2023, d. Bradley Walsh
Luke Macfarlane. I really enjoyed him in Bros. and in Platonic, so hoping that he brings more of that energy and comic timing he showed there, skills not as present in his older, more formulaic Hallmarkies.
HERstory:
Dayton Ohio. The former mayor is up on corruption charges. Meanwhile, Avery is a news researcher, but wants to be a news anchor, but she's bombed her audition. She has a legacy to live up to. Her mom's been a famous reporter and anchor for 33 years.
Good gawd the lighting in this is terrible.
More news, there's "the Santa Crook" who has robbed at least 8 homes wearing a Santa outfit.
On Christmas Eve, anchor Bink Binkerson is on a flight out of town and whatsherface has caught laryngitis so the low-stakes, low-rated Christmas broadcast is down an anchor, and Avery makes her play and gets the job.
On Christmas Even, Avery is woken up to someone moving around her condo. She startles her intruder who trips and is knocked unconscious. Avery thinks the intruder is the Santa Crook and ties him up, but unfortunately the cel towers are down. When the "crook" wakes up, he claims to be Santa Claus... the new Santa-in-training. He tries to convince her to let him go, but his "Santa skills" aren't fully downloaded yet, so to speak. His aide Dylan takes off without him. Dylan, for his part, is in a total panic.
Avery comes up with an idea to take "the bandit", aka Chris, to the police herself and file her own story as she anchors the news. But first, Dylan wants her to deliver the neighbour's daughter gift to her place, and it just requires a little B&E. But they trip the silent alarm and the young security guard ineptly tries to detain them both. He fumbles his walkie and slips, giving Chris enough time to get behind the wheel of Avery's car. Avery grabs the walkie and hops in, "to save Christmas".
Meanwhile the corrupt ex-Mayor is robbed by the real Santa Crook who "got everything". So he sends his goons out to find him. Avery and Chris hear about the real Santa Crook hitting a place far away, so now she's doubting Chris is the Crook. Chris gets another Santa download and starts talking about the "pivotal gift", the one that sends kids on their true path in life. I like this concept for Santa, rather than just giving every kid a random toy every year, only certain kids get their pivotal gift.
One of the goons finds their vehicle and so they run, but not before Avery gets a look at him and IDs him as one of the exMayor's goons. They run right into a the Dayton Ohio Dinner Players' wrap party who just finished their A Christmas Carol run (they won three Tony's...Pizzas). Avery yells at them and then, while using the phone, she returns to find Chris recounting the story of one of the players receiving their pivotal gift and now she's a true believer.
Avery is putting together the story of the corrupt ex-Mayor, but the news has now put out a report on the two of them thinking they're the Santa Crooks. Chris gets a call from his dad, Santa, who isn't too pleased about the report Dylan gave him about the events transpiring that night.
They elude the goon staking out the Dinner Players' party, but then get found by different goons. They get "white vanned" and tied up back-to-back in chairs. Then the nepo babies have a connecting moment talking about living up to their more famous parents. "We may not be our parents but we can be great in our own way." And then other of the exMayor's goons catch the real Santa Crook and his girlfriend. The fake Crooks talk up the real Crooks and find out there's bigger story, that the Crooks were put up to the task of stealing the drive. So now they're going to fake being the Crooks and make the drop and get the story.
But they get chased by the goons. They skip into an unlocked truck and Avery starts making out with Chris to throw off their pursuers, only to learn there's a dude sleeping in the back (a delivery driver for Tony's Pizza, cute callback). The real Crooks get arrested trying to steal Avery's abandoned car while Avery and Chris return to their home to come face to face with Santa. But Chris has a real sweet moment with his dad.
And now we just have to close out this whole crime story, which is the weakest part of this whole endeavour. The exMayor and his goons show up at Avery's house, but they outsmart them and the police arrive. It's 15 minutes to airtime and Santa and Chris give her a ride on their way to delivering all the presents in time.
After they both have success (Avery's good job on Christmas gets her the weekend anchor gig) Chris returns to deliver his last gift...to Avery. So they agree to a very respectable, mutually-approved long-distance relationship as they pursue their respective careers. Really!
The Formulae:
There's the female lead trying for her big promotion.
Unformulae:
Rather than the usual Hallmarkie formula, it's more of a "one crazy night" formula. It doesn't do amazing by the One Crazy Night formula (it gets a little too wrapped up in its maguffin crime story) since there's really only one side encounter (the OCN story is usually three or more random encounters with strangers who you never know are going to help or get in the way of your objectives).
Usually Hallmarkies skirt around the magic of Santa and Christmas, with just little hints, but here we're right out into "Santa is real" territory from the get-go. It's a fun shift.
It also opens, not with a skyline, but with a little animated credits sequence. It's really short, but a nice change of pace.
Oh, and the leads are *just dating* at the end, not committing their lives to each other. Progress.
True Calling?
Uh, ish, I guess. I mean they're riffing on "Catch Me If You Can", a story about a crook who takes on fake identities and eludes the law. Here, it's a merry mix-up where the son-of-Santa is mistaken for a Santa-garbed crook. I dunno. I don't love the title.
The Rewind:
At one point a vehicle drives through the foam and a big glob of it flings up into the air and makes it really obvious it's foam. We spent a lot of time inspecting the "snow" because we weren't exactly fooled but also it didn't look like the usual batting.
The Regulars:
Luke Macfarlane has done so many Hallmarkies (Toasty's done two of them already this year), but he's not just sleepwalking through this story, he's actually playing a character and making choices. He's really cute and endearing and goofy and corny... just being at a total other level than your average Hallmarkie lead. That this isn't just the stock romantic interest role, but a fun magical character that has his own job and concerns.
Italia Ricci has been in a couple non-Holiday Hallmarkies, and she's matching Luke's energy in this. They're really good together (and they look great together. The kiss is real, real hot.)
How does it Hallmark?
It's so far outside the usual Hallmark tropes it doesn't actually feel like a Hallmark movie, but just a lower budget holiday TV movie.
It's more fun than most. Quite a few chuckles and giggles and laughs along the way, and just a different flavour than the usual Hallmarkie. Good chemistry between
How does it movie?
So, as above, not like a theatrical release, but a lower budget holiday TV movie.
But it's quite fun.
How Does It Snow?
There is a lot of it everywhere, all throughout the background, so it actually looks really, really snowy everywhere. It looks pretty good, especially given that this all takes place at night. But it's all foam. They suds up Dayton real good. And then there's soap flakes in the air sometimes, and digital snow at times. I mean, Luke McFarlane walks around in a t-shirt outdoors most of the time.
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