Movie Review: Three Wisermen and a boy - slightly wiser, but not by much

7 stars. Enjoyed it.

Five-ish years have passed since we last had the Brenner brother’s making us laugh in Three Wisemen and a Baby. Now, the baby is a kindergarten boy starring in his school’s play, which serves as the linchpin of this sequel that bests its predecessor, but not by leaps and bounds.

I’m a sucker for Paul Campbell movies, because I expect each to be as good as the 2021 film he wrote, An Unexpected Christmas, which is one of my favorites. Christmas by Starlight in 2020 was solid as well. Campbell wrote this one too, again with Kimberley Sustad.

Tyler Hynes is our bad boy gamer, Taylor. Andrew W. Walker is our dad, Luke. Campbell plays Stephan, our neurotic author/therapist.

I’m comfortable giving this movie a passing grade, but mostly for the writing and acting, not plot or emotional drive. It’s not funny enough to be a comedy, but not serious enough to be dramatic. I like seeing this family together, even if it all seems a little unnecessary.

We don’t have a single love story, but rather a family tale with multiple threads. Mom has a new man. Taylor is smitten with his female clone, Caroline. Paul struggles to commit to his long-time girlfriend. Luke, continues to learn about being a parent.

One lasting storyline that I would just love to see in other movies is the royalty free, no trademark play, The Grump. Don’t call it the Grinch, because they didn’t pay for those rights. It’s the Grump, in Grumptown, complete with songs and rhymes. Pretty clever.

Measuring Christmas Magic: Paint by numbers magic, but it’s certainly a Christmas movie.

Cast Kudos: Kimberley Sustad, in an on the nose cameo, discussing how difficult it is to do two shows one year after the last. Hmm, what exactly are we hinting at Kimberley?

Alternative Movie titles: The Brenner boys are back; Grumptown the Musical.

Movie Review: Awesomest Christmas Ever - Three movies fighting inside one

5 stars. Nope Background Noise Only

There are at least three movies fighting for attention inside Awesomest Christmas Ever. Which makes for an uneven viewing experience. Should I laugh or be sad while experiencing extreme divorce anxiety, as I hope for the best for our characters? I’m still not entirely sure.

The first movie is a heartbreaking drama about a family going through divorce. It’s emotional and raw. I did not like living in that head space. It was strangely real, yet not entertaining. We know we’re supposed to hope these two stay together, but I found myself wondering if that was really for the best for either of them or the kiddo.

The second movie is a coming of age tale about a 10-year-old kid who has good friends. The friends make mildly complex plans to fool the clueless adults around them. There’s some pre-teen love thrown in, too.

The third movie is about a talking Christmas tree. I guess this is the fantasy option. No one else can hear the sultry-voiced tree except our 10-year-old lead. There’s something weird going on with this tree, who shakes nearly imperceptibly when the voiceover comes on. Either we needed more tree or way less tree. I can’t decide which.

Add each of these tales together and we get our previously mentioned uneven viewing experience.

It’s unfair to compare this low-to-no budget flick to Hollywood releases. It’s a hurriclean task to write, direct, film, edit–and maybe, I think–wear a clown nose too. Matthew Wilson does that, and despite its flaws, the movie made me feel things and actually wonder how it was going to conclude.

I watched this film with my 7-year-old son. He was excited we got a special sneak preview of a real movie. The full “mommy and daddy are getting a divorce” scene was a little much for him, as was the almost-sex scene. And on that note . . . no married couple has ever had sex to calm themselves from getting belittled by one of their nosy parents. It was weird, and if the divorce talk didn’t scar Ollie, then being under the bed might.

Our cast. Kudos to Ellison Pipe, Gus Wilder Howell and Izzy Richter. They had a ton of work to do on this movie and did a great job. Sonya Davis as the mom was good too, I just wish we saw her a bit happier. We saw it at the end for a moment. Charles Shaphren, who was only in like two scenes as grandpa, had some pretty good timing too.

Notes

-This was technically a Christmas movie, just ask the tree, but it could have cut the holiday stuff and been a summer movie and had the same impact. This wasn’t an awesome Christmas by any standard.

-The movie was filmed in Washington. Props to the Evergreen state, where I live.

-Two funny lines: “Hey mom, you know who you should hang out with? Dad!” And, “She texts me everyday - don’t get vaccinated!”

-The Lindsey Lohan movie references were a funny bit, even if they didn’t quite get the movies straight.

-I wanted to punch dad in the face for disrespecting mom (being on his phone) while she decorated the tree. Dude, you don’t deserve them.

