Reunited at Christmas

This is not a typical Christmas romance story. It is more of a family story. There are family activities and nostalgia.

There is a primary focus on Samantha and Simon who already have a relationship much of the movie is about a struggle in their relationship due to doubts on her part We learn some of her backstory which helps explain her attitude. As a result, I found the overall tone of the movie to be less optimistic than I would hope for in a Christmas movie.

This movie leaves out a lot of overused plot lines, but it does cram in a lot of the usual traditional Christmas activities. In fact Nanna gave them a list.

My rating is more about how I personally felt about the movie than about the actual quality of the story and acting. The story is refreshingly different from the usual fare and the acting is true to life.

This is not the typical Hallmark Christmas movie...and it was good! No lost love found. No okd boyfriend. No one running away from a deadend job to find love. No fake royalty. No dad with a child who lost his/her mother. It's a wonderful movie about family. It's a movie about dealing with self-doubt. It's a movie about love - family, fiance, mother, father, sister, and grandmother. Yes-it has the typical Hallmark happy ending. I wish Hallmark would do more "family" movies and not concentrate so mych on finding long lost love by going to a small town...

If you don't want to think about the pain that relationships can cause at Christmas, skip this one. It's a good story, about the daughter's relationship and that of her divorced parents. Of course there are happy endings for all, and I loved how they used Nana's posthumous instructions to have a wonderful Christmas.

Reunited At Christmas (2018) -

This was definitely one of those Christmas films that decided to make sure a whole list of festive activities were checked off, but also one of those where there was an ACTUAL checklist to do, left by some dead relative. It was a good example of the style however, if a tad treacly at times.

I did feel that it was just lacking that X-factor though, that certain something that others have had without even trying and perhaps that was because it was a tad forced in some moments. And I thought that perhaps there was too much going on as well.

As much as I enjoyed his previous performance in 'Love Always, Santa' (2016) Mike Faiola, as Simon, felt a bit fake and even his voice sounded very different. There was still something about him that I liked though.

His relationship with Samantha didn't seem to be as long term as they made out though and frankly I couldn't understand why he would bother to stay with her at all, because Nikki Deloach in that role, was sending such mixed messages throughout the story and he was obviously far too good for her. I personally would have been thrilled to marry him, because he was not only handsome with a good job but also obviously devoted to the one he loved, but she just couldn't see it.

I didn't feel that Samantha's separated parents were ever going to survive together in any way either. There were a lot of arguments between the pair and again I felt that Andrew Airlie as Bill was too good for Eileen Peddle's, Claire character.

It wasn't the worst of these films that are out there and I liked the fact that it wasn't the usual boy meets girl, but I have a list of better ones to watch.

6.3/10.

I was pleasantly surprised by the pleasant surprises in this Hallmark movie. At the beginning, I was waiting for the boyfriend to make a rude remark about Christmas, or cancel a date because he was too involved in his work, or complain about real Christmas trees dropping needles--you know, all the deadly sins of the Original Hallmark Boyfriend. I thought for sure that something like that would happen so Samantha could fall in love with the delivery man (played by Andrew Walker) and later learn that he is the king of a small country that none of us ever heard of.

Instead, the original boyfriend turned out to be a nice guy who was devoted to Samantha and her family. Furthermore, while there were issues between them (primarily Sam's fear of commitment), they didn't have that misunderstanding which occurs around the 1:35 mark and could be resolved in two minutes if they'd just have a conversation, and then, of course, they manage to work everything out seven minutes before the Big Kiss and the end of the movie. The relationships, problems, and conversations in this movie seemed more like real life.

This movie simply didn't follow the traditional Hallmark formula, and for that, I give it a couple of extra points. Kudos, too, to the casting: Nikki Deloach and Lisa Durupt really looked like sisters. I enjoyed this movie and hope to see more Hallmark movies that contain the warmth we expect from Hallmark while not being quite so paint-by-the-numbers as some of them are.