Holiday for Heroes

Riley Finn returns from the secret mission he left Buffy for all those years ago, to find Sunnydale much more Christmassy and Buffy to be replaced by Audrey, a local coffee shop owner and generally the nicest person on the planet!

Okay, so it is Marc Blucas but he plays Staff Sergeant Matt Evans and he still reminds me of Riley and if he appears in uniform then he is Riley and will forever be! Matt has been getting letters from one of his soldiers' sisters for the last year (not sure if his friend new about this or approved but let's not worry about that!) and when he is sent stateside, he goes to see here. Audrey(Melissa Claire Egan- an American daytime TV star turned Hallmark heroine), the letter writing sister runs a local coffeeshop and wants to expand but in the meantime she is trying to give a Happy Christmas to as many servicemen and women as she can, but is having problems getting the venue and money to do it. Her and Matt get on fantastically well, even better in person than in ink but she's busy and he's trying to decide what to do with his life, so we are going to have some bumps before the end. But it is a Hallmark movie and one that is based on returning soldiers and love and Christmas, so I'm not worried, it will all be alright in the end and Riley might not get his Buffy but honestly Audrey is nicer and less likely to stab him with a stake.

Homecoming for heroes, Christmas, love story, Hallmark you're crying, I'm not, it's you. You just think I'm crying through the tears in your own eyes!

It is just one of very good Hallmark Christmas films. Because it propose more than the nice story, the familiar actors, the sweet humor and the chaines of cliches. A good story about militaries on operational fronts, comunity, siblings, small business, coffee and a story of love wise crafted. A real special film from Hallmark because it ignores some borders, defines a not easy theme and gives a decent , in delicate manner, portrait of the characters.

Audrey (Melissa Claire Egan), a partner in running a cafe, has been exchanging letters for a year with soldier Matt (Marc Blucas). We see them finally meet and how this has an impact on both their lives and the lives of those around them. Both a romantic drama and a salute to the armed forces, you see the story play out from the perspectives of both protagonists, which is nice. It's a good production which is very engaging with great performances, especially from the two leads.

6/10 - sweet Hallmark flick will be one to come back to in future years

It's so nice to see one of these films that concentrates on the forces element, rather than the trite little references thrown in here and there in other ones.

I actually cried at the end, because it was easy to get behind the cause and I'm not usually one to get soppy about the forces, because I believe that they have chosen their job as have the tinker and the tailor, but you can really see here how important these celebrations are to those left at home and how important the homecomings are for both parties.

Marc Blucas is natural and lovely again and the female lead (Moley, moley, moley) is not one of the annoying ones.

A great cast all around really and a lovely story delivered appropriately and with style.