Love, Lights, Hanukkah!

Beautiful Story, but no one in Cleveland, OH, where this story is supposed to have taken place, would be a Cub Fan! Clevelanders would not refer to distances to some place as miles away, they refer to distances as minutes away.

As an adoptee, who recently found both bio families thanks to DNA, and also finding that I was 50% a nationality that I had no idea of, I found this interesting. There are many emotions that you go through, and finally you come to realize that now you have 2 families, and you love both of them.

With very real lead characters, a sweet family story, and reminder of the reason for the season, a delightful movie!

It was a warm and heartfelt Christmas movie, one of Hallmark's better movies this season. At its heart for me was family: the love of family (the discovery of that family love), and being surround by people you love and people who love you (during the holiday season, of course). This was the underlining theme I took from the film. And I think the writer did a great job of conveying it thru the dialogue and interactions between the characters in the script. Our protagonist in this film is Christina (played by Mia Kirshner), an Italian restaurant owner keen to learn more about her biological family (as she was adopted). She is excited to find out from a recent DNA test that she is part Jewish and has genetic relatives living nearby in the city (who are open to meeting her). And so, her journey in this story begins: meeting new family, discovering and connecting with her roots, and, just maybe, leading her to a new, unlikely romance. I can't comment on the portrayal of the Jewish family in this film as others have done on here, but what I can say is that the film treats Hanukkah as more than just a complement to Christmas. Due to the nature of the story, the movie spends a significant amount of time presenting the celebration of Hanukkah and its traditions. Similar to other reviewers, I thought this element of the film was lovely, nicely done. What makes all this work, of course, is the acting. Kirshner's performance was outstanding. She did a great job of threading the line of someone who was a bit guarded but, at the same time, eager to meet her new family/romance. Simply put: her performance was believable, convincing. Ben Savage's performance was also strong (playing David, our other protagonist in this film). I have not seen him on screen since the 90s, but after this performance, I am wondering why not. The chemistry between the two was just about right for this family-focused movie. The supporting cast was brilliant. What stood out for me was Marilu Henner's performance (playing Ruth); it was an impressive performance, I thought (it pulled me in). As usual, with Hallmark Christmas movies, the scenery, props, and sets were festive, elegant, and well-polished, though I was not a fan of the ribbon on Christina's tree. It covered 80% of the tree, you barely knew it was a pine tree. All in all, this is a lovely new edition to Hallmark's Christmas movie lineup this season. I highly recommend it.

This film was far more enjoyable than I anticipated. The merging of cultures and family traditions was beautifully done and could be a guide to all of us for respecting and learning about cultures different from our own. I enjoyed seeing Ben Savage again. He is good in this role. I was impressed with how sensitively Mia Kirshner was in her role. I found myself wanting to know more about the relationships Christina builds and am hoping Hallmark will give us a sequel next year to see how those relationships are growing.