Available on Prime Video and Youtube.

Movie Review: Christmas on Call: Multiple storylines bring us a joyful glimpse of Philadelphia

8 stars. Really Good. Would recommend it.

Hallmark, we need to talk. Are we making real movies now? Ones with multiple, complex storylines that develop characters and aren’t focused entirely on being cheesy? It seems that way! Christmas on Call gives us several storylines from the City of Brotherly Love that dip into real movie territory. It’s a recommended movie.

Hannah (Sara Canning) is an ER doctor, which would seem really impressive until we meet her love interest Wes. Wes (Ser’Darius Blain) is an EMT, but also a veteran, volunteer at everything, singer, former firefighter, and all around good guy. Hannah is in her first year in a new city–Philadelphia–and a little homesick. Wes spends December apparently never sleeping, and showing Hannah what the city is all about.

You might remember Canning from Holiday Road (7 stars) or Wes from the Jimanji movies. These are legit actors, who turn in great performances.

We also follow Sanjay (Erik Athavle) and Danielle (Reena Jolly) as police officers who dated once. Despite all the crime in Philly (come on guys) they spend their patrol refereeing a neighborly dispute over lawn ornaments. Athavle is one of my favorites from Santa Summit - and he rocks a great stache in this one.

The cast in this movie is huge, but it’s easy to keep track of. We get a father/daughter story (twice), a college-hopeful kid story, an EMT finding her way, an asthmatic patient who is going through a rough time, and a nurse whose daughter is in the military overseas.

You also can’t miss Donna Kelce, yes Travis’ mom and Taylor Swift’s bestie, serving cheese stakes. I love that they actually call her Donna and she’s wearing a Jason Kelcee Eagles jersey.

One note I’m sending into the world. Stop making Christmas karaoke a thing. It’s not a thing and bad singers aren’t fun.

Funny line: In one scene Hannah tells her dad, over the phone “I met someone” and she describes him a bit. And dad replies inquisitively and very loudly, “He?!” Like maybe the last person she met wasn’t a “he.” It was super awkward. I’m here for it, but the lead couple being two women seems like a million miles from where Hallmark plays. Prove me wrong, Gold Crown!! Prove me wrong.

Measuring Christmas Magic: Absolutely. Lots of establishing shots of Philadelphia, and scenes that are dripping in Christmas lights and joy.

Cast Kudos: Ser’Darius Blain as Wes. This guy does everything!

Alternative titles: Christmas and Cheesesteaks; Philadelphia Christmas; Philadelphia Med, Fire and PD for the holidays.

Movie Review: Confessions of a Christmas Letter - A Hallmark movie with a real villain!

6 stars. Enjoyed it.

Due to the advent of social media, the tradition of writing a family Christmas newsletter has become old-fashioned, but not in the town of Holly Hills, where the best Christmas letters are honored on the wall of fame at the post office.

Settie (Angela Kinsey) struggles with writing her family newsletter each year while trying to compete with her neighbor, the villainess Sue (Colleen Wheeler). Sue is a straight villain through this entire movie which is a rare thing for a Hallmark movie. Typically at the end of the movie, the villain’s icy heart is melted, but nope, she’s a straight up baddie.

Settie hires an author named Juan (Alec Santos) to write her Christmas letter, offering him a two week stay in Connecticut at their house and the chance to interact with the family throughout the holiday holiday season. Juan, suffering from writer’s block, accepts, and gets a chance to learn the wacky family and meet their single daughter Lily (Lillian Doucet).

The first 15 minutes of this movie was simply awful. It felt like we were dropped into a scenario that we didn’t understand and I actually had to rewind and start over to make sure I didn’t miss an explanation, but the movie surprised me and got better over time. When the movie concluded I felt some actual emotions towards the outcome as Settie reads from the aforementioned Christmas letter.

The love story was definitely the B storyline, taking a backseat to the family learning to love their intricate quirks and battling the evil woman next door. Dang Sue!

Funny scene: There’s a scene where grandma carries a tray of fully engulfed cinnamon rolls to the dining room table and serves them like they were not on fire seconds ago. That takes guts.

Measuring Christmas magic: Yes, we had Christmas magic and the sets were decorated very well for the holiday. Although I would question the safety of having fully lit garlands covering the kitchen cupboards, and every headboard in the house.

Cast kudos: Juan for the win.

Alternate movie titles: This is tough because Confessions of a Christmas Letter is actually probably the best title of any Hallmark movie so far this year. So I’ll give one option: The Christmas Letter Wall of Fame.

