To Have and to Holiday

6.3 stars.

I have this nagging feeling that I'm supposed to like this movie. It's almost as if I'm not in the mood today. Should I hold off and watch it later? Anyways, I am getting through it slowly but surely. Slow and steady wins the race. Right now I'm not anticipating finishing it.

Pastor dad puts on the pressure, various gaslighting, bullying and guilt trip sessions later, the story improves somewhat, but not enough to sway my final opinion. This movie is not completely capturing my affections. I'd usually say something is missing, but in fact many somethings are missing.

There are good moments strew about, but insufficient to save it.

I continue plodding along...skipped to the last 15 minutes, it gets a lot better, too late to save it. Not my cup of tea.

To Have and to Holiday was just ok. It's basically a Christmas version of Father of the Bride (I really liked that movie). The movie started out pretty good. In flashbacks to when Celeste was younger you could see that her dad (Pastor Mark) wanted his old life back when his daughter was younger. Pastor Mark was unlikeable. For a man of the cloth he wasn't very nice. He spent 3/4 of the movie trying to sabotage his daughter's upcoming wedding. In Hallmark fashion he had a turnabout the last 15 minutes of the movie. The acting was good and the leads had chemistry. This won't be one that I would watch again.

While "To Have and to Holiday" is reminiscent of some older movies like "Father Of the Bride" and "Meet The Parents", this one was enjoyable because of the excellent cast who portrayed believable characters for a change. The relationship between the romantic leads Celeste (Madeleine Arthur) and Jason (Robert Bazzocchi) is believable. Madeleine Arthur is a very talented actress and was excellent in Hallmark's 2023 movie "3 Bed, 2 Bath, 1 Ghost". The actor Eric Close, who plays Celeste's pastor father, Mark, was also excellent in this. I remembered him from the intriguing 2002 mini series "Taken". Let's hope Hallmark can keep the remaining 2024 Christmas releases on par with this one!

When deciding to propose marriage, doing so as a grand gesture, with no forethought is not a good sign for things to come. Sure, let's call it romantic, but we can also call it being swept up in the moment with no plan. To Have and to Holiday doesn't address this significant flaw, but rather focuses on the rightfully annoyed and suspicious father of the proposed bride.

Maybe because I'm a father of daughters I had a hard time not cheering nearly every decision our unapproving father made. Obviously, we're supposed to not like him. Sorry. He's my dude.

Our lead is Celeste (Madeleine Arthur), who gets a quick proposal-before the first commercial break-from Jason (Robert Bazzicchi). For historical reasons, they need to get married in less than three weeks. Yikes. Celeste's dad Mark (Eric Close) is a pastor and plans to officiate the wedding. Turns out Pastor Mark runs every couple he marries through a Marriage Bootcamp and he does not hold back on our fledgling couple.

Side note: Every engaged couple might benefit from some type of bootcamp. Test those relationships before untangling them becomes too painful and difficult. It's not to teach them how to be married, but rather to see the other person as they will be for your relationship, not just until you say "I do" and you're stuck with them. It's worth exploring, young people.

Pastor Mark says, "If it turns out they're not right for each other, I won't marry them." Hmm, it seems like the couple should be the one deciding if it's right, after going through the bootcamp, not a third-party, deciding on their behalf. But Pastor Mark is a pretty opinionated fella.

To have and to Holiday is not a great deal of fun, but it's a mildly realistic scenario that rarely gets explored in these Christmas movies. We see one kiss and the credits roll. This movie looks at what happens next and I appreciate that. It's worth a watch.

Cast Kudos: Eric Close as Pastor Mark. Be strong dad.

Measuring Christmas Magic: No magic, but it's a Christmas movie.

Alternative titles: Christmas Bootcamp; Wedding Bells Bootcamp; Pastor Mark's Bootcamp for Christmas.

To Have and to Holiday is another of the Hallmark movies this year featuring a cast of people who are virtually unknown to me. With the exception of the lead actress' parents, I'm not sure I've seen any of them before.

That said, the acting was better than a lot of movies you see this time of year.

Madeleine Arthur and Robert Bazzochi are excellent as a young couple who become engaged after dating briefly, prompting her father, who is also a pastor, to insist on putting them through his marriage boot camp in order to gauge their compatibility.

We've seen these things before, even this year, and this part of the movie didn't really work.

Fortunately, there was enough of a plot to make it worth a watch.

Arthur is cute and sweet and pretty, and has excellent chemistry with Bazzochi, and both turned in strong performances as the young couple navigating issue after issue on the way to the altar.

We'll be seeing them again.

There's a million choices at Christmas time. This is not great, but there are worse choices.

Six.