Hanukkah on Rye

I love finally having a Chanukah movie that made celebrating Chanukah seem like the norm. The conversations, the intonations, the references, the traditions - I felt like I was watching a movie about people who could actually be family. It just resonated with me. My only gripe was that when they were singing the prayers while lighting the menorah, the subtitles read "singing in Yiddish" when it's Hebrew. Otherwise, just a feel good Chanukah movie. It feels so good to write that! I didn't even realize I'd been waiting for a movie like this! We just don't have enough modern Chanukah movies and I've now found my new Chanukah movie to watch every year.

I'm not Jewish, so I don't know how accurate this movie was or how authentic the scenes of Hanukkah celebrations are.

I can say that I enjoyed the movie more than any other Hallmark Christmas movie this year.

I have enjoyed three of the Hallmark Christmas movies this year, 2022. I liked this Hanukkah movie better than the three best Christmas movies.

The script has snappy dialogue and the actors perform it well and keep the story moving quickly. The lead actors did a great job and all of the other characters are played by talented actors as well.

The story moves a lot faster than most really boring Hallmark holiday movies. And it's actually somewhat believable.

I recommend this movie.

Sure this is a knock off on the famous movie You've Got Mail, but it is well done. And Jeremy Jordan and Yael Grobglas have sizzling chemistry. I really like Grobglas as Molly. There are so many parallels to the other movie, but about half way through things start going differently and get a little crazy. It occurred to me briefly how it might all turn out with the delis but I was like "nah".

The acting is good. The dialogue is excellent. There are a lot of funny moments. I really like how straightforward Molly and Jacob are about everything with each other.

This will be worth watching again.

Very reminiscent of the movie "You've Got Mail" with the letter writing and competing businesses! I loved that movie and really enjoyed this one. I am not Jewish so can't speak to the authenticity of the traditions, but this movie was centered around family and love...and aren't those the most important things, especially during the holidays but also year round?

I really liked both the lead actors and thought they had great chemistry. The doorman was great! And the bubbies! They were both awesome! Without giving anything away...I enjoyed the whole matchmaker story line, and especially the twist at the end!

Made me want to go back to visit New York!

For a Hallmark film, I would give it an 9 out of 10, but rating on an overall film scale I would rate it a 7/6.5. Hallmark films tend to have the same test formula. This film does breaks the mold in several ways. The dialogue was much better and the plot was well executed. The film uses many of the same plot elements of "You've got mail."

The positive aspects of the film includes the following: The plot moves forward fast after the first 15 minutes, the main characters have a lot of chemistry, the small supporting characters worked well, such as the Apartment reception person, the delivery person, and the matchmaker. The movies does attempt to deal with issues that you would not normally associate in a Hallmark film, such as the decline of the Deli in New York City. Most importantly, the film delivers on what Hallmark movie fans, which is a fun romantic film with a holiday theme.

My many problem with the film is that it does not pay attention to details, such as labeling prayers are in Hebrew, not in Yiddish. In my opinion, there was too much use of Yiddish words that were forced and not correctly pronounced. In an age where the movie "Menache" was successful (which was in Yiddish and used all Jewish characters), I don't understand whey they can't cast all Jewish people for Jewish characters in a Hanukah film, use real dialogue that Jewish people would speak, and get the details correct.