The Jingle Bell Jubilee

This time of year, it's hard to turn on a TV without seeing one of these mass-produced holiday romances.

I used to say, "Seen one, seen 'em all," but with these things breeding like rabbits, they are sorting into definite categories.

This, alas, is not one of the better ones. Like so many of these, it's so by-the-numbers that you can practically recite the dialogue as it happens. It's like a story on The Love Boat bloated into a two-hour timeslot. All it needs is Gopher and Doc mugging in the background.

It's great that these movies are committed to no violence, gratuitous sex, bad language, or stuff like that. But they also left out good storytelling, dramatics, action, motivation... Oh, well.

It's probably because I've got a soft spot in my heart for sweet, little girls like Erin Agostino, but I was able to get to the end without yawning or eye-rolling.

The story here involves a a city manager who returns to his hometown and encounters an old school mate when he registers his son for school. She's now a schoolteacher who has invented a way for students to regift presents to people in need.

As there is a shortage of donations to the city's charity gift-giving program, the two devise a plan to take her program city-wide.

The story moves along at a reasonable pace. There is a plotline that each of them dates other people before realizing the obvious.

This is not a front line movie, but if you're looking for something to watch, there's worse choices.

I don't understand what world these characters live in. The movie is bearable, the acting a bit below mediocre. The male lead was attractive enough to keep me watching.

I don't know if it was the writing (or the acting just a bit over the top) but I've never in life witnessed adults (let alone a city leader, a semi pro athlete, a school administrator and a teacher) be so completely awkward. Everyone was just awkward around each other. None of them had a single bit of confidence in themselves. I wanted to shake them awake. How could they possibly be in the positions they are in acting the way they do.

All that makes it sound like I didn't like it. But, I've seen much worse, so this pretty middle of the road movie.

This is another Christmas movie like so many others this time of year on half dozen or more channels. There is definitely a feel of writers trying to check all the boxes.

I can say two things right away but even though they are obvious, they don't really make the movie exceptional in any way. First, like so many on this network, there is almost no tension, unless you count awkward tension. The writers try to manufacture some by the mayor's constant concern about the success of the Jubilee, but this is overdone and Nate isn't going to drop the ball. Second, yes as other reviewers have pointed out, Hope is so self-deprecating, it detracts from what is obviously a sweet and attractive young lady. Not just modest, but over the top.

Several things in the movie are clumsy. I was floored by the commercial break while Hope and Nate were in the mayor's office. Hope was just gearing up her pitch and they cut away. Then agan another break when Andy was winding up to ask Hope something. Another thing was how much Hope was trying to push Allison on Nate while Nate was being obviously polite but uninterested. At the tree lot, Andy's conversation toward that end was also awkward.

The acting in general is fair to poor. So much of it seemed like community theatre people reading their lines. That might not be surprising given how lame much of the dialogue was. Some of it made me cringe. I think Kristian Jordan's Andy is supposed to be funny, but I didn't laugh.

Then there is Regiftmas. This concept just didn't grab me. I think the term regifting has become too negative and even the rebranding of it in the story just didn't work.

Every rom/com or Christmas romance needs a conflict before the climax. The conflict, if you would even call it that - maybe call it an obstacle - was the least conflictive one I can remember, and I've watch several hundred of these TV movies.

Note to self - you do not want to watch this again.

The Jinglebell Jubilee (2023) -

This one was all very basic and a tad nauseating with how sweet it was but it was at least a bit of a different tack with the fact that the relationship was a sort of Love "Square" to start with. Even if it was incredibly obvious how that would fall out in the end.

It was very cheesey and that wasn't helped by Andy's (Kristian Jordan) awkwardness, which was too much.

Leading man Marshall Williams as Nate was the more natural of them all, but still a tad too exaggerated.

And I wasn't sure that leading lady Erin Agostino as Hope was the right person for the role. I did like Allison played by Samantha Kendrick however, although I could see why she didn't get the starring role - she lacked a bit of presence here.

As for "The Jubilee" itself, it wasn't as amazing as I had expected. I thought it would have been a carnival or a one day special with a ball or something instead of just some booths at City Hall.

And they certainly didn't hire enough extras for the dance that did happen. They could have at least shot it differently to make it look busier.

The script was a bit jumbled and clumsy too. I couldn't tell what they were thinking a lot of the time because of it. And the climactic conversation was so bleurgh and saccharin.

With all that said, it definitely wasn't the worst of these films that I've seen. In his position of City Manager trying to fix the Jubilee, Marshall's Nate character was charming in general, even if he made some terrible choices regarding his love life. And Hope's regifting idea, which saved the event, bringing them together, was nice. I did feel that Allison and Andy's connection might have made a cuter story though.

It probably won't be one that I'll revisit in a hurry, but mostly because there are so many more to see and the list of good ones that I definitely want to watch again is getting longer every year. As it was it did the standard job you'd expect.

6.12/10.