Un Natale inaspettato

I love Hallmark movies. And I think we can all agree that Lacey Chabert is now the undisputed Queen of Hallmark movies. And Wes Brown is one of their most handsome and likable stars.

But this movie was like watching upside down Hallmark, especially given all the great Hallmark Christmas movies that I've recently watched:

Family for Christmas (with Lacey in a much better movie); Three Wise Men and a Baby; Next Stop Christmas; The Royal Nanny; Ghosts of Christmas Always; Christmas By Starlight; On the 12th Date of Christmas; Just in Time for Christmas; The Christmas Secret; Lights, Camera, Christmas; and Christmas at the Golden Dragon

Emily's boyfriend was a bit of a caricature, but I was ready to get past that and into the rest of the movie. But then we get a flashback of little Emily's parents preventing her from opening presents on Christmas morning because they need to go work at the carnival??? What? That's not comedy, that's just really messed up. Strike 2

And then Emily is invited by her parents to come spend Christmas at home, only to have them pack up and leave the moment she gets there. What??? Strike 3

At this point, I was thinking the movie was intended to be some sort of satire or farce or something (the trailer made it seem like it would be funny), but I wasn't finding it funny- just annoying. But I thought that at least Emily seemed normal. She was understandably incredulous at seeing both her parents leave the way they did. And when her childhood friend Jared came by to start applying weird HOA rules, she pushed back. Good for her. So I stuck with it.

But then Jared came over again, in stalker mode, crawling around her deck. What?? And then he issued some sort of silly violation that required her, as punishment, to spend two hours helping the neighbors set up their decorations. And, for some reason, she agreed.

All this after she made it perfectly clear that she just wanted to chill during the holidays.

This is where my hope for a movie turnaround began to evaporate, especially when Emily starting going along with the HOA planning which, aside from being creepy and obsessive, seemed a little late (it was supposedly just one week before Christmas). A community this bonkers over decorations would have been prepping right after Halloween. I almost turned it off, but I almost never turn off a Hallmark movie. So I kept watching and hoped, somewhat desperately that, like so many Hallmark movies, Emily would wake up from this nightmare, and realize it was all just a bad dream. But no.

There have been several Hallmark movies that, unfortunately, seem to celebrate over the top competitive decorating (Making Spirits Bright comes to mind). Those kinds of movies seem to miss the Spirit of Christmas. And this movie was the antithesis of what I've come to love about Hallmark which normally celebrates love, family, kindness, helping others, good values, a fulfilling career, and a HEALTHY sense of community. As a lawyer, I've been involved in a lot of litigation involving HOAs which are often torn apart by discord. It can really get ugly. This was an unpleasant reminder of the kind of control freaks who sometimes take control of HOAs.

The movie did have some interesting aspects and better moments. For example, I loved the shout out to the classic Notting Hill ("I'm just a girl, standing in front of a boy...")

Eventually, Emily and Jared had some fun banter halfway through with some fun jokes about Nickelback and Creed

Pamela bragged about having a "Phd in arts and crafts and a minor in scrapbooking".

One of my favorite Hallmark stars Kristopher Polaha showed up and bragged about telling his unfiltered daughter "see something, say something". And I liked his daughter's answer to "have you been naughty or nice?"- "A little bit of both"

But the rest? Ugh.

At first it was fun to see Stephen Tobolowsky, who played Ned Ryerson in the classic Groundhog Day, playing another Ned in this movie (points for that). Ned asked to use rebar for one of the styrofoam snowmen, which were obviously fake (more so than they usually are). I kinda liked that. But his character was more often an over the top joke who talked about wanting to build a retractable roof so he could grow a 60 foot tree in his living room. Huh?

Hallmark knows how to make funny movies, as this year's big hit Three Wise Men and a Baby demonstrates. But Paul Campbell can't write all their movies. This was a disappointment for me, especially given how likable the 2 leads are. But as they said in The 12th Date of Christmas, "they can't all be winners".

Thankfully not another sickly sweet Christmas movie. A refreshingly different Hallmark holiday film, that was funny and quirky. The plot and script worked and the dialog was good, plenty of repartee. Lacey Chabert is always reliable, it was obvious that West Brown was enjoying himself acting it up as Jared and he was funny. The standouts were Stephen Tobolowsky as Ned and Melissa Peterman as Pamela, they were very funny. A character actors' dream and there were plenty of character actors who gave very good performances. The pace was perfect from the encounter between Lacey Chabert and Jake Stormoen (Dan) to the very end. Good script, good acting and enjoyable to watch.

Good to see Kristoffer Polaha and Eric Mabius.

Haul Out The Holly was funny and enjoyable for the whole family to watch together! Lacey and Wes were great together (funny, great chemistry and banter!) and the supporting cast added so much to the movie. The two surprise cameos were an added bonus! My only critique would be that I wish they let Melissa Peterman go full out funny. She was hilarious in Reba and Baby Daddy and with the Haul Out The Holly storyline, Melissa's trademark full out funny would've fit in well. Overall, I really enjoyed the movie and think the change up with Haul Out The Holly and Three Wise Men and a Baby storylines worked very well for Hallmark this year!

Lacey Chabert is one of our favorites, so we looked forward to this. We're not the only big fans ... that's why they made her their new spokesperson for Christmas movies after other stars signed with GAF.

However, this movie just annoyed me from start to finish. The writers went for zany and quirky and slapstick. Three swings, three misses.

The HOA part of the plot seemed overbearing and intrusive and ALWAYS over the top. The movie wasn't full of "Christmas spirit", but anti-social, antagonistic, controlling neighbors I might have been driven to burn out.

I was ready to bag it by the "set up the reindeer" scene, but my wife held on to desperate hope for improvement for somewhat longer. A few minutes later, she succumbed to the desire to stop the pain.

With Candace Cameron Brure dumping Hallmark, Lacey Chabert apparently takes over the title of Queen of the Hallmark Christmas movies, and if this is any indication, then let her reign carry on for awhile. Chabert has never seemed more relaxed playing a Christmas character and is really quite funny and good here. She is ably assisted by a fine supporting cast, particularly Wes Brown and the wonderful Melissa Peterman, both of whom are also very funny. The witty, sometimes hilarious, script is a benefit, too, but it only works because Chabert and the others are just so good in playing their parts. Nicely done and one film that will make you feel good during the holidays.