Christmas Under the Stars

Hallmark hit a home run with this cast. Not to mention the great story. Reeser has mastered the "struggling single mother" role. I would love to see a sequel and not necessarily a Christmas sequel. That's how good I think the story is.

A nice change of story, although it's still the typical boy meets girl. The characters are all likeable and it's not just about the main two.

Jesse Metcalfe is actually quite lovely in this one, a much nicer character than the one he played in "Christmas Next Door".

The falling out she has is a bit daft and out of proportion, but otherwise it flows without issues.

Half of virtues of film are contributions of Clarke Peters. The story of his character, his performance, the social aspects too , as the parenthood definition are the good points of this charming halmark film. And, no doubts, the chemistry between Autumn Reeser and Jess Metcalf is far to be bad. But Clarke Peters remains the pillar for a film not different but well nuanced.

6/10 - surprisingly good Christmas TV movie hits all the right notes

I was expecting a typical Hallmark Christmas romance with all about the 2 leads & their stories. However the glue that holds everything together was the natural excellent performance by Clarke Peters as Clem, who owns a Christmas tree-lot. Autumn Reeser adds another classy believable role as a Mum who has crippling bills to pay from her Dad's medical treatments , being badly treated by finance companies who own the debt. Jesse Metcalf does pretty ok too as a recently-fired Investment expert who finds himself again & gets to give back to others at the best time of the year ! Less typical than most Hallmark seasonal films, and all the better for that !