Movie Review: Christmas with the Singhs - dry and lifeless

3 stars. A waste. I’ll never get this time back

This film uses the joining of two families over Christmas to rerun the Meet the Parents theme, while showcasing Indian celebrations of the holiday.

Ultimately dry and lifeless, this effort is not worth your time. I felt uncomfortable for our leads for having such annoying families who spoke in long, robotic and way-too-complete complete sentences.

One bright side, our leads. They could have carried the movie alone, had they not been busy playing caricatures of “regular white guy” and “modern Indian woman.”

Change the channel on the Singhs.

Measuring Christmas magic: no magic, but good representation of Indian culture.

Cast Kudos: I’d like to see Anuja Joshi (Asha) given another lead role, but with less responsibility than representing the entirety of her culture.

Alternative titles: Christmas engagement clash; Blending Culture Christmas

Movie Review: Jingle Bell Run -- Much like a half marathon, I did not want to finish this

Four stars: Not good. Sad face.

Despite featuring new era Hallmark royalty, this Amazing Race style ripoff fails to capture any semblance of Christmas magic and manages to force a relationship upon us–and the lead characters–that no one wants.

Much like a half marathon that seemed like a good idea when I signed up, I had no interest in finishing the race or this movie. Alas, I trudged through every beautiful, but unremarkable scene.

You know from the beginning that this movie has a bigger budget than a normal Hallmark movie based on the graphics, superior lighting and multiple locations (all though they all look a little like basic Canada). So my hopes were high, but it did not last more than five minutes into the movie.

Our lead, Ashley Williams, is an elementary school teacher whose only personality trait is that she likes to teach kids how to read. Andrew Walker is a shell of a former athlete who doesn’t know what to do after retiring from hockey. They both end up participating in a holiday themed game show where they race across the US (not Canada) to answer one question and complete one simple task at each place before magically moving onto the next city for another paint by numbers game show scene. They usually have time to sit by a fire too, and help you nod off.

The driving force behind this movie is the contest they are participating in, but as you would expect, the ”will they or won’t they” theme is needlessly thrust upon us. These two don’t need partners to have fulfilling lives. Honestly, they seem pretty good single. Why mess up a good thing?

From the promotions, I expected this movie to be funny, like the Santa Summit, or Haul out the Holly, but it fails at every turn. Pass on this one.

Questions I still have:

• Why is the movie called Jingle Bell Run, when the show is The Great Holiday Dash? And they never once say “Jingle Bell Run.” Trademark issue? Major issue here.

• Why are there never any cameras filming them doing anything? There is a hot hockey guy painting a picture from scratch? Nope. No camera guy caught that for the show! It’s small, but the Amazing Race producers must have been choking on their eggnog.

Measuring Christmas Magic: none, despite being focused on a game show that features only holiday traditions.

Cast kudos: none. Don’t watch this movie.

Alternative movie titles: The Great Holiday Dash (duh); Forced to Be on a Game Show; finally—Help my friend signed me up for this and I never met the producers until day 1 of filming (ok, that one may be too long, yet no less accurate.)

Movie Review :Santa Tell Me: A fast-paced holiday romp

8 stars. Really good. Would Recommend it.

Olivia (Erin Krakow) gets her big break as a TV home designer for a holiday makeover on Christmas Eve, she’s stunned that the network hires Chris (Daniel Lissing) to oversee the TV and live reveal on Christmas Eve. Throw in a magic (and changing) letter from the real Santa that says her true love is named Nick and she has to find him by Christmas, well hijinks ensues.

This sounds a lot more complicated than it is. And to be honest, I had extremely low expectations for this one. The trailer and commercials were awful. Having a lead interested in three Nicks (and a Chris) is not my thing, but they play it cool and funny. Olivia proceeds to give different Nicks a concussion, black eye and for good measure, poison another one. The Nicks woo Olivia hard, and all seem nice, yet she’s not all in, despite spending all of her free time on dates during the biggest moment of her career. Yes, she just might have a better connection with another fella—the aforementioned Chris (if that is your real name).

Despite my best efforts to not like this movie, they turned me. It was good. While it did seem like they crunched three or four different holiday themes into one movie, somehow it works, and I had more fun that I could have anticipated in this fast-paced movie. Yes, fast-paced . . . a Hallmark movie. What is the world coming to?

Goofy notes

• Stop trying to make Seattle snowy. It ain’t a thing.

• The train in the final scene is leaving for Spokane, Washington. Hello, my hometown.

