À la maison pour Noël

Romance movies involving two people road tripping across the country together are hit or miss. Many of them are too cheesy to even get through and just aren't natural. Granted, I seriously doubt a 'regular' person doing one of these trips with a country star, ever really happens. Still yet, this movie flowed naturally. The leads, Heath and Karah, had good chemistry. I especially liked how well the actor playing Heath was able to show so many emotions, with just a look. When he felt awkward, I felt awkward. When he felt hurt, I felt it too. And the way Heath looked at Karah, when she wasn't looking sped up MY heart. Lol

It's easy to connect with Karah and Heath because we get to know about their parental losses, family dynamics, friendships, and dreams in life. They seem like normal people in the real world, not actors pretending. There's not a big wow factor in this. It is just one of those feel good, makes you want to fall in love, be with family, kind of movies.

While it was far from innovative, part of me did like the concept of 'Time for Me to Come Home for Christmas' (appealing title too). It did sound very sweet and likeable, and could easily be if executed right. Though sentimentality and awkwardness were definitely potential traps, as they can be found a lot in Hallmark's festive output and was apparent in a lot of their 2018 output. Hallmark did do some very bad Christmas films but some were surprisingly good.

'Time for Me to Come Home for Christmas' for me fitted in neither category. Not a bad film but not a great one either and there is nothing extraordinary here throughout. Regarding whether it executed the concept sweetly and likeably or too heavy on the sentiment and awkwardness, there are elements of all of that. Not one of the best 2018 Hallmark Christmas films. Not one of the worst either. Somewhere firmly in the middle more like, and that can all be said for overall too.

Megan Park and Josh Henderson give charming enough lead performances and neither of their characters bored or annoyed me. Even if they did lack depth and complexity, they were not personality deprived. Park's vulnerability was relatable and Henderson's sympathetic charm endeared. Personally thought that the two did have chemistry and one that progressed more realistically than most Hallmark Christmas films from that year, though it is a very understated one. A sweet and natural one at the same time too. The supporting cast do well too.

Production values are decent and don't look amateurish, regardless of any questions of authenticity the scenery is very easy on the eyes and complemented by the photography well. Hallmark does not always do very well when it comes to their music, but the music fares fine here. It fits, it's not too loud and the sound of it appeals.

For those good things, 'Time for Me to Come Home for Christmas' does have shortcomings and they are not small. The dialogue does sound very awkward a lot of the time, gets very corny and the sentiment does get too much in the second half. Do agree that the lip synching is very distracting and too blatantly obvious, one would never think that any of the music was performed live.

Although it does have its good moments, the story is very predictable and has too many forced and over-schmaltzy moments when it finally starts to get going. After a rather dull and uneventful start that has no real atmosphere or emotion to it. Am not somebody that picks on films usually for bad accents and generally find that criticism nit-picky unless it/they is/are distractingly bad and take one out of the setting, which is sadly the case here.

In conclusion, watchable enough but it never wowed me. 5/10

How does Hallmark manage to consistently produce a bunch of movies where only one character, in a family, has an accent? Could the Lee character NOT have had an accent in this? And the lip synching- blame the director and editors for that, it's not as if Henderson doesn't sing.

Besides all that, it's a fairly low key, nice sentiments Christmas movie. No overacting, over gesturing, looks like they're stoned-on-Christmas-candy female leads here, so thank you for that Hallmark!

Here is why I gave it an 8; it is an "8" in the Hallmark movie universe, not the "Gone With The Wind", "Sound of Music" universe.

Yes Hallmark movies are cheesy and yes you know EXACTLY how it is going to end, you just aren't sure HOW they are going to get there.

The movie was warm, implausible, cheesy, joyful and most importantly, entertaining. There ain't nuthin' wrong with cheesy, happy ending movies; Lord knows we can use a little happy escapism these days.

If you liked the other movies in this series, you'll enjoy this one too.

6/10 - nothing special in this by-the-book holiday flick