Following Yonder Star

I am so glad for this movie being on Hallmark and Hallmark going back to its old roots of the true Christmas with Christ. No fake Satan um I mean Santa sorry for the misspelled word there.. I was so worried that Hallmark has lost all sanity with the very bad movies they have been pushing out lately so this was quite refreshing and enjoyable. Hallmark has gotten so bad with very badly written scripts and poor acting. This was nice and it's so true with how the world is with media and not realizing that actors and actresses are actually human beings who hurt and make mistakes just like the rest of us.

This movie starts out with some of the usual stuff. Abby is an actress famous for being the perfect TV mom, but she has a run-in with a store clerk whose unreasonable refusals result in Abby losing her temper. This goes viral and gets blown out of proportion so she flees Hollywood to Vermont for Christmas. She just wants to keep her head down. She ends up at an Inn where the innkeeper is a widower with a little girl. He happens to also be a director of a kids nativity play. So Abby helps. You can figure out how the middle of the movie plays out more or less. Like so many movies with a cute kid, Brook D'Orsay has about as much chemistry with Isla Verot's Lucy as with John Brotherton's Tom, the innkeeper. The interplay between D'Orsay and Verot is almost worth the price of admission alone, but the romance is nice too.

You might be able to guess, at least in general terms, what cause the conflict. That leads to some discussion about life choices and trust and then a very cute climax during the nativity play that isn't exactly expected. Things are wrapped up after that while watching the conjunction of the planets to create a sort of Christmas star.

A few comments about star watching that have no bearing on the enjoyment of the movie if you can ignore the fallacies of such. Foremost, no planets or stars ever move across the sky that fast. Also, it's hard to see planets or stars with so much background light in the viewing area. There are several other issues, but I will leave it at that.

;'

Following Yonder Star is a wonderful movie. I'm a very big fan of Hallmark movies and this one in particular shines brightly. The story of a well-known actress who sees just how easily things can be misconstrued in the press and particularly social media, she heads to Vermont and meets a wonderful Inn keeper and his daughter. The cast is absolutely fantastic. Brooke D'Orsay in particular is outstanding. She's a fan favorite and for good reason. John Brotherton is wonderful as the Inn keeper and he too is a natural. Both of the leads come across with good chemistry and feel natural. The storyline is fantastic. The setting is beautiful. This is a really good one. I hope that Hallmark makes more like Following Yonder Star and that they cast Brooke D'Orsay and John Brotherton in more movies, because they're great! Hope you'll enjoy this one as much as we did!

This is "famous actress finds love in small town but has to leave for career" movie number 386, so there aren't any surprises at all here.

For #386, it's nice. The reason she flees to a small town is amusing, as she has a meltdown video go viral and it mildly threatens her next role.

Of course, she becomes involved with a widowed father with an adorable daughter and gets involved with the kid's Christmas show, lending her professional acting talents to make the performances better, and spending lots of time with the widowed father, who owns the inn where she's staying.

And of course, her agent almost spoils things for everyone at the end as he pushes things to benefit her career.

One redeeming feature, the father never addresses his daughter as "kiddo".

It's a nice watch, and we like D'Orsay from all the way back to Royal Pains, but with nothing new in the story, it's a one-time watch for us.

I love all her movies, I think she's very charming, funny, and earnest. I look forward to her Christmas movies every year. And this one did not disappoint.

First off, this movie is legitimately funny. Hallmark doesn't always hit the comedy beats but this one did. John Brotherton is also awesome and he has not only a great screen presence, but he's also quirky and hilarious. I think he crushed this role.

The story was sweet. Obviously the "meltdown" wasn't that big of a deal and people were acting like Abby murdered someone. But that was also funny because people were SO horrified. The store clerk was a jerk, tbh.

I loved the stuff with the stars, too. Hallmark makes about 40-42 Xmas movies every year and this is easily top three and might be the best one out of them all. And there have been some good ones. I'll be watching this one again on December 25th.