• Three weeks to fix a house is the least believable thing in this movie. They film Hallmark movies in the summer so they can be ready by winter. Seriously?

• Dating three or four people at the same time is never a good idea.

• If the Nicks do get their own dating show, I would watch that.

Measuring Christmas Magic: Yes, a magic letter from Santa is key. Plus taking a horse drawn carriage across Seattle in less than nine minutes on Christmas Eve is some kind of traffic magic.

Cast Kudos: Nick A (Benjamin Ayres). Who actually seems believable as a pediatric neurosurgeon.

Alternative Titles: So Many Nicks for Christmas; In the Nick of Time; Olivia Dates so many Nicks.

Originally aired on Hallmark on Nov. 9, watched Nov. 10.

Movie Review: Trivia at St. Nicks—All the wrong answers

Five stars: Nope. Background noise only

When students go home for Christmas break at a university in Vermont, those sad souls left behind (or just live there), participate in a 45-year tradition of Christmas trivia at Nick’s Bar. Celeste (Tammin Sursok) is obsessed with winning the trivia tournament, but is thrown when her ringer bails and she’s stuck with Max, a football coach (Brant Daugherty) as their sixth and required member of the trivia team.

Trivia is fun, but this movie was absurd and not in a funny, laugh at yourself way. There are some funny one-liners, but it’s certainly not enough to carry the contrived story line that somehow tries to be funny and sincere, but fails at both.

One liners
-I’m a football coach, not a wheel magician!” When he can’t change a tire.

-“If you’d like, I’d be happy to share my syllabus…” Professor, keep your pants on. Really a dick joke?

-After asking a nun to be on the trivia team, the nun replies, “I will pray for you. Hard.” Wow, the nun thinks you’re silly.

-“Belay! You gotta Belay!” Best rock-climbing advice ever.

Goofy notes

• A whole week of trivia nights is a bit much, even for die hard trivia buffs.

• This movie was filmed on location in Connecticut. Why was it placed in Vermont?

• Shouting your trivia answers in a crowded bar is a great way to lose to other people who can hear you.

• Everyone drinks different colorful holiday beverages – no one has any ice.

• The Stan trophy had to be worth at least $7, but no more.

• And who was Stan in the photo? They show him like an inside joke. Help us out.

• When they eat cookies, the sound department didn’t add the ever-present crunch, like every other Hallmark movie. This is the right decision.

Measuring Christmas Magic: None, except the super meta final trivia category – Hallmark Christmas movies! Nice work there.

Cast Kudos: Brian McCarthy who plays Nick the Quiz Master. Nick dons a different holiday outfit each night, which helps show the different events, and is a nice running joke. Give Nick a movie.

Alternative Titles: The Greatest Trivia Tournament Ever; Trivia for the Lonely; Just go home for the Christmas holiday.

Aired on Hallmark on Nov 8, watched Nov. 9.

Movie Review: Holiday Mismatch, where moms are the real focus

7 stars. Enjoyed it.

Recent retiree Barbara (Beth Broderick) joins the town’s Christmas Committee to keep herself busy, but immediately clashes with Kath (Caroline Rhea). Barbara is stiff, on time and a wiz in a spreadsheet. Kath is a free spirit, and a bit nutty, but also full of Christmas joy. They both just so happen to have young, single children. The moms use an app for parents to match their kids (terrifying). Yes, the kids match on the app and quickly in real life.

This movie really focuses on two relationships, but in a unique way. In a shared A/B story, the mom’s relationship from enemies to friends, and the kid’s story from “fake dating” to actually dating take nearly equal screen time.

The chemistry between Beth Broderick and Caroline Rhea is wonderful, obviously from their years of working together as aunts on Sabrina the Teenage Witch. They couldn’t have found better actors to take on these roles. Very authentic ribbing and timing.

Our romantic leads are Shane (Jon McLaren) and Lauren (Maxine Denis). They are great together and could have held the full focus of the story with more material.

My major nitpick is the fake dating. After Shane and Lauren go on a real date together, they decide to flip the script and fake date to get their parents to stop setting them up with people (which we never see happen by the way). There is no logical (or Christmas Magical) reason to make this decision. Just date, you hot people! That’s the way to go. The parents would have stopped meddling if you were really dating, and you definitely liked each other, so do that.

It’s refreshing to see Lauren working hard as a co-owner of her architecture firm and trying to get a project done. So often in Hallmark, we’d see her trying to get a promotion from a male CEO, or ice queen boss over Christmas. They also give a realistic reason why the building work needs to get done by the end of the year—building code changes on Jan. 1. I don’t know if it exactly works like that, but I applaud the effort.

