so remarkably unhealthy and inevitably disastrous that I can't get past it. As I was looking at other reviews, I realized that I just hate the "impostor" plot. Therefore, I qualify my 4-star review with that disclaimer. You may feel otherwise, so press forward.

While premise was not original, this movie was delightful. The acting by all was solid especially Matt Cohen and Bruce Boxleitner each who made me chuckle through out. There was good chemistry among the whole cast and the celebration of different holiday traditions was touching. The movie was very cute and sweet.

This was by far my favorite hallmark Christmas movie 2019, and one of the best ever. It's both funny and full of love, warmth and holiday cheer. All the actors play their roles very well and the story is perfect. I also loved the fact that they celebrated Christmas as well as Hanukkah. I hope they'll make a sequel of this movie in 2020 - I so want to know how the storyline of these two continues.

This is the only Hallmark Christmas movie I have ever stopped watching midway through. The actor/boyfriend was too stupid for words, making all the interactions with the family painful and awkward. I love these movies because even though they are predictable, they're fun to watch and the primary characters have chemistry and intelligence, even if they all make the same stupid mistakes. There was no chemistry, or intelligence, in this one, and I hope it never airs again.

Really enjoyed this movie. It is not often that I laugh out loud during a Hallmark movie, but this was a fun movie. Brittany Bristow should have been a lead long before now.

Matt Cohen is very amusing, without overworking the humor, it just comes with a smile and cleverly fun. The rest of the cast are well played too.

Smile and Enjoy

Worst Hallmark Christmas movie ever. It was ridiculous and very awkward to watch. I was going to stop watching after the first half hour but because of other favorable reviews, I watched it through to the end and was not surprised to find it very predictable so my assessment of the movie didn't change.

The first temptation about a Hallmark film is to define it as nice. Obvious, if the subject of film is Christmas. In this case , lovely can be more precise. For Matt Cohen job and, off course, for fine ... meet of Christmas and Hanukkah. Yes, it is the expected comfortable film. But not only. It is amusing, it has inspired twists, it is seductive, touching and ...not so bad. Predictable, off course, but charming in just good way. So, lovely. And just lovely.

This film essentially begins in New York City with a young woman by the name of "Brooke Miller" (Brittany Bristow) being told by her boyfriend "Ethan Reinhart" (Edward Ruttle) that he thinks their relationship is moving too fast and, because of that, he has decided against meeting her parents during the Christmas holidays as initially planned. Not only that, but he also informs her that he wants to break up with her as well. Needless to say, this stuns Brooke who now has to go back to her small hometown to her parents all alone. However, as luck would have it, she just happens to meet a young actor named "Joel Parker" (Matt Cohen) who has been advised by his agent that it would help him land a part in a movie if he had some experience living in a small town. So, having just learned about Brooke's unfortunate breakup, he volunteers to impersonate Ethan in order to acquire the necessary hometown experience, and bail out Brooke at the same time. After quickly giving the matter some thought, she finally agrees and the two of them drive to Pennsylvania to meet her parents. The problem, however, is that Brooke had already told her parents that Ethan was a skilled architect--and since Joel doesn't have any knowledge in this field, he is put at a huge disadvantage from the very start. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that, although I thought this film started off well enough, I became rather disappointed with it after the first 20 minutes or so due, in large part, to the complete lack of chemistry between the two lead actors. Absolutely no chemistry at all. Likewise, the blending of Christmas with Hanukkah seemed as if it was orchestrated to achieve a politically correct objective of some kind and made everything appear to be somewhat inauthentic. Be that as it may, I was rather disappointed with this movie, and I have rated it accordingly. Below average.

I have to say that this movie ties with "Snow Bride" in ranking #1 in my top 5 favourite Hallmark movies!!! Like the plot and the way that the cast played the roles made the film feel so real!!! I love Holiday Date as much as Snow Bride because the couples who started out as fake dating really formed very genuine connections and you wish that movies couples were real life which most fake dating movies can't make their plots feel authentic between the couples!!!

I love how Hallmark is now diversifying its movie characters this year like Lifetime where you have a Jewish man and a Christian family celebrating two great winter holidays (Christmas & Hanukkah) together as one united family!!!.

The chemistry between the Joel & Brooke characters was so romantic & sweet while at the same time uniting differences. I really hope there's a sequel and we get a Holiday Date 2 with the Joel & Brooke characters because the last few minutes of the film wanted me to see more romance between Joel & Brooke.

So please Hallmark, PLEASE make "Holiday Date 2" where this time Joel introduces his new girlfriend Brooke to meet his family!!!

This is a genuinely amusing little variation on the usual Hallmark template. It starts off with all of the cliches in place: Nice girl gets dumped before the holidays when she is expected to bring the dumper to meet the family for the first time. she can't bear the humiliation or to disappoint them so she falls in with a plan to substitute an actor to impersonate the architect ""Mr. Christmas" ex-boyfriend. He is a born and bred New York City actor who is anxious to visit a small town to get a feel for a role he is up for. One problem. He is Jewish and can't even build a gingerbread house. The chemistry between the charming leads was great, there was some ample support from veteran actors Bruce Boxleitner and Teri Rothery. And the talented Anna Van Hooft, who usually plays the villain in Hallmark movies, does a credible job in a throw away part as the supportive sister, for a change. And lets not forget the contribution by a Hallmark Stallwart Peter Benson as the brother-in-law.

This was a nice romance with some good laughs fueled by the tension of when will the truth come out, and what will happen then, and the cluenessness of fake fiancee Joel, played with aplomb by new comer Matt Cohen.

One of the best this year. Hallmark Christmas movie fans: Don't miss it!

What are we looking at here? This is the most horrid uncomfortble thing ever from Hallmark....Well, almost. The woman playing the lead woman momma turrible. Just turrible. Whatsamatta, kristin chenowith not available?