Christmas Under the Stars

I was expecting a typical Hallmark Christmas romance with all about the 2 leads & their stories. However the glue that holds everything together was the natural excellent performance by Clarke Peters as Clem, who owns a Christmas tree-lot. Autumn Reeser adds another classy believable role as a Mum who has crippling bills to pay from her Dad's medical treatments , being badly treated by finance companies who own the debt. Jesse Metcalf does pretty ok too as a recently-fired Investment expert who finds himself again & gets to give back to others at the best time of the year ! Less typical than most Hallmark seasonal films, and all the better for that !

This is a slow-paced movie about a high-powered investment broker who fails on a big gamble and gets fired. Oddly, he takes a minimum wage job at a Christmas tree lot, getting much sage advice from the elderly man who has run it for decades.

There is an interstitial romance with a school teacher with medical debt, but that plot line is almost invisible.

This isn't a dynamite movie, but it's better than much of the 2019 Hallmark crop.

6/10 - surprisingly good Christmas TV movie hits all the right notes

This was an amazing and beautiful movie that was not just about a holiday romance. This film was also about spreading kindness/helping people and how simple acts can change a person for the better. This film had an amazing amount of depth for a Hallmark Holiday film. Autumn Reeser, Jesse Metcalfe and Clarke Peters were absolutely wonderful. This is the type of film I wish Hallmark would do more of.

One of the better Hallmark premieres this year so far. I don't know why other reviewers aren't mentioning Clarke Peters, but he killed it as usual. People pointing out inaccuracies with finance in this movie like there aren't countless inaccuracies in every single Hallmark Christmas movie. A top 3 for Hallmark Xmas in 2019 I am sure of it.