Deck the Walls

I sat down to watch the 2024 Hallmark Christmas movie "Deck the Walls" as part of my 2024 December Christmas Movie Marathon. Sure, I had never heard about this movie prior to watching it, but I figured with it being a Hallmark movie, then it couldn't be all bad. Sure, it might be super sappy, as Hallmark movies tend to be, but I still opted to give director Jake Van Wagoner's 2024 movie a fair chance.

Yeah, I didn't really have the biggest of expectations to the movie, so I suppose that the writer Tracy Andreen and Danny Pellegrino had every opportunity to bedazzle and entertain me.

However, I found the narrative in the movie to be rather mundane. It wasn't a particularly entertaining movie. Sure, it was watchable, but the movie was just lacking that particular Christmas spark that many of these sappy movies usually have. It was a pretty generic storyline, truth be told, and not a particularly great one at that.

Of the entire cast ensemble I was only familiar with Wes Brown and Adam Johnson. While the acting performances in the movie were fairly good in general, I have to say that I just didn't particularly like leading actress Ashley Greene, as she lacked charisma and on-screen sparkle to make it a believable sappy Christmas movie.

While I did make it through the entire 84 minutes that the movie ran for, I was only mildly entertained. I can honestly say that I am not returning to watch this movie a second time. And if you enjoy sappy Christmas movies, let me just say that there are indeed far better and more enjoyable movies out there.

My rating of "Deck the Walls" lands on a three out of ten stars.

Can start off by saying was hard telling who sponsored this movie.. At least could of made it subtle felt like one long commercial,for HomeGoods & Nutella. Lol.

The storyline was a clichéd topic,also for all the build-up we never get a satisfying payoff.. Why didn't we get a home tour? Did the daughter like her new room,etc.

Instead it was filled with a lackluster,no chemistry story & subpar acting by everyone.

I loved Ashley in previous Hallmark productions but here she seemed tired,gaunt & almost like she was bored to be part of this movie.

Not worth seeing,again.. Hallmark needs to remember,quality over quantity.

I almost dnf'd this in the first 10 minutes, but I persisted and I can't say I am happy about that...with the exception of getting to see Carolyn Hennesy as Aunt Gigi. This film starts as a hot mess. The dialogue is awkward, the meeting between characters is awkward, there are lots of sad themes liking bullying, divorce, poverty, death, coping techniques, loss of family home to fire, etc. For me this added a lot of negatives to what should be a light Hallmark holiday film, add in that this had advertising imbedded in it for both HomeGoods and Nutella and it rapidly moved into a film I not only can't recommend, but don't want to watch. (Not that I have anything against either HomeGoods or Nutella, but we are already watching too many commercials on cable which we pay for.)

The best part of this film was Aunt Gigi, played by the lovely Carolyn Hennesy. I have loved her as the tough but lovable mob lawyer on GH, where she has set an example of a strong, loyal, independent woman for years. The other aspect that was enjoyable was the exterior of the fixer-upper home. I am sorry to say those two items don't push this over into the recommendation category for me.

DNF

I tried to get through this, but it is just so bland and boring. Nothing sweet or charming to pull me in. The chemistry is lacking with all the characters.

Most of the time what makes these kind of films tolerable is the chemistry between the two leads and when there is no chemistry and the story is bad written and conceived it's a recipe for disaster.

Don't get me wrong I enjoy holiday cheese, but this is just not it. I honestly don't get why it was made or how it made it past the outline stage.

I liked the aunt character but even she couldn't make me finish watching it. Not my holiday jam.

Not the best Hallmark movie ever made but also far from the worst. I like Wes Brown and I like Ashley Greene; they always elevate these productions with their presence and their chemistry was on point.

"Deck the Walls" rolls out the old 'professional returns to their home town for the first time in years' and it does so with a charity aspect.

Of course, there was the standard moment of miscommunication moment two thirds of the way into the movie, but that - of course, and as is expected - was resolved neatly before a heart-warming ending.

I'm sure some people will be upset by the secondary couple being gay, but I wasn't. Their storyline added something to the movie, rather than them being there just for diversity.

Solid Hallmark Christmas fun.