'Twas the Night Before Christmas

Ever-gorgeous Torrie DeVitto and Zane Holtz star in a different kind of Hallmark movie. The plot involves actors who have some history between them putting on a play that is a courtroom drama debating the authorship of the Christmas poem, Twas the Night Before Christmas. It's more difficult to say than to watch. Things get interesting when the ghosts show up.

Torrie is always going to be one of my favorites. I haven't seen Holtz before, but their chemistry was good and his performance as a conflicted single dad was very compelling.

The appeal for me was the feeling of being at a play. This is a form of entertainment not everyone has experienced. If you haven't, you must. It's completely different than going to the movies or watching TV. There is an excitement about it that's hard to explain.

All in all, a refreshing effort.

Torrey Devitto is fast becoming one of my favorite Hallmark actresses. She's beautiful, talented, and often plays smart, strong, assertive women (loved her move at the very end). I enjoyed watching her in Rip in Time, The Christmas Promise and Write Before Christmas. Hallmark rookie Zane Holtz, who played Connor, was solid too.

I just watched a movie where extreme close-ups just didn't work. But here there is an extreme close-up of Torrey Devitto in an early kitchen scene and she just lights up the screen. In fairness, Holtz nailed his close up too with his line about "our kiss in Christmas Time Cupid was my favorite on screen kiss".

This was directed by Gary Yates who also directed some of my favorite Hallmark movies: Christmas by Starlight; On the 12th Date of Christmas; Once Upon a Christmas Miracle; Pearl in Paradise; A Dream of Christmas; A Bride for Christmas; and Taylor Cole's winter trilogy.

Richard Waugh, with his portrayal of Henry Livingston, Jr., and Shaun Austin-Olsen, with his portrayal of Clement Clark Moore were terrific. Truly outstanding. And the movie actually did a nice job of including a lot of the competing facts regarding the contested authorship of the famous poem (although the writer put his thumb on the scale at the end, presumably due to time constraints).

Amanda Barker is fun as B&B Edna who has a crush on Connor.

Sophie Bastelle did a great job with the thankless task of playing an actress who supposedly can't act (which was reminiscent of the set up in Bullets Over Broadway).

There are a lot of fun lines by writer C. Jay Cox, who also wrote Sweet Home Alabama, last year's great Hallmark movie Love Strikes Twice, and this year's wonderful Rip in Time:

When Conner walks into the theater for the first time, Hayley looks at him and says to Madison: "To what should my wondering eyes appear?" which is taken right from the poem for which the movie is named.

Hayley: "You said you'd let me know what Conner and you find" Madison: "He's helping me do research" Hayley: "Carrying your books to class?" Madison: "Aren't you too busy for misguided innuendo?" Hayley: "One should never be too busy for innuendo" Madison: "Misguided" Hayley: "You have your version, I have mine"

Madison: "I took this play to give myself a challenge, and Lena is a challenge" Hayley: "I admire your affinity for understatement"

Connor: "She doesn't need to be Meryl Streep, she just needs to say her lines and not bump into the furniture"

Hayley: "And that marks the end of my 15 minute human interaction break"

And the exchanges between the "lawyers" and the witnesses were well written and well performed. The mock trial that the movie is based on is called "The Trial Before Christmas". It was written by Duncan Crary and Jack Casey and was first staged in Troy's historic downtown courthouse in 2013, and then again in 2014. But this movie, as with most Hallmark movies, was filmed in Canada.

I grade Hallmark movies on a curve, so this is an easy 10 for me.

Just finished watching "Twas the Night Before Christmas" and I'll have to say it left us with smiles on our faces.

We yearn for stories in these Christmas romances to "break the mold", and boy howdy did these writers ever manage that! I'll forgive them their one huge cliche ... a performer who has to take a major break at the last minute and must be replaced.

As our leads produce a performance of a play which offers a mock trial to prove authorship of the classic poem (between Moore and Livingston) surprises arise, as two men appear who seem to be playing their roles, though the roles are not in the script.

The two actors who play Moore and Livingston steal this movie. Their performances are believable and nuanced.

By the way, if the Livingston theory IS correct, which I doubt, my wife is distantly related to the author of Twas the Night Before Christmas. :-)

Highly recommended, and we'll watch this one again in the future.

The leads in this are great but not as great as the unique and interesting concept for their Christmas play...a court case over who actually wrote 'Twas The Night Before Christmas.

'Twas the night before Christmas had a different title and was published anonymously originally, then it was published under the name Clement C. Moore...but some argue that it was really written by a man named Livingston.

Madison Rush is a famous actress, but wants to try her hat at directing. She gathers an old acting friend and single dad, Connor Avery to play the male lead and lawyer. And is forced to use her backer's girlfriend for the female lead...which really stretches her directing chops.

The best thing about this holiday romance is the romantic notion that two ghosts are really fighting to prove that they wrote the now famous poem.

This was fun and unique. I recommend watching if you are a big fan of Christmas movies.

This movie stepped way outside of Hallmark's normal formula elements from start to end. Great acting, Great Production, Overall excellent quality and just plain fun to watch. Hallmark and their poor competitor GAC often produce movies which are just plain boring and poorly done and this is not one of them. Several original elements here which I won't go into as they would be spoilers.

Only one small complaint, but not enough to lower the rating -- there are several places in the movie where the soundtrack overpowers the actors making it hard to hear. This wasn't the only Hallmark movie to do this. So, whoever does the sound mixing, please be mindful of not overpowering the dialogue.

Definitely a movie to look forward to watching again.