Un cadeau de Noël inattendu

I watch "The Voice" and I find Blake Shelton to be the funniest part of that show. When I heard that he and his mother were responsible for this Hallmark holiday film, I made a point of checking it out. I was not disappointed.

If you are a fan of Hallmark films, this one will seem fairly conventional in the early going. A young woman (Holland Roden) confronts difficult feelings every Christmas, due to past events. This holiday is different, because she becomes involved in a search to solve a romantic mystery. She is assisted by an old friend (Tyler Hynes) who had dropped out of her life years ago.

Together they go on a quest that causes old feelings to re-emerge. But there is more to this story, which is actually a tale of two relationships. Stick around for the final act, because it delivers a narrative surprise and packs an emotional wallop.

The entire cast is good, but Holland Roden has the meatiest role and is the emotional linchpin of the story. She displays a range of emotions and convincingly anchors the complicated but enjoyable storyline.

I love this Blake Shelton franchise and rewatch most of the entries multiple times. This entry may be the best, but then I love some good sap.

Two mysterious backstories keep the viewer guessing. Elizabeth is on a quest to find the man who leaves a wrong number voicemail. This movie does two unusual things. First we get to see that man and some of his backstory as well as the woman he really left the message for in various scenes throughout the movie. Second, in Elizabeth's story, the traditional overheard conversation which usually creates the ending conflict occurs at the start as part of the backstory.

The acting is good. The dialogue is good. The pace is good. There is a nice twist. And there is Kleenex, I mean on my end. I have to give credit to Holland Roden, as Elizabeth, who has chemistry with Tyler Hynes because Roden is virtually ignored on the acting credits page of IMDb as of this writing.

There is a somewhat anticlimactic performance of It's Christmas by Tenille Townes after the story arcs are all but concluded. And earlier the origins of that song appear to have some revision from what we learned in the original movie.

Tyler Hynes delivered a funny and quirky character last week in Three Wise Men and then delivered us a heartfelt, deeper character with more emotion tonight in Time for Him to Come Home for Christmas. This is my favorite movie from the Time to Come Home series. Tyler and Holland Roden had a fantastic chemistry. This was my first time seeing Holland and I was impressed with her talent and depth. Tyler and Holland brought out the best in each other onscreen. I also loved seeing Steve Bacic in the movie. His storyline weaved very nicely with Tyler/Holland storyline. The movie ending was beautifully done for all of the characters-and the lovely music throughout the movie was a nice touch. TFHTCHFC was a good cry type of movie that delivered a heartwarming and happy ending!

'Time for Him to Come Home for Christmas' (2022)

Opening thoughts: Have said more than once in previous reviews that Hallmark's 2022 Christmas output was extremely hit and miss, especially the Movies and Mysteries block. There were some good ones in the block, but when the block missed it failed very, very poorly. Part of me had a good idea that 'Time for Him to Come Home for Christmas' would be decent at least, it sounded interesting, had the always worth watching Tyler Hynes as the male lead and Hallmark have been responsible for a good number of good and more serious-themed films.

'Time for Him to Come Home for Christmas' is one of those Hallmark films with a more serious tone and is an example of one done well. Excellently actually in this case. It is for me the joint best 2022 Hallmark Movies and Mysteries film (not just Christmas but overall) along with 'Colour My World with Love', the best Hallmark film since that and one of the best 2022 Hallmark films. Also one of the best they ever did.

Bad things: Did feel that the ending was on the sappy and anti-climactic side, but for me that was it for the faults.

Good things: Everything else worked really well. Can't wait to see more of Holland Roden, judging from her sincere and poignant performance as a character who is true to life and easy to get behind. She has a sympathetic Hynes as her partner, who is typically down to earth and understated while never being dull.

Their chemistry is subtle and sweet, never looking awkward or cold. Their relationship develops realistically and their characters are well defined and relatable, not too perfect and any flaws are not exaggerated. This is also applicable to the supporting characters, all strongly played. Steve Bacic particularly excels against type.

It is a beautifully filmed film, complementing the picturesque scenery beautifully. The music didn't feel intrusive or overly low key, the placement never questionable or distracting. The non-cheesy and non-over sentimental script rarely sounds awkward or melodramatic, apart from some sappiness at the end. The story is gently but not dully paced, very soothingly gentle, very moving and also very heart-warming. Never found it difficult to relate to and found the family relationships and themes handled tactfully. The more mysterious parts don't feel too predictable either.

Closing thoughts: Overall, great.

9/10 (a rare rating for a Hallmark film, my usual highest rating for their films is either a 7 or 8)

I grade Hallmark movies on a curve, but I really loved this movie, and I love the trope where 2 people try to track something (or someone) down and become close during the search. It's a great way to see whether the leads have good chemistry or not- and there was lots of great chemistry in this movie. Tyler Hynes, who plays Josh, has become one of Hallmark's biggest stars- with good reason (he was part of the All Star cast in this year's big hit "Three Wise Men and a Baby").

But Hallmark rookie Holland Roden, who plays Elizabeth, was unknown to me. She was in Teen Wolf which I've never seen (but which my daughter assures me was very good). There's usually a greater range of acting required in these HMM movies and she effectively conveyed all sorts of different emotions. She was also very appealing, as was her character.

The movie reminded me of a Hallmark movie called "A Little Christmas Charm" with jewelry designer Ashley Greene and reporter Brendon Penny trying to to track down the owner of a charm bracelet. It also reminded me of "A Christmas Ring" with Nazneen Contractor as a reporter trying to locate the owner of an antique engagement ring with David Alpay. I loved both of those movies but this one was much more powerful and unique.

Equally powerful was a Christmas Eve classic called "The Christmas Secret" and a really good new Hallmark movie called "Long Lost Christmas" (both of which involve trying to track down a lost sibling). Anyone who liked those movies is sure to love this movie.

A good test for whether one is a Romantic at Heart is how one reacts to the effort that Elizabeth (and Josh) put into tracking down Madelyn. Some may regard the effort to be a waste of time. Hallmark addicts like me will be impressed.

This is the latest movie in the Blake Shelton produced "Time To Come Home For Christmas" franchise that Sheldon's mother, Dorothy Shackleford, helped write. But this 5th installment was written by Marcy Holland and it's a gem (she also wrote the far more breezy "Sailing Into Love"). The dialogue rang true and some of the lines really stuck out for me:

"I think it's romantic; one last grand gesture to the one who got away."

"I don't believe in signs. I believe we notice things because they're important to us."

Nice Guy: "Is there someone else?" Wishful Woman: "A memory." Nice Guy: "Those can be real hard to let go of."

I like all the other franchise movies, but this one may be the best. Although some things in the movie are easy to predict (like the details of a "misunderstanding" of an overheard conversation), others are not, which is refreshing given the inherent limitations of Hallmark's hugely successful formula. This was crisply and warmly directed by David Winning, who also directed Falling For Vermont, my favorite Hallmark amnesia movie. And the other actors were also quite good including Hallmark vet Steve Bacic (who has been in over 30 Hallmark movies). He played the guy who dialed the wrong number. I also like fellow Hallmark vets Karen Kruger and Iris Quinn, who played the mothers, and Dion Karas who played the "nudge nudge, tell her you love her" sister.

I knew and liked Tenille Townes before this movie but, as another reviewer noted, her anticlimactic performance of the franchise song "Time For Me To Come Home" seemed out of place.

But that's a minor complaint. This was classic Hallmark.