Goofy notes

• Only one “witch” reference in the whole movie. I expected more.

• “Tying a dead plant to a car” is an interesting way to describe taking a Christmas Tree home.

• I need more of the Christmas rat. This seemed so whacky, and it worked because Shane was really all of us in that situation.

• Shane’s theater has a full kitchen behind the seating area, and they don’t shut off the lights during a performance. Hmm, I wonder why they are struggling.

• When you do karaoke for “Jingle Bells” you probably don’t need to stare quite so intently at the words on the screen.

• Trolly caroling isn’t a thing. Is it? Let’s get in a wooden bench trolly and hold fake sheet music and sing so nobody else can hear us.

• Why are we always Christmas caroling? Singing did not need to happen this much.

Cast kudos: This is a slam dunk-- Beth Broderick and Caroline Rhea.

Alternative titles: Full Sabotage Christmas; Meddling Moms Christmas; UnMatched for Christmas

Originally aired on Hallmark Nov. 3; watch Nov. 7.

Movie Review: Our Holiday Story - thank goodness for the B story!

Six stars. Solid. Could be better

When you already know the ending of the A story, the movie needs to do a good job of showcasing the journey, since the destination is already set. Our Holiday Story brings us on this journey, but the stakes are low and does only a passable job at entertaining along the way. 

The A story is the retelling of how Dave (Warren Christie) and Nell (Nikki DeLoach) met 8 years earlier. When we first meet them they are together, married and parents. They are asked to retell this mild tale by the boyfriend of Dave’s daughter, who missed a train, forcing her boyfriend to meet the dad and step mom alone. 

If the story focused on their nearly decade old romance alone, we’d be in for a snoozefest, but never fear, the B story is here! Johanna (Sydney Scotia) and the aforementioned boyfriend Chris (Gavin Langelo) are having trouble (sorta) expressing their very strong and lasting love for eachother, because you know . . . when you really love someone in that mutual way, the real trouble is saying it . . . right?

Throw in a job title of comptroller, a Christmas festival, lots of talk of fruit cake and ugly sweaters, missed trains, dead phone batteries, and missed opportunities– oh, and constantly lying and you have the makings of a low stakes, albeit sweet movie. 

Cast Kudos: 9 stars for Sydney Scotia. She plays 16 and 24 (I think), well and differently. She’s just a joy to watch in this movie because she’s so happy with a great smile, but then things go south and you can feel that too. 

Alternative titles: A Christmas of Missed Chances; How a Comptroller stole Christmas; Meet the Christmas Parents. 

Originally aired Nov. 2 on Hallmark. Watched Nov.

2024 Christmas Movie Rating System

Each holiday movie will receive a rating by stars.

Movie Review: A Carol for Two. Final song, can’t save it

5 stars. Nope. Background noise only.

A final singing number, which is quite catchy and fun, was not enough to save this Broadway dud from getting cancelled from my theater list. Our leads, Violette (Ginna Claire Mason) and Alex (Jordan Litz) work at as singing servers in New York. They have dreams of making it big on Broadway and we’re supposed to be rooting for them.

The trouble is the Cyrano de Bergerac storyline where Alex feeds his cousin Brad (Gino Anania) all the info on Violette and somehow almost wins her over with his yule log (don’t ask, it ain’t sexy). As expected, it all comes crashing down.

Not to put too fine a point on this whole thing, but Brad is the worst. We could have had a helpless in love guy in this part, but he’s made to be an absolute fool and a pure annoyance to everyone who knows him. Not loveable, but quite creepy. This character rips a star or two off this movie.

I enjoyed Mason in A Holiday Spectacular (2022, 6 stars) and the under appreciated A Heidelberg Holiday (2023, 7 stars). When she sings the final song, it’s magic, but when she’s made to sing public domain holiday songs, it’s a waste.
Litz too, is better than the material he’s given. Let the man sing! I see leading man for many years to come, if given the right material.

Cast Kudos: Hallmark veteran John B. Lowe in a cameo as the glitzy producer. Love that guy.

Alternate titles: Christmas comes to Broadway. Cast for Christmas. Singing for supper.

Originally aired on Hallmark Nov. 1, 2024. Watched Nov. 2, 2024

Movie review: The 5-Year Christmas Party is worth the wait

7 stars. Enjoyed it.

