When I Think of Christmas

Compared to all movies: 6.3. Compared to Hallmark movies: 8.0.

On my journey with Hallmark, this was maybe my 4th or 5th movie this year, of MANY. I plan on watching a hundred before end of the year.

Warning: some spoilers, but not really, I mean all the Hallmark plots are basically the same: girl gets guy, or girl loses guy, gets him back. Also this review is not as polished as many, because while I want to review all 100+, I won't nearly have the time for it, so it's just off the cuff, rough draft, one and done - press enter - sent.

This movie made me smile a few times. The lead female is cute, seen her in 90210 years back, so she's a decent player, a great actress, and I enjoy her personality. She brings a lot of that to the screen. I can't imagine many movies being boring with her as a lead, and I wish she was more prolific these days, but it looks like she's been silent for years.

The male is rough, and likable. What I really love about him is his raw anger and bitterness for the first 30 minutes, then things start to change as their "unbreakable and everlasting" bond (which was destroyed in a moment of youthful ignorance) renews itself. I sure wish life was always like that: rekindling a long dead and buried love, like a dead flower, simply pour some magic water, and sprinkle some fertilizer and *poof*

I enjoyed the movie overall. It contains a good message: help the kids, focus on important stuff, and put all relationships on the back burner... she didn't even see her mom as much as she should've, you can read between the lines. And the mystery behind the man - we never know what that's about. Did he make it in Nashville or not? If so, why hasn't anyone heard of him? I guess she was his muse.

There is a parallel romance with her mother that is nice, and her guy is a likable blue collar fella. Mom sings, and her voice is "interesting", not bad, just different.

Entertainment value: this is good enough to watch to the end, which was decent by the way. Nice to have a good ending. The actors are cute and funny, and have developed personalities so I recommend this, however after I've seen 15 or so, this movie might not be in the top 10.

This story has many of the common elements of Christmas movies. Sara returns home to help mom move but brings work. She encounters her ex from high school and theirs was an ugly breakup. Their animosity melts away magically and they work on a Christmas concert.

The deeper theme of the movie is life changing choices and the regrets that come years later. This is another pretty common theme, but for me, this movie captured those emotions and dealt with them. There are no great highs or lows. There is one surprise that I don't think was foreshadowed at all.

There are some nice Christmas songs by members of the cast. Shenae Grimes-Beech has the best voice of the group.

The acting is good. The dialogue is good. There is good chemistry between the leads.

About as typical as a hallmark Christmas movie can be. Charge the two mains did an excellent job at conveying their characters. The biggest problem I had with this entire movie was the fact that the mother couldn't sing to save her life and couldn't carry a tune if you put a handle on it. I think another reviewer said it best. This movie would've been much better if it ended with the two main characters singing that final song instead of bringing the mother up on stage. Really killed the entire mood and flow of the movie every time that woman opened her mouth to sing. Out of tune and pitch is being nice.

I like both of the main actors, but they had no chemistry together and the story just fell flat. They just didn't work together. Also, I'm not sure what they were thinking with her hair. Hallmark is normally good with hair, makeup, and wardrobe, but her hair was atrocious (both the bangs and the dark color around her face). It was actually a distraction. Unlike her other movie that I watch every year, I was just glad to get this one over with. I won't be watching it again. The mother and her new friend had chemistry. It's too bad they didn't focus more of the movie on them. They paired well together.

I saw Shenae Grimes-Beech years ago in a couple of Hallmark movies called Christmas Incorporated (2015) and Date With Love (2016). She was new to me at the time and I really liked her. I looked forward to seeing her in a lot more Hallmark movies but this is her first one in 6 years (I think she took a break to have a couple of kids). She's enjoyable to watch and a talented actress.

Shenae plays Sara, a successful lawyer in Manhattan still agonizing about having dropped plans 10 years earlier to make music in Nashville with Josh, her high school boyfriend of 3 years. He was devastated and never forgave her (how dare she accept a full ride scholarship to Yale!).

Niall Matter, who plays Josh, is one of the better leading men in Hallmark movies (he was great earlier this year in Rip in Time) and his pleasant charisma smoothes over the rough edges of his rather selfish, short sighted, and unrealistic character (his motto: be true to your love of music, and need to be a star, no matter what the cost).

Josh ignored countless efforts by Sara to communicate with him over the years, rather rudely turned down a request to join some musicians on stage at a local performance called Santa Jam, and seems to live in some sort of fantasy world about how to pay the bills. But his icy attitude towards Sara eventually thaws as they spend some time together and I actually liked them as a couple.

By the way, there's an erroneous "Goofs" posted here as well as an incorrect comment by a reviewer about the characters' ages. The "Goofs" reference to the characters being 10 years apart, and the suggestion that there was a creepy age gap in high school, is factually incorrect. The movie makes clear that they were both around the same age in high school (give or take a couple of years) before Sara left for college. Specifically, Josh notes that they haven't seen each other for 10 years (since she left). Assuming she graduated and left him to go to college at 18, that puts her at around 28 (the 10 years could have been a guesstimate). He also tells her he was 29 a year before the year they were reunited. He said he was in a band, on a national tour, and then quit to spend all his money trying to support a solo career for a year when he was 29. After that year, he turned 30 and moved back to Oakcrest to help his uncle, which is when he was reunited with Sara. Although the characters are around the same age, the actors who play them are 9 years apart in age (Niall was born in 1980 & Shenae was born in 1989). Perhaps that's where the goofs post went wrong.

This movie was directed by Hallmark acting veteran Peter Benson who has a cringey cameo as a rapper. In fact, there's a rather surprising lack of talent available for the big holiday show that Josh was lured back from Nashville to produce. I don't enjoy watching bad musical acts audition and perform so this part of the movie annoyed me. But seriously, no one in their old high school had any talent? And how hard is it to remember the word "branches"? Help the poor girl out and have her repeat the word a few times during rehearsal.

I was also annoyed by Sara's whining about being pressured into her life choices. Her mother was more than sensible when she encouraged Sara to accept a scholarship to a prestigious Ivy League school given her life experiences and poverty after her husband died (kind of weird how Sara didn't know how her parents met). And Sara obviously had some kind of affinity for the law if she was somehow being considered for partner in her 20s (not likely). But I doubt she banked as much money as Josh seemed to think she did. Assuming no gap years, she spent 4 years at Yale and 3 years at law school, which left her 3 years to make money, while living in high priced Manhattan and paying off her law school debt, before coming back to Oakcrest). I doubt she had much of a safety net, if any.

I liked the moment when Sara finally validated her mother and took some accountability during an emotional scene. The guilt trip she previously laid on her was unfair. I liked the second cameo (outside mom's new condo). I liked the idea of giving mom a love interest. I liked the way in which Sara reluctantly helped out. But one of the things that bothers me about some Hallmark movies, like this one, are the moments when characters are put in an "either or" "black or white" life choice situation without brainstorming all the possible alternatives and options. Life is full of lots of gray. And relationships require compromise. For example, one of the partners in my law firm plays in a band and is able to enjoy being a musician AND a lawyer. He's not an aberration.

The "conflict" created by "inviting the Nashville agent" (so what?) seemed really forced and Josh's line that "you shouldn't have to work to find happiness" may be the most naïve and unrealistic quote in the movie. Just ask Sara's mother, sympathetically played by Beth Broderick who has a nice moment describing the "mixed signals" between her head and her heart and gives a lovely solo performance (not sure where those strings came from though).

This movie probably doesn't deserve the 7 stars that I gave it. But I grade Hallmark on a curve and I really like Shenae Grimes-Beech. Plus Niall Matter was good as always.