Every Time a Bell Rings

The opening of the movie is quite lovely to watch, three girls on a Christmas scavenger hunt that their dad created for them, very cute. After this, I was hooked. Although 'Every Time a Bell Rings' has its flaws, it still is a lovely story with some quality acting. Sure, it is not one of Hallmark's best, but it is entertaining and engaging nonetheless. The movie is about three adopted sisters - Charlotte (played by Erin Cahill), Emily (played by Brittany Ishibashi), and Nora (played by Ali Liebert) - who return home to Mississippi for Christmas after some years apart. They soon discover that their late father has arranged one final Christmas scavenger hunt for them to complete. Will the search for the Christmas Bell bring the sisters back together after years of drifting apart? At the heart of the story is the bond between sisters, and even though they have drifted apart over the years, all they need is a bit of reminding of that bond (via another one of dad's scavenger hunts) for them to work things out. Taking the (time) constraints of an 84-minute movie into account, I thought the writers did a good job of weaving together the sisters' individual struggles and storylines (especially their own perceptions of success and failure) in a way that worked through their feelings and concerns together as sisters. However, because the writers try to do a lot in the movie, we lose some depth to the story, which other reviewers have pointed out. The acting, overall, was very strong, I felt. Cahill, Ishibashi, and Liebert all have very good performances. That is, all three engaged me, pulled me in from the start. Though the romance in the movie is secondary, there still is some great chemistry. Both Cahill and Brown and Liebert and Greenwood were very convincing and appealing to watch on-screen, I felt. Finally, there is the scavenger hunt and the Christmas Bell. In some ways, I wish the writers would have cut back on the sub-plots and focused their energy on the scavenger hunt as this was fun to watch. Plus, it had a bit of mystery, which I enjoyed. All in all, 'Every Time a Bell Rings' is a charming Christmas story about the love and bond of three sisters. It is a warm, sweet, and engaging story (even with its shortcomings), a nice new edition to Hallmark's Christmas movie line-up this season.

What sets this movie apart is that is not about a couple, but about 3 sisters. Charlotte, Emily and Nora grew apart after their dad passed, each one in different parts of the world doing their own thing. This Christmas they get together for the first time in years, and they find that their dad left a scavenger hunt just like they used to. The grand price? A bell.

It was cute. There is love as well for those who want it. But there is also women discussing motherhood, finding a new path, discovering where they come from. These are women with real life stories and I liked that very much.

There is a LGTB+ character/couple and I couldn't be happier. There is good chemistry between the actresses. And honestly I couldn't care less about Liam and Charlotte. The main focus is on the family.

Different that usual.

There were two main reasons for seeing 'Every Time a Bell Rings'. One was for the cast, which is a very talented one indeed. Actually have liked Erin Cahill in some of her other films, have always liked Wes Brown and Ali Liebert is watchable more often than she isn't. The other was the premise, which was a very cute one, one of the most mature ones of the 2021 Hallmark films and had real potential to be very heartfelt. As said in some other recent reviews, 2021 was a variable year for Hallmark and their Chrustmas output but some of their films were good and more.

'Every Time a Bell Rings' had potential to be one of those films, but ended up being something of a missed opportunity. It is not terrible and does a good number of things very well, but it would have been a much better film and executed its premise to full potential if it tried to do less and focused more on a few of the subplots. All the subplots featured in 'Every Time a Bell Rings' had a lot of potential, but too many don't quite come off. As far as 2021's Hallmark films go, this is middling.

Am going to begin with the good things. Cahill, Liebert and Brittany Ishibashi are very good, particularly radiant and quite moving Libert. The chemistry between the three is strong too. Almost all the performances in fact are well above average, though their material did vary. Did like the idea of the story structure, it was interesting to not have just one big plot and another subplot but to have other ones.

Some come off well, especially the scavenger hunt (wish there was more of it) and the biological parent story did start off well and had some heart. It is attractively made, beautiful scenery, and the soundtrack isn't too constant or melodramatic. Had no problem with the diversity or the same sex couple, and really fail to understand why it has been such an issue for some regular Hallmark viewers as of late.

Do wish that the story was more focused and more fleshed out. It tried to cram in far too much, and a few of the subplots are given short shrift. Especially the incredibly underwritten and practically sidelined romances. Also didn't find some of the attitudes and reactions, like how indifferent the biological mother was which was a waste of a subplot that started with such promise and the sisters' over the top reaction to what was considered a betrayal. As a consequence, the structure felt rushed but because too much of the content was underdeveloped the film felt bland and uneventful.

Furthermore, a lot of the dialogue is cheesy and overwrought and the characters could have been fleshed out more, they sounded like real people on paper but some behaviours didn't ring true for them to be relatable. The ending is very anti-climactic, needed more time to unfold and the too little that is resolved is done so too quickly and too easily. The complete waste of Brown was unforgivable, have always liked him but here he is very bland in a role that gives him absolutely nothing to work with and came over as pointless.

Overall, watchable but it was good potential not fully lived up to. 5/10.

I loved the opening scene with the little girls on the last step of their scavenger hunt. Because of previews, I knew this was a setup to elicit nostalgia for the grown up sisters for their late father. I thought it worked.

I love Erin Cahil and Ali Liebert. Actually, with her hairstyle in the early scenes, it took me a while to be sure it was Liebert.

The primary story is the sisters and reconciliation after some years of friction. The two romances, one boy-girl and the other girl-girl, are definitely secondary. In fact, even the adopted daughter seeking her biological mother seemed more significant than any romance. Neither romance got a lot of screen time. One other thread which was down there on the list of priorities, was the plan for the married couple to try to have a child. There are a lot of threads so none of them totally dominate but it flows OK.

Any tension in the story is not overwhelming. It is spread among the different plot threads.

They can only do so much in 80 minutes of screen time. Some of the topics were pretty heavy, but they dealt with them well considering the time constraints. They could have made this a miniseries, and I would have enjoyed it.

I think this is one of the better Hallmark movies out there this year.