In the 5-Year Christmas Party, two theater majors spend 5 consecutive Christmases in each other’s lives, acting out the highs and the lows of post-college. Unlike many Hallmark movies where a single act of kindness means forever love, this tale is grounded in the realities of real life. Things like jobs, family and dreams matter to the leads, and guide their decisions on relationships or other commitments. Aside from an ending that leaves a bit too much to the imagination, this is a solid, non-Old School Hallmark movie that I would recommend.

Our lead is Katie Findlay, who plays Alice, who really wants to make it in theater as a director. Our leading man is Jordan Fisher, who plays Max, an aspiring actor. Kudos all around. These two are great together and definitely play different versions of themselves over the course of 5-years. Success or failure is subtle, but they showcase the differences well.  

Credit to writer Zag Hug, a Hallmark vet, who also wrote the Ghosts of Christmas Always (9 stars), which is one of the best Hallmark movies of all time 

Major kudos to production on this one. Clearly on a budget, we re-use the same party house, kitchen, party venue, alley, parking lot and rooftop—and some of the same actors every year. They dress them up a little (emphasis on little) bit differently each time, but it’s reminiscent of a play where moving a chair or changing the lighting signals a different act. Also, the changing of the season montages were great.

This movie is more sincere than fun, which means realistic laughs, love and tears.

Goofy notes

• They really hate catering the law firm Christmas party. I need to know more!

• Forcing people to become carolers is not a real thing and nobody should do that.

•  I think Jordan Fisher must be wearing lifts, right? He’s great, but she’s pretty tall 

• They make a joke about oranges and scurvy. I don’t think it landed, but I applaud the effort.

• I love that they bonded over watching Ashley Williams (Hallmark) movies. Meta!

• I feel like these long gaps between seeing each other could have meant they might find another person to love. If I got ghosted for a year, I would probably not be so happy to see the person who did me dirty.

• What happened between Daniel (Jeff Avenue) and Micah (Olly Atkins)? They were together for years 2-4, then Micah is MIA in year five? Come on Hallmark. You gave us a gay couple and then didn’t stick the landing. Where’d he go?

Cast Kudos: The really, really bad mustache on Jeff Avenue for year 4. Just no.

Alternative titles: The show must go on, for 5-years; Catering my life story; Christmas Party Again; Alice and Max take the long way to love.

 Originally aired on Hallmark Oct. 27; watched Nov. 1.

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Movie Review: The Christmas Charade fooled me, so good on them

Six stars: Solid. Could be better.

Spoilers ahead

When librarian Whitney, accidently slips into a date with an undercover FBI agent who is trying to stop a jewel heist, she learns that she has more to offer than just fire-safety tips to kids at book readings. This caper flick is entertaining, funny and offers some actual emotions amongst the twisty hijinks.  

Rachel Skarsten plays our lead, coupled with Josh (Corey Sevier), playing the exact same tired character he always plays. Sorry, not a fan. Skarsten was the Nanny in The Royal Nanny (2022), which was a dreadful movie where she plays MI5 agent, who has to become a nanny. I guess law enforcement is her typecast?  But she’s very likeable in this one and surprisingly grounded. I’ll continue to watch her movies.

I called the bad guy from the minute we saw him, then turned out to be wrong. So, I love that I was fooled. Nice work there.

Goofy notes section

• They go to a Christmas store, which might as well be Hallmark’s Christmas set decoration department to meet Mrs. Claus who makes jewelry as her side hustle. She needs “a few hours” to make an intricate replica necklace complete with a tracking device. Christmas magic anyone?

• Whitney quotes Die Hard, while crawling through air vents. Then declares it the best Christmas movie ever. A bit on the nose, but I’m here for it.

• The game night scene with the parents brings some actual emotion thanks to slow motion looks at our leading man, even if it is Sevier. Museum flag poles are very strong to hold two full grown adults. Bonus issue here—Josh doesn’t wear any hand protection while sliding down a rope for five or more stories from the rooftop.

• The jewel thief made a curious choice by asking a stranger to help plan the event where she steals multiple artifacts.

Questions remaining

• Was the thief’s hubby in on it, or just a finance guy?

Cast Kudos: The very brief appearance of Jefferson Brown, better known as Colton Landry from The Way Home. He plays an agent of some kind jumping from a roof in a TV movie Whitney watches in the opening of this movie. How is that for foreshadowing?

Alternative Titles: Steal the Heart of Christmas; FBI Blind Date; Stop My Parents are Retired FBI!

Originally aired Oct. 26 on Hallmark; watched Oct. 27.